Scaling the “Summit” of Dryland Food Systems: Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad (RICH) is submitting a paper titled “Dryland Food Systems in Telangana” at a pre-summit event held between 26-28 July 2021 in Rome, which is a part of 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit. The paper aims to highlight some of the challenges faced by farmers in the dryland agricultural ecosystem of India and has been published in partnership with The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

This Pre-Summit event is a lead-up to the United Nations Food Systems Summit to be held later, in September 2021. The event is being held as a part of the “Decade of Action” to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The Summit will launch bold new actions to deliver progress on all 17 SDGs, each of which relies on healthier, more sustainable, and equitable food systems to some extent.

As part of trying to address the issues faced by dryland agricultural systems, RICH had convened an online dialogue on 16 July 2021 involving a wide spectrum of stakeholders, including Government representatives (state and Central), researchers, civil society organizations, members of the agriculture industry and farmers. The deliberations of the dialogue have been analyzed and distilled into the paper being presented the UN Pre-Summit. Some of the key participants included Shri. Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Govt. of Telangana; Dr. Jacqueline d’Arros Hughes, Director General, ICRISAT; and Ajit Rangnekar, Director General, RICH.

The pre-summit event will provide a common platform to youth, farmers, indigenous peoples, civil society, researchers, private sector, policy leaders and ministers of agriculture, environment, health, nutrition and finance, among others. It aims to deliver the most recent evidence-based and scientific approaches to food system transformation from across the globe, launch a set of new commitments through coalitions of action and mobilize new financing and partnerships.

The spirited sessions led to some key insights being drawn from the inputs provided by the diverse set of stakeholders. The insights ranged from preserving and promoting grassroots level knowledge and importance of creating village level seed banks, to incorporation of advanced technologies like AI that can help leverage data lakes into a data driven policy making. The stakeholders also underlined the importance of interdisciplinary research for better implementation and sustainability as well as use of adaptive technologies to address yield gaps and impact of climate change.

The full paper can be viewed at https://summitdialogues.org/dialogue/31516/

RICH’s endeavor to put a spotlight on the importance and current plight of dryland food systems at this global platform will help create broad community dialogue, inspire collaborative change, and help build a better future – one that is bright, safe, and sustainable for both India and the world.