Panel 2 - Agriculture: Opportunities and challenges for sustainable development in agriculture

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Panel 2 - Agriculture: Opportunities and challenges for sustainable development in agriculture

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Growing population and the shift to more protein rich diets impact the footprint and necessitate a need for greater efficiency in the agriculture industry. Competition for arable land between urbanization, industrialization and agriculture, climate change leading to changes in weather patterns and severe water shortages, and the virulence of pests and crop diseases are just some of the additional challenges faced.

Furthermore, environmental degradation caused by the clearing of forests, the over-intensive use of pesticides, food scares and food contamination scandals have created a backlash against the very technology and practices that enhance yield and production growth. The agriculture industry today emits more greenhouse gases than all the cars, trucks, trams and planes combined globally, is the biggest user of water across all industries and also a major driver of wildlife extinction.

The session will explore how the agriculture industry is to cope with global demographics and the tools at the disposal of the key actors in the food value chain to ensure that the world can be fed sustainably.

Speakers :

Adi Godrej

Chairman

The Godrej Group
Ellen Kullman

Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

DuPont
Frank Ning

Chairman

COFCO Corporation
Gregory Page

Executive Chairman

Cargill
Dr. Andrew Steer

President and Chief Executive Officer

World Resources Institute
Moderator :

Prof. Simon Tay

Chairman

Singapore Institute of International Affairs