The 2026 World Food Forum opened on Monday, 12 October, at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome, bringing together government leaders, researchers, investors, farmers, fishers, Indigenous Peoples and young people. This year's theme is "Innovate Today. Nourish Tomorrow": how science, technology, innovation and traditional knowledge can help change the way the world grows and supplies food.
Now in its sixth year, the forum is FAO's flagship event and runs from 8 to 16 October. It rests on three pillars: the Global Youth Action Initiative, the Science and Innovation Forum and the Hand-in-Hand Initiative Investment Forum, with dialogues, innovation labs, pitch events, matchmaking sessions and exhibitions.
Opening the forum, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said innovation and faster action matter more than ever as climate extremes grow more frequent, biodiversity declines, water comes under pressure and many rural economies face falling farm productivity and few openings for young people. "We have to do more and better at scale," he said, calling for innovation "in technology and business models" as well as in how people think and work together.
Heads of state and government spoke in person or by video, among them King Letsie III of Lesotho, Angola's President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ireland's Prime Minister Micheál Martin.
Earlier in the day FAO launched the 2026 Global Youth Forum, where 35 new National Youth Chapters received their certificates from countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, and the Near East and North Africa. UN Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs Felipe Paullier announced a partnership between the forum's Youth Committee and the UN Youth Office.
The rest of the week covers the Science and Innovation Forum, on how artificial intelligence, digital tools and frontier science can speed up answers to farm and food problems; the Hand-in-Hand Investment Forum, which matches governments with investors and development partners; the Rome Water Dialogue on managing and sharing water for food; and a hub on Indigenous Peoples' food systems. FAO's exhibition "From Seeds to Foods" at the Circus Maximus, on seeds conserved and exchanged over generations, ran from 8 to 12 October.
For farmers and agribusinesses, the investment and innovation sessions are the part of the week where governments, investors and development partners are brought together around opportunities meant to speed up change in farming and food.
Source: FAO Newsroom
Comments
(0)