FAO’s 2030 Agenda Set Back by COVID-19

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) 2030 Agenda has regressed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its repercussions. In a new report, FAO highlights the need to increase investment in agriculture and improve access to new agricultural technologies, credit services and information resources for farmers. 

The report “Monitoring the progress of the SDG indicators related to food and agriculture for 2020” shows an alarming situation given that quarantines led to the loss of decades of development efforts. “It is an alarming panorama in which the progress made on many SDG targets has been reversed, which has important implications for all aspects of sustainable development and makes achieving the 2030 Agenda even more difficult,” said Pietro Gennari, Chief Statistician of FAO. The report emphasizes that overall, progress remains insufficient in the food and agriculture domain, suggesting that SDG targets are increasingly beyond reach unless corrective actions are urgently taken. 

Since the pandemic, issues such as world hunger, food safety, systematic disparities, sustainable development and water usage, among others, have seen strong repercussions that have worried experts, given the difficulty of regaining the progress made so far, as reported by MBN. Progress has been made in the implementation of measures against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing), sustainable forest management, agricultural export subsidies, increased agricultural productivity in developing countries and duty-free access to agricultural products for developing countries. Despite these advances, there is a greater need to increase investment in agriculture and improve access to new agricultural technologies, credit services and information resources for farmers, argues FAO.

“As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold and the world moves further away from meeting the SDGs by the 2030 deadline, timely and quality data is more essential than ever,” said Gennari. Global warming is currently reaching 1.1°C, leading to devastating consequences in all parts of the world. Mexico is experiencing one of its most intense droughts in decades, with 85 percent of the country currently facing drought conditions that are depleting large water reservoirs. Now, more than ever, the need for international cooperation in the development and implementation of measures that are also fair and equitable for developing countries, is essential, as previously mentioned by MBN.