The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, defended this Monday, during an international summit in London, a scientific approach to combat hunger, using Artificial Intelligence and other technologies to develop crops more resistant to climate change.
At the inauguration of the World Summit on Food Security, which brought together ministers, diplomats and philanthropists from twenty countries in the British capital, Rishi Sunak proposed a “fundamental change” in the way of addressing the scourge of hunger, seeking “long “Long-term solutions to stop food crises before they start.”
“We need to harness the full power of science and technology to ensure supplies are resilient to threats such as conflict, drought and floods,” he said.
Sunak revealed that the UK is already applying Artificial Intelligence to calculate the impact of climate change on agriculture, and that this work helped Somalia avoid a malnutrition crisis last year.
The head of the British Government also announced the opening of a new virtual Scientific Center linked to the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) to involve British scientists in projects in this area.
In a statement, the British Foreign Office said the country has already helped develop, through the CGIAR, products such as flood-tolerant rice, disease-resistant wheat and biofortified, vitamin-rich sweet potatoes.
The Global Food Security Summit is co-sponsored by Somalia and the United Arab Emirates, along with the Children’s Investment Fund and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
At least 20 countries were expected to be represented at the official level, including Mozambique, Brazil, Pakistan, Yemen, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Malawi.
According to the event program, the Mozambican Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Celso Correia, was scheduled to speak in a session titled “Building a sustainable and climate-resistant food system.”
The conference site was the subject of a protest by activists from the organization Medical Aid for Palestinians, who called for a ceasefire in the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, so that food and humanitarian aid can be provided. that are urgently needed. reach Gaza.
“It is good that they are talking about the issue of food and security in the world. But if they want to do it seriously, they cannot ignore the situation in Gaza, where 2.2 million people are at risk of dying of hunger,” he said. . .The executive director of the activist organization, Melanie Ward.
“Due to the siege imposed on Gaza, the amount of aid received in the last month is only enough for about two normal days in Gaza. Therefore, less than 10% of the food needed to keep the population of Gaza alive is arriving “, he claimed. he warned.
The United Kingdom, like the United States, did not call for a ceasefire, but Sunak urged Israel to accept “urgent and substantial humanitarian pauses” for the entry of food, fuel and medicine into Gaza, territory controlled by Hamas since 2007.
“The situation on the ground is truly tragic and getting worse,” the British Prime Minister said in his opening speech at the summit.
Source: TSF
