The WUR event addressed challenges and opportunities of digitalisation in food systems

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The Wageningen University & Research (WUR) organized the fifth edition of its Mansholt Lectures on 22nd September 2021. Mansholt Lectures, named after Dutch politician and thinker Sicco Mansholt, are organized annually since 2016 by WUR to discuss European policy and issues in the domains of nutrition, agriculture and sustainable livelihoods.

The event, held in a hybrid format and postponed from 2020, set out to discuss pathways towards a digital transformation of food systems. Kicked off by an introduction by Prof. Louise O. Fresco, President of the Executive Board of WUR, the event saw a keynote speech by Dr. Sjaak Wolfert, strategic Senior Scientist at Wageningen Economic Research. Dr. Wolfert gave a lecture on the WUR Paper Navigating the Twilight Zone, discussing the “Twilight zone” of digital transformation, a metaphor referring to a situation in which innovations have proven to be promising but need to be up-scaled to a higher level of adoption, to bridge the gap between the technological readiness and the willingness by users to engage with technology. Digital innovation leads to complex systems requiring complex technical integration, multi-sided business models and a complex funding system. This fragmented innovation projects environment must be approached in a multi-disciplinary and integrated manner, creating a continuous alignment of public and private funding.

Mr. Wolfgang Burtscher, director-general of DG Agri, talked  about the perspective of the European Commission, who sees digitalization in the agro-food sector as a key element that can contribute to specific policy objectives, such as those outlined in the CAP and the Green Deal. The opportunities offered by digitalization are clear, but to make the most of the potential these new technologies offer they need to be rolled out everywhere in the EU and among all farmers. Issues and obstacles to this end include the lack of broadband infrastructure in rural areas, the need to improve digital competences of the rural population and a wider behavioural change, which can only happen if there is trust in these instruments. Mr Burtscher also underlined that the new CAP will see a shift towards funding aimed at the delivery of public goods (reduction of inputs, enhancing biodiversity, increasing soil fertility…), which will mean monitoring achievements will be even more important.

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CEMA participated to the event with its Technical Director Ivo Hostens, who joined the panel discussion with representatives of science, policy and industry: Simone Ritzer (WUR) as moderator, Mr. Burtscher, Marietje Schaake (former Member of the European Parliament), and Evan Fraser (director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph, Canada). Panellists brought their perspective to the table. Ms Schaake underlined the need to have rules governing the AI transition, to offset the current power imbalance when it comes to access and knowledge of the way these technologies collect and use data. In her interventions she underlined the need for transparency, accountability and verified scrutiny.

Ivo Hostens explained that for the agricultural machinery sector digitalization is the key for upscaling the uptake of smart technologies, not just smart machinery solutions but also pure software solutions. It is the scalability that will make technology more affordable and profitable for farmers. The biggest bottleneck to digitalization is interoperability as also stated by the Commission when talking about business development in cloud solutions. The agricultural machinery industry is dedicated to developing interoperability standards for the machinery side. A next and inevitable step is to also dive into the interaction with other domains in the sector and with other sectors; this will require the collaboration with all stakeholders, including governments. The latter will have a stake by receiving more data on the delivery of public goods like on the reduction of inputs like pesticides. Industry takes up its responsibility to develop solutions based on the already available legacy, and to foster trust (based on the Code of Conduct on Data Sharing by Contractual agreement) by technology which includes solutions for authentication, security and traceability.

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Mr Fraser presented the challenge of training and educational paths for young people in agriculture: to train a future generation that will take advantage of the digital transformation it is fundamental that they are provided with a much more complex set of skills. Education institutions therefore need to integrate traditional agricultural science disciplines also with STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, math) and with foundational skills. Great challenge from an educational perspective.

Mr Burtscher reflected upon the fact that a lot of the technological developments have to happen bottom up, including with initiative from industry, but that public authorities at some point will need to intervene to make sure that public goods purposes are achieved. This poses a challenge because it takes time to experience and understand how new technologies can deliver.

A video recording of the event is available here.