The second day of the International Summit of Cooperatives saw delegates discussing topics including the global economy context, sustainability, finance, trade agreements and food security.
On the first day soon after the Summit was inaugurated Dr. U S Awasthi (@drusawasthi) tweeted “International cooperative summit has been inaugurated by prime minister of Quebec.3000 delegates from 93 countries are participating.”
Later the IFFCO Managing Director spoke as a panelist and sketched a road-map of how to feed 9 billion people. He followed it up by a tweet” Spoke in #international coop summit on #how to feed 9 billion people by 2050 . We need to produce in 40yrs equivalent to last10000 years prod.”
Dr. U S Awasthi exhorted audience to grapple with the emerging situation of scarcity of water, land and a threatening climate change. In his tweet he said “With 30% less water reduced land and climate change . We need to invest heavily on research , innovation, technology &genetic manipulation’.
IFFCO MD’s main emphasis in his speech, however was checking on the wastage as 13rd of what we produce are lost as wastage. He said as much in his tweet later” We need to upgrade soil with proper nutrient, water, energy management ,reduce food wastage in #farm to fork . Proper price to farmers”.
He also emphasized on the strength of cooperative network and wanted it to be made as the mainstay of distribution. It will check the wastage and give farmers’ their due. His next tweet said so ” Above all ensure Availability, accessibility, affordability through coop network .World wide1/3rd food is wasted. Create awareness to reduce
Other speakers include Robert J. Schiller, the 2013 Nobel Prize co-laureate in economics and professor of economics at Yale University, Martin Wolf, associate editor and chief economics commentator at Financial Times, with contributions from David P. Shark, deputy director of the World Trade Organization, Franco Taisch, member of the board of directors at Raiffeisen, Juan Buchenau, senior financial sector specialist, finance and private sector development at the World Bank, Michael Sabia, president and chief executive of Caisse de depot et placement du Québec and Robert Schiller. There are many more, reads a press release from ICA.
