Broadcast Date: September 21st, 2020 | 10:00am Central Time
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We are incredibly excited to bring members and supporters of APS this complimentary webinar presented by the USAID. APS is hosting this valuable topic in partnership with the Entomological Society of America.
Webinar Summary
In recent months, the global community has become all too familiar with the consequences of biotic threats. The impacts of COVID-19 have been devastating and developing countries have been especially hard hit. The International Food and Policy Research Institute predicts that, as a result of the pandemic and absent interventions, 100 million people could fall into extreme poverty and hunger in 2020 alone. This will lead to an inevitable decline in the nutrition of children and other vulnerable groups.
In addition to its direct impacts on human health and the global economy, the COVID-19 outbreak has exacerbated challenges brought on in recent years by biotic threats to agricultural crops. These threats include fall armyworm, desert locusts, wheat stem rust, maize lethal necrosis, invasive weeds, and many others. Globally, current and emerging biotic threats to agriculture are challenging food security and economic growth for an expanding population that includes 821 million undernourished people—one in every nine people on Earth.
Global food security depends upon, among other things, the effective management of emerging and re-emerging plant diseases and pests. As part of a larger effort to address these challenges, the U.S. Government intends to establish a Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Current and Emerging Threats.
Feed the Future Innovation Lab
Feed the Future Innovation Labs are U.S. university-led programs working with international partners to address global development challenges through scientific research and innovation. The Current and Emerging Threats Innovation Lab would lead research efforts to address diseases, pests, and weeds impacting agriculture in the developing world, while generating benefits that could also accrue to U.S. agriculture.
This webinar does not constitute a solicitation but will offer the scientific community an opportunity to inform program design for the potential Innovation Lab. We will share our current thinking and solicit feedback from the research community.
What Will Participants Gain?
- Familiarity with
Feed the Future--the US Government's global hunger and food security initiative
- Awareness of a potential funding opportunity under the Feed the Future program related to current and emerging plant diseases and pests
- Information on how to contribute to the evidence base and design of an intended new Feed the Future Innovation Lab
