State of the Art in Food Systems research

1. The Future of Food Systems
Unfinished business & Upcoming challenges
Ruerd Ruben

2.  Stocktaking : Current knowledge & new insights
 Sense of urgency : Hunger & Malnutrition are on the rise !
 Framing : From Food & Nutrition Security to Food Systems
 Knowledge base : Fundamental questions
Looking back & Looking forward
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3. I. Stocktaking
Where are we now?
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4.  Linking Production to Consumption/Nutrition
 Dovetailing Technical & Behavioural Change
 Rural & (peri)urban settings
 From problem-solving to
systematic understanding
What did we learn ?
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5. 0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
%population
Poverty
(<USD 1.90 a day, 2011 PPP; %
of world population)
Undernourishment
(calories, % of population,
world)
Stunting
(% of children under 5, world)
Overweight
(BMI>25, % of population
developing countries)
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Food Security – global trends

6. Sense of Urgency
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7.  Rapid urbanization
 Food prices & volatility
 Climate Change
 Protein Transition
Emerging challenges
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8. II. Food Systems Thinking
What insights do we need ?
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9. Food supply chain : from linear to circular
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10. From food Supply to Nutrition (FAO – HLPE)
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11. Dengerink, van Berkum and Ruben (2018)
Food system - drivers of change

12. Food System domains

13. Food Web

14. Drivers of food system change
Food supply systems
Agricultural
production
Food
storage,
transport
and trade
Food
transformatio
n
Food retail &
provisioning
Food environment
Consumer
Diet
quality

15. What makes it a Systems Approach ?
1. Understanding the drivers of system performance
2. Identifying solutions in another area than where the problem occurs
3. Linking pathways of technical and behavioural change
4. Different roles for public, private & civic agents
5. Reaching local and global outcomes

16. III. Unfinished business
What do we need to learn ?
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17.  Technical solutions to post-harvest
losses (tomatoes, Nigeria)
 Distinguishing waste from quality
degradation
 Efforts at begin of supply chain ;
Revenues at the end of the chain
 Return of the crates requires
agency coordination
Value Chains & Agency Coalitions
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18.  Dietary diversification contributes to
healthier diets (Bangladesh, Myanmar)
 Diversification at farm, household or
market level ?
 Income diversification provides
purchasing power for alternative foods
 Different market outlets offer access to
wider range of foods
Healthier Diets & Market Diversification
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19.  Investing in better soils for producing
healthier products (Ethiopia)
 Controlling post-harvest losses and
increasing shelf life
 Reducing product heterogeneity to support
transport and processing
 Agronomic investments with pay-off in
terms of human health ?
From soil quality to product quality
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20.  Upscaling is hampered by free-riding and
market clearance
 Using value chain integration as a
pathways for building trust
 Technical tools for enhancing
transparency (ICT monitoring; blockchain)
 Behavioural change communication to
support spillovers (schoolmeals)
Better upscaling through Behavioural Change
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21.  Supporting Enterprises (SMEs) or
reducing market/institutional failures
 Spatial, Household or Individual
indicators for pro-poor targeting
 Empowering women and challenging
socio-cultural norms
 Potential role of Business incubators (Bis)
and business development services (BDS)
Understanding Targeting Errors as Policy failures
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22.  Understand trade-offs between sustainable
& Healthier Diets (WR KB 2019-2022)
 Cross-country analysis of food systems
dynamics (A4NH –CGIAR)
 Pull (incentives) and push (environment)
for food systems change
 Public roles and private networks for co-
innovation in (mega)cities
What fundamental insights we need ?
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23. Thanks for your
attention
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