2024 Global Food Security Forum for Young Scientists
The 2024 Global Food Security Forum for Young Scientists will be held on 26-27 October 2024 in Wuhan, China. This year marks the 3rd anniversary of the Global Food Security Association for Young Scientists (GFSAYS), which was jointly founded by Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO). The association, as an international exchange platform, aims to connect young scientists focusing on food security issues from various disciplines.
The 2024 forum will be hosted by HZAU, with the theme of “Enhancing Youth Power for Global Food Security”.
Event Timeline
Date: October 26-27, 2024 (All times are UTC+8)
International Academic Exchanges Center (IAEC), Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
Humanities and Social Sciences Building (HSSB), Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
| 日期 | 时间 | 活动 | 地点 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct. 25 | 14:00 - 20:00 | Registration | 1st Floor IAEC |
| Oct. 26 | 08:30 - 09:20 | Opening Ceremony | Lecture Hall 1st Floor IAEC |
| 09:20 - 10:20 | Plenary Session I | Lecture Hall 1st Floor IAEC | |
| 10:20 - 10:40 | Coffee Break | Lecture Hall 1st Floor IAEC | |
| 10:40 - 11:40 | Plenary Session I | Lecture Hall 1st Floor IAEC | |
| 11:40 - 12:00 | Rice Report Release | Lecture Hall 1st Floor IAEC | |
| 12:00 - 13:00 | A Taste of Rice: Food Court | Outside garden 1st Floor IAEC | |
| 12:00 - 14:00 | Lunch Break | Canteen 1st Floor IAEC | |
| 14:00 - 15:00 | Industry-University-Research (IUR) Conversation | Room TBD 5st Floor HSSB | |
| “Novel Food Production” | |||
| 14:00 - 15:40 | Regular Session I-A | Room TBD 5st Floor HSSB | |
| 14:00 - 15:40 | Regular Session I-B | Room TBD 5st Floor HSSB | |
| 14:00 - 15:40 | Regular Session I-C | Room TBD 5st Floor HSSB | |
| 14:00 - 15:40 | Regular Session I-D | Room TBD 5st Floor HSSB | |
| 15:40 - 16:00 | Coffee Break | 5st Floor HSSB | |
| 16:00 - 17:40 | Regular Session II-A | Room TBD 5st Floor HSSB | |
| 16:00 - 17:40 | Regular Session II-B | Room TBD 5st Floor HSSB | |
| 16:00 - 17:40 | Regular Session II-C | Room TBD 5st Floor HSSB | |
| 16:00 - 17:40 | Regular Session II-D | Room TBD 5st Floor HSSB | |
| Oct. 27 | 08:00 - 09:40 | Ph.D Session-A | Room TBD 5st Floor HSSB |
| 08:00 - 09:40 | Ph.D Session-B | Room TBD 5st Floor HSSB | |
| 08:00 - 09:40 | Ph.D Session-C | Room TBD 5st Floor HSSB | |
| 08:00 - 09:40 | Ph.D Session-D | Room TBD 5st Floor HSSB | |
| 09:40 - 10:00 | Coffee Break | 5st Floor HSSB | |
| 10:00 - 11:00 | Plenary Session II | Room 501 5st Floor HSSB | |
| 11:00 - 11:20 | Selected Short Videos “Youth Power for Food | Room 501 5st Floor HSSB | |
| Security” | |||
| 11:20 - 11:40 | Close Ceremony | Room 501 5st Floor HSSB |
Opening Speakers (in alphabetical order)
Vinod Ahuja, FAO-China Representative
Dr. Vinod Ahuja is the FAO Representative in China, and previous FAO Representative in Mongolia where he focused on advancing the country’s agricultural development, food security, and livestock management. He holds a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of Maryland, College Park, USA. He has written extensively on a broad range of topics including barriers to collective action, poverty and income distribution, commercialization of agricultural services, and food security and nutrition. He has supported a large number of field projects in Asia and promoted partnerships towards establishing new service delivery models based on genuine farmer needs. In March 2017, he was presented the Asian Dairy Personality Award by VIV Asia.
Felix Dapare Dakora, Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences
Professor Felix Dapare Dakora is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences, Member of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa, Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, TWAS Fellow, and Foreign Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He is Distinguished Professor at China Agricultural University, Distinguished Professor at Hebei Agricultural University, China, Adjunct Professor at Durban University of Technology, South Africa, and was Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia, (2012 – 2021). He obtained his PhD degree from the University of Western Australia, Perth, in 1989. He held a South African Research Chair in Agrochemurgy and Plant Symbioses at the Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa (2007-2021). He was President of the African Academy of Sciences (2017-2023).
Kazuki Kitaoka, Global Coordinator of the World Food Forum at the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations
Kazuki KITAOKA is the Global Coordinator of the World Food Forum at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). In this context, he manages global youth engagement and empowerment to advance agrifood systems transformation for the achievement of the SDGs and a better food future for all. Prior to this position, he headed the Outreach, Marketing and Reporting Unit in FAO’s Resource Mobilization and Private Sector Partnerships Division (PSR) for several years. Before joining FAO, his career at the United Nations led Mr Kitaoka to numerous duty stations across Africa, Asia-Pacific and headquarter locations in Europe, where he held roles as programme manager, head of donor relations and head of strategic planning and coordination. He managed various strategic global initiatives, including on private sector in development in the context of the SDGs, and worked on major policies and programmes related to sustainability, growth, poverty reduction, gender equality, youth engagement, private sector development, the role of middle-income countries, development effectiveness and the global aid architecture. Previous to the UN, Mr Kitaoka worked in the financial industries in Japan and Switzerland, following his university degrees in economics and business in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Ravi Singh, Scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
He obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Sydney, Australiain in 1983, and is a distinguished scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and former head of the CIMMYT international wheat breeding and improvement team. He has long been engaged in wheat genetic breeding work and is committed to cultivating new wheat germplasm with high quality, high yield, disease resistance and wide adaptability by combining traditional breeding with modern molecular biology techniques. Together with other scientists, he has promoted more than 400 high-yield and rust-resistant wheat varieties around the world. These varieties are spread across 48 countries around the world. In 2015, he won the China Government Friendship Award and was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Jingyuan Xia, Special Adviser to the Director-General of FAO
Dr. Jingyuan Xia is currently a Special Adviser to the Director-General of the FAO. From 2019 to 2024, he was the Director of Plant Production and Protection Division (NSP) of the FAO. From 2015 to 2019, he was the Secretary to the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) at FAO Headquarters in Rome. Before joining the FAO, from 2012 to 2014, Mr. Xia served as Permanent Representative and Minister Plenipotentiary at the China Mission to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome. Between 2001 and 2011, he served as Director General and Extension Professor at the National Agro-Tech Extension and Service Center (NATESC) of the Ministry of Agriculture in Beijing. Mr Xia, holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Entomology from Wageningen University and Research Center in the Netherlands.
Guodao Liu, Dean of the International Institute for Poverty Reduction
Former vice president of Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences. Currently, He serves as the dean of the International Institute for Poverty Reduction of Huazhong Agricultural University and the chairman of Chinese Society of Tropical Crops and an executive committee member of the Food and Agriculture Organization's Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP). His research focuses on the development and utilization of tropical forage germplasm resources. He has won the China Youth Science and Technology Award, the Ho Leung Ho Lee Award for Regional Innovation, and the Outstanding Contribution Award of the International Bioversity Center and CIAT Alliance. As the first completer, he has won the first prize of provincial and ministerial-level scientific and technological progress awards for eight times, and one special prize of Hainan Natural Science Award.
Keynote Speakers (in alphabetical order)
Jordan Chamberlin, Agricultural Economist at the CIMMYT
Jordan Chamberlin is an agricultural economist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), based in Nairobi, Kenya. His research spans a range of topics broadly related to rural transformation in agrarian economies, including digital advisory services and agricultural technology change, rural labor mobility, and the evolution of rural land markets. With CIMMYT, Jordan has been based in Ethiopia and Kenya, with work primarily focused on Africa. Jordan received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University.
Chengfang Liu, Professor at Peking University
Chengfang Liu, Ph.D in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California (Davis), holds the Boya Professorship at Peking University. She also serves as the associate dean at the School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences for education, research and international collaborations. For more than 20 years, she has worked on development economics and applied microeconometrics. With her coauthors, Dr. Liu has published about 140 papers in peer-reviewed journals both domestically and internationally, including Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Labor Economics, etc. In recognition of her work, Dr. Liu received The China National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scientists (“Guojia Jieqing”) in 2019. She served as the Chair of the China Section of Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (2019-2021) and the associate editor of China Agricultural Economic Review (2023 to date).
Zhaohu Li, President of Beijing Forestry University
Professor Zhaohu Li is the President of Beijing Forestry University. Professor Li has been deeply involved in collaborative research that integrates agronomy and agricultural chemistry. His team has systematically pioneered innovations in key technologies, including shaping cotton plants for mechanical harvesting, topping, and defoliation to accelerate ripening, leading to a series of significant achievements. His research has been featured in prestigious journals such as Nature Plants, Plant Cell, New Phytologist, ACS Nano, and other leading journals. He served as the Vice President of China Agricultural University between 2011 and 2018, and President of Huazhong Agricultural University between 2018 and 2024. He received his Ph.D. from Auburn University.
Shi Min, Professor at Huazhong Agricultural University
Shi Min is a professor of agricultural economics at the College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, China. He obtained his doctoral degree in Development and Agricultural Economics from Leibniz University Hannover in 2016. He was a postdoctoral fellow at China Center for Agricultural Policy, Peking University from 2017 to 2019. Since he joined Huazhong Agricultural University in 2019, he has mainly focused on research in food policy and economics, as well as agriculture and rural development. To date, he has published over 60 papers in peer-reviewed journals, including World Development, Food Policy, Global Food Security and so on. He has also had more than ten articles published in newspapers such as Guangming Ribao and Farmers’ Daily. Eight of the policy briefs he participated in writting were approved or adopted by the provincial or national leaders or agents.
Shen Yuan, Professor at Huazhong Agricultural University
Shen Yuan is a professor at the College of Plant Science and Technology of Huazhong Agricultural University and a researcher at the Hubei Hongshan Laboratory. His work centers on promoting the sustainable development of rice production, with a particular focus on implementing crop management strategies that achieve both high yield and efficient resource utilization. He approaches his research by analyzing limiting factors, devising capacity enhancement strategies, and optimizing agricultural systems and crop management practices across global, regional, and field scales. He has authored 52 papers, including 20 as the first author, in journals such as Nature Communications and Nature Food, with two of these papers being highly cited in the ESI database. He is a recipient of several accolades, including the China Association for Science and Technology Youth Talent Support Project, the Hubei Province Youth Top Talent Development Program, and the Wuhan Talent-Outstanding Youth Talent Project.
Wendong Zhang, Assistant Professor at Cornell University
Wendong Zhang is an assistant professor and extension economist in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. Zhang is currently faculty affiliate at Cornell Center for China Economic Research, faculty fellow at Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, and a 2023-2025 Faculty Fellow at the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research in Germany. Zhang is an associate editor of American Journal of Agricultural Economics as well as the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. His research seeks to better understand the interplay between agriculture and the environment, farmland market, and Chinese agriculture. Zhang received his PhD in Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics from Ohio State University.