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G-20 Ministers to Launch Platform on Information Technology in Farming

Agriculture ministers from the G-20 group of major advanced and emerging economies will launch a new initiative on Friday regarding the role of information and communications technology (ICT) in farming, according to draft documents seen by Bridges.

Ministers are due to highlight in particular the role of mobile internet, cloud computing, big data, and the “Internet of Things” when they meet on Friday in Xi’an, China.

Deputies – dubbed “sherpas” in G-20 parlance – met multiple times this week to try and hammer out the details of the initiative ahead of the ministerial summit tomorrow.

Sources familiar with the talks said that the G-20 was due to launch an “Exchange and Cooperation Platform” on agricultural information and communications technology – although some also expressed misgivings about how useful the new initiative would be.

“There’s a lot of scepticism,” said one source, who told Bridges that some G-20 members were worried that intergovernmental agencies might end up bearing too much of the load.

“Internet Plus” agriculture?

Ministers are expected to champion the notion of “Internet Plus” agriculture – using a term coined by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in March 2015 to describe Beijing’s domestic ICT action plan.

The G-20 will say that “Internet Plus” agriculture can promote value addition and the distribution and sales of farm goods globally, the draft declaration indicates.

One government official involved in the talks told Bridges that new technologies could be “very helpful” in improving access to markets for farmers, and for companies that trade and process farm goods.

The draft communiqué says that the new platform would be based on an assessment of existing global agricultural ICT “applications and platforms” by various intergovernmental agencies. These would include the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

However, another source said that it was still unclear what the initiative would actually involve. “It’s a bit opaque, to be honest,” the official said.

Boosting domestic demand

One source familiar with the talks suggested that the initiative was designed to help G-20 countries to boost domestic demand.

With the global economy still lacklustre, Beijing in particular has sought to revive flagging economic growth rates by increasing consumption of economic output at home.

“They’re trying to do what Japan did: move from cheap exporting industry to higher quality products that meet a growth in domestic demand,” one official said.

China is also keen to boost trade as part of its “One Belt, One Road” initiative, which focuses on infrastructure investments and improved cooperation in neighbouring regions such as Central Asia.

G-20 countries with a comparative advantage in agricultural ICT could help transfer technology to other parts of the world, one government official told Bridges.

“A lot of young people play their role in facilitating new technology and applying it in African countries,” the source said.

Trade references

Agriculture ministers will say they support the decisions taken last year by the WTO’s tenth ministerial conference in Nairobi, Kenya, the draft declaration suggests.

They will also stress the need for governments to invest more in agriculture, “consistent with WTO obligations.”

Rising levels of trade-distorting government subsidies for agriculture have led many WTO members to argue that tighter rules are needed by the time of the global trade body’s next ministerial conference, due to be held at the end of next year. (See Bridges Weekly, 12 May 2016)

However, one official involved in the G-20 talks told Bridges that the trade agenda was “not prominent” in the declaration.

“Most of my colleagues think trade issues are important, but don’t want to talk about them in the communiqué,” said another.

The official said that other countries preferred to discuss agricultural trade issues at the WTO instead of within the G-20, especially given the divergence of views among the group’s members.

The G-20 has recently tended to steer away from addressing agricultural trade issues directly, although under the French presidency of the group five years ago, its members did agree not to impose agricultural export restrictions on humanitarian food aid purchases. (See Bridges Weekly, 29 June 2011)

Global food security

One official involved in the G-20 talks told Bridges that new technology had the potential to improve food security outcomes in poor countries.

“Drones can be used for early warning, crops, and transportation,” the source said, citing the use of drones to deliver seeds to remote areas or to help with crop assessment.

Governments such as the Philippines are using drones to monitor the impact of climate change, floods, and typhoons on food security, with support from relevant UN agencies.

To date, issues around global food security have been addressed under separate talks in the G-20’s Development Working Group, with the agriculture ministers instead focusing on measures that the group could take to improve the functioning of the farm sector within the G-20 countries themselves. (See Bridges Weekly, 8 May 2014)

However, the Chinese presidency had changed the approach taken, sources said.

One government official said that G-20 agriculture officials had devoted “much attention” to global food security, and for the first time had included language linking the issue to trade.

“We support the vital role of the multilateral trading system in global food security,” the ministers’ declaration is due to say.

Ministers to meet regularly

For the first time, the draft text would commit G-20 agriculture ministers to meet regularly “in an effort to address major challenges in agricultural and rural development.”

Since the group’s agriculture ministers first met in Paris in 2011, meetings have been held sporadically, depending on whether the country holding the G-20 presidency chose to convene them or not.

Agriculture ministers or vice-ministers met in 2012 in Mexico, and in 2015 in Turkey. (See Bridges Weekly, 23 May 2012 and 13 May 2015) There was no comparable meeting under the Russian or Australian G-20 presidencies in 2013 and 2014 – although the latter saw progress on food security issues in work organised under the group’s Development Working Group. (See Bridges Weekly, 8 May 2014)

“More continuity would be a good thing,” observed one official who has followed the G-20 process for several years.