SGD02 - Ending Hunger. Is that even possible ?

What are the 17 SDGs ?

On 25 September 2015, the 193 countries of the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Development Agenda titled "Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development". The agenda outlines the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and their targets.

This blog is about SDG02 which aims at ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture. This goal has eight targets and 14 indicators to measure progress.

Globally, 1 in 9 people are undernourished, the vast majority of whom live in developing countries. Malnutrition contributes to nearly half of deaths in children under five – 3.1 million children per year. As the global population continues to grow and life expectancy to rise, sustainable nutrition is an important challenge.

This goal also deals with society and the relationship between hunger and economical thriving. In fact, eight of the SDGs deal with social issues, as those are drivers to financial improvement.

Tackling the challenge

How can this challenge be tackled ? With technology of course.

One cool example is Smart Farming System from France. Their app connects unused areas in cities to urban farmers and vertical agriculture. Vertical agriculture can be intensive, thus produce per area is high, used for tomatoes and leafy vegetables with high micro-nutrient levels, organic 365 days a year.

Israel's ArgoScout is another company that is into smart agriculture, this time their target market is rural farmers. Using drones, AI, ML and vision analysis, they are monitoring crops for diseases. They can cover more area, more plants and look more carefully. Early detection of pests and diseases can cause 20-40% increase in yield and reduce waste of water and abuse of chemicals.

Both examples also show the interconnection between the SDGs – once improving agriculture the benefits also go to water management, earth and climate action.

Education is also a player here. While literate people can help themselves therefore increase earnings, if farmers get crop-specific education that is a huge step towards leveling up yield and reducing waste.