2026: A Global Outlook for local impact – Innovation and technologies shaping the future of agrifood systems

Fabrizio Bresciani is a Senior Technical Officer in the Office of Innovation (OIN) at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He rejoined FAO in May 2023, bringing over two decades of international experience in agricultural development, innovation, and economic policy. Prior to his return to FAO, Dr. Bresciani served at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) as Lead Regional Economist for both the Asia-Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean divisions (2014-2023). Between 2007 and 2011, he held senior positions at the World Bank, serving as Rural Development Economist in the Philippines and later as Senior Agricultural Economist in Indonesia. His earlier tenure at FAO (2001–2007) included work on the Roles of Agriculture Project under the Economic and Social Development Department (ESA). Dr. Bresciani holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park; an M.Sc. in Agricultural and Environmental Economics from Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá; and a Bachelor’s degree in Economic and Social Disciplines from Bocconi University, Milan. At FAO, he currently leads key strategic initiatives, including the Agrifood Systems Technologies and Innovations Outlook, the FAO Global Innovation Model, and the Technology Accelerator.

With nearly three decades of global experience in agricultural research, extension, and innovation, Delgermaa Chuluunbaatar is passionate about co-creating solutions with farmers, researchers, and policymakers and recognizes importance of all voices for inclusive transformation of sustainable agrifood systems. As an Agricultural Research Officer at the FAO’s Office of Innovation, she co-leads the Agrifood Systems Technologies and Innovations Outlook (ATIO) initiative.  Her expertise spans integrated farming systems, conservation agriculture, rural development, institutional reforms, portfolio sense-making, innovation scaling and systems thinking. Delgermaa’s career journey – from a farm agronomist in Mongolia to technical roles at FAO, IFAD, CIDA, and World Vision International – reflects her deep commitment to empowering farmers and institutions through knowledge, innovation, and capacity development. She holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Saskatchewan, with research spanning crop and soil science, rural sociology, and adult education. Her work bridges science and practice, with a focus on innovation processes, adoption behaviour, and systemic approaches to development.

Megha Desai holds a degree in Commerce and Law from Gujarat University India and has undergone the Senior Management Development Programme from the Indian Institute of Management (IIMA), Ahmedabad. Currently she is handling the National Farmer’s Forum Network of SEWA which covers 16 states with 2.6 million family farmers of India with objective to provide livelihoods support to small and marginal women farming families through agro businesses and policy advocacy. She also leads Agriculture campaign of SEWA which runs for the small and marginal women family farmers of SEWA to organize them, provide voice, visibility and validation and build capacity to withstand climate and market shocks. She is Director of Bees Network – Business, Enterprise and Employment support for women in South Asia. She is working with SEWA since last 13 years and have led the programmes on rebuilding lives of war and other disaster affected sisters in countries like Sri Lanka, Myanmar. Afghanistan, Nepal.

Her journey started with rebuilding lives of riots affected widows and single parent and orphaned children and then moved to led SEWA’s work in war zones in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka for Economic Rehabilitation of of war affected widows.  She has also participated in the workshops for the economic empowerment of the vulnerable women of Myanmar and Nepal.  Her area of expertise is conducting studies, designing and implementation of the programme for economic rehabilitation of small and marginal farmers. war and disaster affected women, peace building programmes, skills development, setting up community learning cum business resource centers, developing leaders from vulnerable communities, value based teaching and peace building, attaining sustainability of programmes, providing enabling environment, provide handholding support and guidance to set up value chain and start the business with linkages of bank, market, government etc, forming women grassroots owned organisations etc. She has worked with more than 4500+ affected women in these countries to achieve economic rehabilitation and peace building. Before joining SEWA, she has worked as Programme Manager for leadership Development programme in education field in India and Senior Research Analyst with the Center for International Financial Analysis and Research Inc., USA’ Indian subsidiary for 9 years.

Taru Haapaniemi serves as a Member of Cabinet in the team of Christophe Hansen at the European Commission. She works within the Commissioner’s cabinet supporting the development and implementation of EU policies in agriculture and related areas.

Tiina Huvio has more than twenty five years of experience in development cooperation, focusing on food systems, climate, rural development, and private sector development. She has worked for FAO, the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and DANIDA, participating in strategic planning, policy dialogue, and program management. During her career, she has worked for several years in West Africa and Central America and traveled extensively in Africa and Asia. She is working at the moment for the Food and Forest Development Finland (FFD) as Executive Director. Through her work in FFD, she has directed her determined efforts to promote and support farmer organizations and cooperatives in Africa and South East Asia for organizational development, enhancement of income-generating activities, and climate and biodiversity action. 2018-23 Ms. Huvio chaired the steering committee of Forest and Farm Facility managed by FAO, and since 2018 she is leading the climate action of AgriCord Alliance. She has a master on environmental sciences from University of Kuopio, Finland.

Dr. Vincent Martin is the Director of the Office of Innovation at FAO. With a wealth of expertise in Diplomacy, Global Health, Food and Nutrition Security, Epidemiology and Spatial Analysis, he has more than 20 years of field experience developing strategies and policies, exploring, and experimenting to source solutions to fight against hunger while championing the gender agenda. He has remained dedicated to finding innovative solutions to key development, political, peace and security issues. Dr. Martin joined FAO HQ in Rome, Italy, in the Animal Production and Health Division in 1998. Since then, he has held various positions at FAO and the UN, including Animal Health Officer of Infectious Disease Analysis and Early Warning, Senior Technical Advisor at the FAO Representation in China, Beijing, Head of Animal Health Early Warning System (EMPRES), FAO Representative in Senegal and Head of the Regional Resilience Team for West Africa and the Sahel in Dakar, Senegal. From 2016 to 2020, he was FAO Representative in China and in the Democratic Republic of Korea in Beijing, China. Since May 2020, he has served as the United Nations Resident Coordinator (UNRC) in Guinea, overseeing some 24 UN agencies, funds and programmes to support the national efforts to meet the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Dr. Martin holds a University Diploma focused on Statistics and Epidemiology from Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris VI, a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine, an MSc and a PhD in Agronomic Sciences and biology engineering.  

Experienced in the fields of policy research, editing, communications, and project management, Katie McRobert has been part of the Australian Farm Institute team since late 2017, holding roles as Senior Researcher and General Manager before becoming Executive Director in April 2024. Prior to joining AFI, Katie worked as a global Content and Community Manager for Rabobank, liaising with farming clients to build knowledge banks, and as the National Editor for FarmOnline. Katie has an MBA from Griffith University specialising in Sustainable Business. She is currently Chair of the CSIRO Drought Resilience Mission Advisory Group, and a member of the Australian Agricultural Traceability Governance Group, the CSIRO Agriculture & Food external advisory group, and the NSW Farm Writers Committee. At the AFI, Katie’s role gives her the opportunity to deep dive into evidence-based policy research focused on the sustainability of agrifood systems – work she feels proud and privileged to be part of.

In January 2022 Emmanuelle Mikosz took the role of 'Forum for the Future of Agriculture' Programme Director and in September 2025 has now taken on the role of Director General of the Forum. Previously she was the coordinator of the regional events of the Forum. Since 2005 Emmanuelle has been an ELO adviser specialised in property rights, agricultural and environmental policies dedicated to Central & Eastern European countries. Trained as a lawyer, she earned a Master of Arts degree from the College of Europe (Natolin). Emmanuelle is involved on a daily basis with the formulation of ELO members' positions regarding national land laws and management of enterprises. The European Landowners’ Organization - ELO asbl, created in 1972, is a unique federation of national associations from the EU27, which represents the interests of the landowners, land and forest managers and rural entrepreneurs at the European political level. Emmanuelle is the Editor-in-Chief of the ELO "Countryside Magazine", edited in English, French and Spanish. She is also an expert representing ELO at different international events as well as at the European Commission Civil dialogue groups or biogeographical consultations processes. She has a personal interest in innovation and research policies, including aviation and protection of data regulations. She believes that the future of European agriculture relies on sustainable development hand in hand with the protection of biodiversity and access to water.

Dr. Leonard Mizzi is Adviser Food Systems in DG INTPA following almost 20 years of management roles in DG AGRI and DG INTPA. He has a PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Reading and is also a graduate from CIHEAM Montpellier and the University of Malta. He is an expert on agrifood systems at local, regional and global level with a special emphasis on the Rome based agencies in particular FAO and IFAD.

Dr. Mizzi has a broad working experience in the Maltese public administration and the Maltese private sector. He first worked in the Economic Planning Division of the Office of the Prime Minister (Malta) and from 1996-2006 was the first Director of the Malta Business Bureau in Brussels- the office of the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association.

He was also visiting lecturer at the Boston University (Brussels campus), Open University and Malta University. He often lectures at the College of Europe in Bruges.

His areas of specialisation are global food security governance, agriculture and food and nutrition security, the Mediterranean and Sub Saharan Africa.

Barron Joseph Orr is the Chief Scientist for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona (USA) where he also served as a NASA Geospatial Extension Specialist. As Profesor avalista at the University of Alicante (Spain), he helped develop a restoration ecology graduate degree. His career has been focused on coupled human and environmental systems undergoing environmental change and bridging the divides between science, policy, practice and society. His work involving indigenous and local knowledge, participatory research, stakeholder engagement and user-centred design led to being named a Marie Curie Fellow as well as being selected as an independent scientist for the UNCCD Science-Policy Interface (SPI). After a career collaborating with local communities, he is now helping governments ensure that global policies on land and drought are evidenced based. He contributes scientifically to the development of global environmental monitoring frameworks, including one on SDG 15 “Life on Land” and another on drought resilience. He is also co-lead author of the Scientific Conceptual Framework on Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) which was formally endorsed by the 197 Parties to the UNCCD in 2017. He obtained a doctorate in Arid Lands Resource Sciences from the University of Arizona and a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University.

Estefania Puricelli is the Secretary of the International Agri‑Food Network (IAFN), where she leads the Secretariat supporting the Private Sector Mechanism (PSM) to the UN Committee on World Food Security. She has worked at the intersection of markets, policy, and innovation, engaging through multistakeholder consortia and global platforms to advance solutions for food‑systems transformation.

In her previous roles, Estefania served as a lead economist for the NASA Harvest Consortium, enhancing the use of digital agriculture for food‑security applications in collaboration with academia, the private sector, governments, and international organizations. She also worked with the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) hosted at FAO, supporting efforts to improve data transparency and monitoring excessive food‑price volatility. Estefania holds an MSc in Agricultural Economics from the University of London, as well as bachelor’s degrees in Economics and other in Farm Management both from the University of Buenos Aires, where she is originally from.

Joke Schauvliege is a Belgian Flemish politician from the Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V). She is a trained lawyer who became active in local politics in Evergem and later served in the Flemish Parliament. From 2009 to 2019, she was a Flemish minister responsible for areas including environment, nature, culture, and agriculture.

Dr. Saskia M. Visser is an experienced leader in soil health, climate action, and systems innovation, with over 20 years of expertise at the interface of science, policy, and agricultural practice. She is the Director of Strategic Partnerships & Opportunity Development at Climate-KIC, where she builds and Building connections and partnerships to speed up transitions in Food Systems, Soil and Climate action.
A central element of Saskia’s work is close collaboration with including farmers, advisors, agri-food companies, and public authorities. She has extensive experience designing and governing multi-actor programmes that enable farmer-led experimentation, living labs, and on-farm validation of sustainable soil and land-use practices. As co-coordinator of the €108 million European Joint Programme on Agricultural Soils under Climate Change (EJP SOIL), she worked closely with national ministries, research institutes, and practitioner networks, enabling the scientific community to advise the European Commission on the EU Soil Strategy, the European Soil Observatory, and the Soil Mission.

Previously at Wageningen University & Research, Saskia led large strategic programmes on circular and climate-neutral land use, strengthening collaboration between science, policy, and farming practice. She combines scientific depth (PhD in soil and land degradation) with proven leadership in complex partnerships that translate knowledge into scalable, real-world impact for sustainable food systems.