World Food Day 2026: Make innovation inclusive and impactful for resilient agrifood systems

Rome – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today commemorated World Food Day 2026, emphasizing the importance of effective and broad-spectrum innovation for the achievement of its enduring mission to end hunger and build resilient agrifood systems across the globe.

World Food Day, celebrated annually on 16 October, this year was held under the banner of “Innovate Today. Nourish Tomorrow.” with events marking the occasion held in more than 50 languages in more than 150 countries around the world.

FAO Director-General QU Dongyu opened the event at FAO’s Rome headquarters which brought together prominent global figures alongside international leaders and dignitaries.

“Innovation must serve people and improve lives,” the FAO Director-General said in his opening address. “It is about enabling people to turn knowledge into opportunity, science into solutions, and hope into action. Its true value lies in reaching the people who need it most, and when it is shared and scaled.”

Qu warned that the gap between what science can do and what reaches the world’s farmers remains too wide and emphasized that the most effective solutions are developed with the people who use them – by farmers, fishers, pastoralists and rural communities – and are adapted to local realities, supported by investment and partnerships.

Pope Leo XIV in a statement read on his behalf called for a “new global food order” based on an intergenerational sense of responsibility and in which technology is reconciled with wisdom. “In an era of greater technological advancement than ever before, it is intolerable that bread should be considered a privilege and water a contested commodity,” the pontiff said.

“Innovation is the key to reconciling productivity, sustainability, and resilience,” said Francesco Lollobrigida, Minister for Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests of Italy, speaking on behalf of the government of FAO’s host country.

His Majesty King Letsie III of the Kingdom of Lesotho, FAO Special Goodwill Ambassador for Nutrition addressed the event, as did Her Royal Highness Princess Basma Bint Ali of Jordan, FAO Goodwill Ambassador for the Near East and Africa, Fatmata Binta, renowned Chef from Sierra Leone and FAO Regional Goodwill Ambassador for Africa, and Rosângela “Janja” Lula da Silva, FAO Special Goodwill Champion Against Hunger.

Senior representatives of the Rome-based UN agencies, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFD) also spoke at the event.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a video message for World Food Day highlighted that food is a basic human right.

For FAO, World Food Day 2026 is an important opportunity to reflect on our common duty to strengthen the agrifood systems that make food available, accessible and affordable to all, while rising to meet the challenges of doing and simultaneously supporting farmers and all who work across agrifood value chains, and taking care of the environment.

Innovation is transforming how food is produced, stored, transported and marketed. What is crucial is translating innovation into impact and making it available at scale, which demands sustained investment and partnerships. The world has the knowledge and the resources to do so – innovation is the link to ensure delivery.

100 Women Heroes, Achievement Awards and Junior World Food Day

Director-General Qu hailed the 100 Women Heroes in Agrifood Systems and Rural Development, honored at a ceremony at FAO on Thursday, on occasion of the International Day of Rural Women, and chosen for the impacts they are making in areas ranging from food production to preserving knowledge.

At a later event, the Director-General bestowed two Awards for Achievement, to recognize outstanding performance of individuals or institutions that have created true impact in implementation of programmes related to FAO's work.

One awardee was the Aerospace Information Research Institute of China, for creating the CropWatch Cloud platform, which makes satellite-based crop monitoring accessible to countries worldwide. The platform, led by Professor Bingfang Wu, has been adopted by 32 countries and is integrated into FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Geospatial Platform, while CropWatch Bulletin reaches users in 170 countries.

The other awardee was Addis Fekadu Andeta from Arba Minch University in Ethiopia, whose pioneering innovations have transformed processing of enset, a staple crop, and includes a microbial starter culture that drastically shortens fermentation time, as well as mechanical tools that improve efficiency and reduce post-harvest losses. Lucy Enset, an enterprise he founded, has also created new market opportunities and empowered smallholder farmers, particularly women, strengthening food security, livelihoods, and climate resilience.

On Thursday, Qu welcomed almost 1,000 students aged 9 to 13 in person, with many more joining online, for Junior World Food Day. Members from the Italian Rugby Federation and the Italian Taekwondo Federation, alongside the nutritionist for the Cabo Verde National Football Team, joined Italian celebrity chef Max Mariola and responsible fashion expert Matteo Ward for the celebration.

The World Food Day ceremony took place on the last day of FAO’s annual flagship World Food Forum (WFF), which is organized around three pillars: Global Youth Action, Science and Innovation Forum, and the Hand-in-Hand Initiative Investment Forum.

The Forum brings together youth, governments, scientists, investors, farmers and Indigenous leaders to identify opportunities for making agrifood systems more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable. By bringing policy, practice, innovation and finance together in the same room, the Forum surfaces diverse insights, tests solutions, mobilizes capital, and identifies clear pathways for real-world action to address the root causes of food insecurity.