Written evidence submitted by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) (IGF0064)

Science, Innovation and Technology Committee Inquiry
How science, innovation and technology can be used to enhance global food security

Key messages:

1. By 2050, the world will need to produce an estimated 50% more food for a rapidly growing population with changing diets, but using less land and water, a fraction of today’s carbon footprint, and whilst adapting to a changing climate. A growing ‘land crunch’ – through competition for scarcer, productive land for food, feed, fuel, and urbanization – is likely to drive further food insecurity, malnutrition, instability, biodiversity loss, and migration.
2. Food insecurity is rising in Africa, where 60 percent of global hunger looks set to be concentrated by 2030.[1] Reversing this, including in low-income countries (LICs) that are less integrated with global and regional markets, will require investment to sustainably raise agricultural productivity through a combination of innovation, equitable and affordable access, robust governance, and responsiveness to local needs.
3. Between 2013 and 2022, global total factor productivity in agriculture grew by just 0.7% annually—only 40% of the growth required to sustainably feed a projected 10 billion people by 2050. Sub-Saharan Africa lags even further at 0.37%. [2]
4. Investment in science and technology (such as development of new climate resilient, nutritious crops) has delivered high rates of return.  Emerging tech like artificial intelligence (AI) and engineering biology, has potential to accelerate progress in tackling food insecurity by boosting productivity, nutritional value and resilience to climate.
5. Scaling agricultural innovations - translating research into practical application - can be transformative but takes time. Supportive policies, adequate funding, infrastructure and favourable market conditions are critical and may not always be present, especially in low-income, climate-vulnerable countries where food security depends both on scaling new innovations and complementary low-tech practices.
6. The effectiveness of innovations depends on their context. Many factors shape the use and adaptation of technologies such that what is needed in LICs or fragile contexts is very different to approaches in the global north.
7. The UK has a strong track record in funding this critical research, in partnership with researchers, governments and other international partners like Gates Foundation. Achieving wide ranging benefits - from the delivery of climate resilient crops, livestock treatments and vaccines, nature positive agronomic practices, to digital and AI advisory services and impactful, evidence-based policy – can transform lives whilst strengthening UK stability, prosperity and global influence.

How scientific and technological innovations can be combined with low-technology practices to support global food security

8. Scientific and technological innovation is vital for transforming food systems, and must be coupled with policy, institutional and finance focused action, to ensure equity of access, scalability, and long-term impact. Emerging technologies—such as artificial intelligence (AI) and engineering biology—can help boost productivity and climate resilience, whilst low-tech solutions, like improved seed storage and better agronomy and efficient use of inputs, remain essential in certain contexts, such as low-income countries, for accessibility and local adaptation. The UK supports a systems approach that integrates local knowledge with modern innovations, ensuring that technologies are locally appropriate, inclusive, and responsive to farmers’ needs and capacities. Both approaches ensure innovations are effective, equitable and responsive to diverse agricultural contexts. Common challenges include equitable access to technology, data ownership, and weak regulatory and institutional frameworks.

• How emerging technologies developed outside agriculture, e.g. AI, can support this aim.

9. AI is increasingly being used to support global food security in multiple ways, including modelling climate impacts on food systems, crop breeding, optimising supply chains, and strengthening digital climate and weather advisories and early warning systems for food crises. AI also has enormous potential to improve the take-up and impact of agriculture advisory services, by providing context specific information, such as agronomic advice, that targets smallholder needs, delivered in local languages and dialects, increasing engagement and credibility. It can also help address some – but not all – equity barriers, particularly around cost, although challenges around access remain. Whilst digital agriculture advisories showed promise in improving farmer outcomes -especially when bundled to combine advisories with credit, insurance, and market access – they have not yet delivered on their promise and significant evidence gaps remain, especially around delivery models and targeting strategies. FCDO is working with Gates Foundation and other partners in the Open Agri Net project to test AI-driven and digital public infrastructure approaches to agricultural advisory and better understand its potential and limitations, including gender considerations, and with the Generative AI for Agricultural Advisory project to create the necessary data.
10. The UK Government defines engineering biology as the design, scaling & commercialisation of biology-derived products and services that can transform sectors or produce existing products more sustainably, creating the next wave of innovation in the bioeconomy. It includes applications such as cell-cultivated products, precision breeding, genetic modification and gene editing, and can contribute to food security through innovation in novel foods, crops and pesticides, or fertilisers that can be can safer, cleaner, and more efficient. One example, led by Cardiff University, is developing biodegradable artificial cells that act as smart seed coatings and release natural biopesticides in response to plant signals, offering a targeted and eco-friendly alternative to conventional agrichemicals.  Engineering biology has the potential to combine the cutting-edge nature of biological sciences, biodata, AI, DNA sequencing and robotics with synthetic biotechnology techniques. The convergence of AI and biological sciences can enhance research capabilities with benefits already emerging in food security and agriculture. These include AI-assisted scientific discovery and precision farming, where AI-based algorithms supporting improved yields.
11. Novel food innovations such as cell-cultivated products and precision fermentation offer the potential for sustainable alternatives to conventional breeding and farming practices. Cell-cultivated products are made by taking a small sample of animal cells and providing them with the necessary nutrients to grow, multiply, and eventually form the product. Precision fermentation uses microorganisms and engineering biology techniques to produce desired compounds. Both processes take place in food grade facilities with a relatively small land footprint and have been used to produce meats, dairy, cocoa and even leather.

• The role of biotechnology (e.g. genetic engineering and gene editing techniques such as CRISPR) in increasing crop yields and resistance to climate change.

12. Biotechnology (e.g. genetic engineering and gene editing techniques such as CRISPR) is transforming agricultural R&D, offering precision tools to address the urgent challenges of climate change and food insecurity. These technologies enable rapid, accurate modification of plant genomes, introducing traits for increased yield, resistance to pests, or climate resilience and significantly shortening crop breeding cycles – often by several years – by bypassing the lengthy backcrossing and linkage drag associated with conventional breeding.
13. Gene editing allows targeted changes to DNA without leaving behind foreign genetic material, making it fast, efficient, and clean and suitable for integration with conventional low-tech breeding for open-pollinated crops. Globally, gene editing is being used to develop crops that can withstand extreme weather and environmental stress. It is also accelerating progress in “orphan crops” like teff – which lack extensive breeding history but are important for resource poor farming households – by enabling rapid improvements in yield and other traits. In the UK, precision breeding (using gene-editing techniques to make precise changes to the DNA of plants or animals) is being used to support the UK Government’s sustainability and climate goals whilst increasing productivity and enhancing domestic food security. AI is further enhancing gene editing by identifying optimal gene targets for complex traits. Regulatory frameworks for gene editing crops are nascent across many parts of the world, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and their absence can pose a significant barrier to scaling promising innovations. Some African nations are adopting product-based regulatory models for gene-edited crops, moving away from restrictive genetically modified organism frameworks, and enabling case-by-case assessment to support responsible innovation and broader adoption.

• The ethical concerns associated with high-tech solutions in agriculture.

14. Ethical concerns associated with high-tech solutions – including access, ownership (including of data), and the risk of marginalising smallholders – must be addressed through inclusive research partnerships and robust governance frameworks. Fragmented and inconsistent regulatory frameworks, unclear intellectual property rights, and limited institutional capacity in LMICs pose significant barriers to equitable access. Concerns about seed sovereignty, market concentration, and the marginalisation of smallholders from formal seed systems, echo longstanding critiques of hybrid seed technologies, but are intensified by the potential for proprietary control over gene-edited traits. Tackling these challenges requires transparent, science-based policies, inclusive governance and safeguards to ensure the benefits of gene editing are widely and fairly distributed.
15. The collection of large amounts of data (incl. genetic and environmental) raises ethical issues regarding Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs), including a lack of control over data collected from their lands, benefit-sharing, and/or participatory design frameworks. At CBD COP16, the ‘Cali Fund for the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits from the Use of Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources’ was established to address some of these concerns. High-tech solutions can also embed dominant research dynamics and fail to incorporate or account for traditional ecological knowledge and IPLC preferences.

• The use of low-tech solutions that can be easily diffused.

16. Low-tech solutions remain vital, particularly in low-resource and hard-to-reach settings, including fragile and conflict-affected contexts. These include solar dryers and irrigation, improved seed storage, practices such as alternate wetting and drying in rice, and farmer to farmer extension models. Such approaches leverage local knowledge and social networks which may be more trusted and accessible than formal systems. UK ODA R&D invested by FCDO (e.g. through global research partnerships with CGIAR and CABI, and with UK and LMIC partners with UKRI Innovate UK) and by DEFRA (Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate fund) generate solutions that enhance food security and contribute to climate resilience. Examples include tackling crop pests and diseases without harming biodiversity, agroforestry (integrating trees with crops and livestock) and community-run nurseries and seed banks for preserving biodiversity and ensuring access to resilient crops.

The effects of these innovations on the global agricultural system

• Their effects on farmers and other agricultural workers, and on availability of land and other resources.

17. Innovation in agriculture and the adoption of sustainable and climate-resilient practices can have significant impact on the global agricultural system, saving labour, increasing yields, improving income, optimising water and other resource use and reducing the need for agricultural land expansion, whilst protecting critical ecosystems. Investment in agricultural technology and innovation plays a pivotal role in this transition by enabling farmers to produce more with less. Advances in precision agriculture, biotechnology, and digital and AI advisory tools allow for more efficient use of inputs such as water, fertilisers, and land, while boosting yields and resilience to climate and other shocks. For example, higher-yielding crop varieties and climate-smart practices have already spared millions of hectares of wild habitat and prevented billions of tonnes of CO₂ emissions. However, benefits may only be realised when innovation is paired with environmental safeguards and incentives that discourage land conversion. When managed well, innovation can help meet rising food demand without expanding agricultural land, preserving biodiversity and supporting climate goals.
18. Precision farming technologies are helping farmers manage costs and reduce environmental impacts. GPS-guided and variable-rate application allow precise input use, avoiding over-application.[3],[4] Case studies, such as robotic spot-spraying of sugarcane, have demonstrated herbicide reductions of 35–65% while maintaining weed control.[5] These tools can also shift labour demands, reducing manual tasks (e.g. automation of spraying or irrigation), while creating higher-skilled roles in data and digital tool management.
19. The effectiveness and impact of innovations on farmers is highly dependent on local context. Agroecological conditions, climate variability, and cultural and social dynamics shape the use and adaptation of technologies. Practices that are effective in one region may be unsuitable elsewhere due to differences in soil types, rainfall patterns, farming systems, or gender roles, for example. The UK supports locally led approaches to innovation that reflect local priorities & respond to diverse ecological and social realities.

• Whether technological dependence in agriculture could create new vulnerabilities.

20. Innovations may give rise to new vulnerabilities and deepen inequality, for example by displacing wage labour that poor households depend on for their food security, or they can create new dependencies through reliance on proprietary systems, exclusion of those without digital access, and exposure to risks such as cyber-attacks, data leaks and market volatility. Precision agriculture relies on infrastructure and know-how that many farmers in LICs may not be able to access without specific support. Marginalised groups such as women often face barriers to accessing new technologies due to social norms, limited resources, and exclusion from formal extension systems. A systems approach is essential to address these vulnerabilities and will depend on robust and transparent standards for data governance, interoperability, and cybersecurity, which the UK supports through investing in research capacity and digital public infrastructure in partner countries.
21. The UK is a signatory to the 1991 convention of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), and signatory to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, both parts of the global system balancing the rights of farmers and the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources to support innovation in new varieties through plant variety protection and the fair and equitable sharing of any benefits. The Treaty and UPOV seek to encourage innovation in plant breeding, which is critical for climate resilience and food security, while recognising that farmers themselves developed many of the landraces and varieties that crop breeders depend upon. The UK recognises the importance of balancing plant variety protection with the sovereignty of informal seed systems and the needs of smallholder farmers. Article 15(2) of the UPOV 1991 Convention allows farmers to use seed collected from their own crops for their own use, with implementation governed by national legislation. Under the Treaty private sector entities cannot establish IP ownership of landraces and varieties that would restrict further access. The UK supports flexible, context-sensitive approaches to seed governance that protect farmers’ rights, promote access to improved varieties, and safeguard traditional practices.

The UK’s Role in Advancing Global Food Security

• How UK universities and research institutions can contribute to global solutions.

22. UK universities, research institutions and innovators advance scientific knowledge and address global food security challenges by developing innovative solutions with real-world impact, including through rich international collaborations. Engineering biology R&D has been a particular focus for the UK Government over the last decade, with a £100 million investment into Mission Hubs in 2024 and several programmes contributing to global food security. UK universities and research institutions also lead and collaborate on a diverse portfolio of ODA R&D funded projects that contribute to global food security, including:

• University of Aberdeen: Advances agricultural efficiency through AI, drones, and satellite imaging. Developed an AI-based land cover mapping tool that improves vegetation classification, for sustainable land management and food security.
• The Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast: Focuses on food integrity, environmental resilience, and nutrition. As a UN International Atomic Energy Agency Collaborating Centre, it plays a global role in food safety and traceability.
• The Global Food Security Programme at the University of Cambridge: Addresses sustainable protein, food system resilience and climate-smart agriculture. Its flagship project TIGR2ESS promotes sustainable food systems in India.
• Grantham Research Institute (GRI) at the London School of Economics: Hosts the Climate Food (In)Security Lab, investigating climate change impacts on food systems and strategies for enhancing food & nutritional security, particularly in LICs.
• The Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food at the University of Oxford: A cross-disciplinary initiative exploring global food system challenges including sustainability, health and food security. The Food Systems Programme at the Environmental Change Institute investigates sustainable consumption, production and governance.

23. The UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) funds breakthrough R&D in underexplored areas, catalysing new paths to prosperity. ARIA supports projects across start-ups, universities and individuals with grants of up to £500k each, including initiatives that address food insecurity through advancing gene editing and genetic modification to develop plants that can provide sustainable resources at scale.
24. The UK is a global leader in crop gene editing, with institutions like the John Innes Centre, Rothamsted Research, University of Cambridge, and NIAB at the forefront. The FCDO has supported genome editing initiatives through CGIAR, improving productivity and disease resistance in key crops like cassava, potato, rice, banana, and wheat. Several of these are complex polyploid crops, where conventional breeding can be slow and complex. High throughput sequencing, genomic analysis and gene editing offer considerable advantages, accelerating breeding outcomes. The FCDO has also backed international collaborations with UK institutions such as Lancaster University and the University of Essex to improve photosynthetic efficiency and boost yields in staple crops. In the UK, several promising precision breeding products are already in early development:

• Supported by Defra funding, Tropic, British Sugar, and the John Innes Centre are producing sugar beet varieties that are resistant to Virus Yellows, which may reduce neonicotinoid pesticide use & yield losses costing £67m in 2020.[6]
• Rothamsted Research are developing improved animal feeds with a higher fat content. This has the potential to suppress methane emissions in livestock.
• WildBio, an SME, are developing wheat and soybean with enhanced photosynthetic efficiency, hoping to improve yields by up to 20%

25. The development, commercialisation, and adoption of precision agri-tech (for example for irrigation and the application of fertiliser and pesticides) are central to future farming productivity, sustainability and resilience, with the sector recognised as a priority sector part of Advanced Manufacturing in the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy. The UK Government has pledged to invest £200m from 2025-30 in agri-tech innovation through the Farming Innovation Programme. Farmer and grower co-design is embedded in the programme, ensuring solutions are practical, address real-world challenges and reduce stakeholder concerns about the commercialisation and adoption of new technologies. The market for agri-tech adoption is global, and UK technology exports can support global agricultural transitions for enhanced food security and climate resilience. Global partnerships, aligned to market opportunities and priorities can help to ensure technologies are tailored to local requirements, helping to secure diffusion, to maximise export growth.

• How the UK can contribute to advancing agricultural innovation and promoting global food security, including through policy, partnerships, trade, and overseas development assistance.

26. The UK plays a strategic role in shaping global and regional policy initiatives that advance agricultural innovation and promote food security. The UK does this through our engagement and influence in multilateral fora and processes, including the G7, G20, WTO, the UN Rio conventions (UNCCD; UNFCCC; UNCBD), the FAO and the World Bank, advocating for policies and global partnerships that support global food security, including an open global trading system and transparent sharing of market information to reduce volatility; increased public and private sector investment in sustainable and climate resilient agriculture; reform of agriculture and land policies to create the right incentives for innovation and investment in sustainable agriculture practices; the One Health approach, which encourages cross-sectoral collaboration to tackle challenges at the human-animal-environment interface.
27. The UK supports global platforms such as the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, which aims to deliver financial, political, and technical solutions at scale to tackle food insecurity and malnutrition, including through climate resilience and child wasting prevention. The UK also supports global platforms and institutions, such as the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme (GAFSP), the International Fund for Agricultural Development and Financing for Agricultural SMEs in Africa (FASA) that support investment in inclusive, climate-resilient food systems, mobilise finance for smallholders and agri-SMEs, and strengthen national and regional capacities. UK support for regional initiatives, like the ECOWAS Rice Observatory and the COMESA-EAC Horticulture Accelerator, which promote intra-African trade, reduce import dependency, and strengthen regional food systems.
28. UK ODA supports a transition to more sustainable, productive, and climate-resilient food systems, advancing agricultural innovation and promoting global food security. The Gilbert Initiative coordinates cross-government ODA-funded R&D in five priority areas: climate-resilient agriculture, scaling innovations, pest and disease response, sustainable and healthy diets, and resilience. Strategic partnerships with global leaders such as the Gates Foundation and the World Bank enable the UK to co-develop and scale innovations supporting sustainable, nutritious, and climate-resilient food systems. These efforts are complemented by collaborations like the UK–Brazil–Africa Climate Smart Agriculture Innovation Partnership, and support for product development platforms like GALVmed, which delivers livestock vaccines and treatments to smallholders in LICs.
29. CGIAR is one of the world’s leading agricultural and food research organisations, focusing on developing countries. The UK, through FCDO, is one of the largest, longstanding funders of CGIAR. The UK-CGIAR Science Collaboration Centre strengthens partnerships between UK science, CGIAR and developing countries by linking UK scientists to CGIAR programmes and drawing on comparative expertise to accelerate the translation of research into products that can be deployed at scale.  Current projects include gene-editing to strengthen fungal disease resistance in wheat, with partners in the UK, CGIAR, Kenya, Egypt and Pakistan.
30. Delivering nutritious food systems is vital for tackling food and nutrition insecurity, supporting sustainable, healthy and affordable. FCDO funded research increases access and availability of nutritious foods by strengthening the evidence base on effective solutions; building global capability and collaboration; and supporting policy uptake and solutions driven by the needs of policymakers in LMICs. Since 2014, FCDO has been a global leader on nutritious food systems through a high-impact research portfolio, partnering with UK institutions and building a network of 12,000+ researchers across 148 countries through ANH Academy to mobilise Global South research capacity at scale. Through the Child Wasting Innovation Programme, the UK is also playing a leading role in advancing innovation around the development of new, more cost-effective formulations of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods - the commodity used to treat severe acute malnutrition in children. This will allow available funding to stretch further and reach more children with life-saving treatment.
31. The UK Government is developing new partnerships to support a global transition in fertiliser use and a greater focus on nitrogen use efficiency. Roughly 50% of all food produced globally is derived from the use of synthetic fertilisers, with significant environmental impact concerns including water quality, greenhouse gas emission, ozone depletion.[7] Fertiliser use is uneven, with many parts of the world applying excess fertilisers inefficiently and others, in particular Sub Saharan Africa, under-applying fertilisers with significant soil nutrient mining.[8] Smallholders in LMICs often face access challenges to all types of fertilisers, despite their potential to improve productivity. In areas of overuse, however, fertiliser innovation can contribute to reduced emissions, environmental harms and improved nutrient use efficiency. FCDO is investing in fertiliser innovation, partnering with the International Fertiliser Development Centre to evaluate enhanced efficiency fertilisers in Tanzania and Zambia, assessing impact on yields, nitrogen use efficiency, emissions and leaching. In parallel, the FCDO-Gates Foundation research partnership is supporting UK-led research to develop microbial bio-fertilisers tailored for small-scale producers, with field trials planned in six African countries and a novel sachet packaging system in development to support scale-up. These efforts are complemented by the CGIAR’s work, integrating fertiliser advisory services with AI-ready data platforms and supports policy alignment with continental soil health strategies in Sub Saharan Africa. Together, these investments aim to generate actionable evidence, strengthen institutional capacity, and ensure fertiliser innovations are accessible, effective & equitable.

• The implications of global food production on the UK, including around climate, health, migration, and security

32. Climate-induced disruptions to global agriculture, such as droughts, floods, and pest outbreaks, and other shocks can drive volatility in commodity markets, destabilise supply chains, increase food prices, and exacerbate geopolitical tensions. The UK imports up to 40% of its food and relies heavily on global ecosystems for fertilisers, raw materials and animal feed. Climate-driven disruptions in regions like the Amazon and Southeast Asia are already destabilising supply chains and could cause severe impacts.[9][10] In 2024, the UK imported £8 billion of food from climate-vulnerable countries.[11] Pakistan, the UK’s second-largest rice supplier, faced severe floods in 2022-2023, cutting yields and driving rice prices up by 33%.[12] Additionally, over £16 billion of UK food imports from the Mediterranean face growing threats from heatwaves and droughts, jeopardising fruit and vegetable supplies.[13] Climate-induced inflation is predicted to increase UK household food expenses by 25-34% by 2050.[14] For example, in recent years cocoa yields in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, the two largest cocoa producers, have been impacted by extreme weather events and pest outbreaks, increasing chocolate costs by nearly 60% in the UK from late 2022 to mid-2025.[15]
33. Health, migration, and security related implications of global food production on the UK. Food security is national security – as recognised in the UK National Security Strategy 2025.[16] Imported fresh produce is vital for dietary diversity but vulnerable to climate, geopolitical, and trade disruptions. These shocks can drive up prices, reduce access to nutritious food and increase reliance on unhealthy products, raising the risk of diet-related diseases.[17]
34. Global investment in agricultural innovation and resilience delivers tangible benefits to the UK. The UK benefits from investment in agriculture R&D through three pathways: directly through spillover benefits back to the UK; through lower and more stable commodity prices in global markets; and through increased exports resulting from economic growth in the UK’s LMIC trading partners.  Recent research has estimated that 65% of wheat grown in the UK has its origins in CGIAR. This has generated at least £193m in increased profitability from wheat annually since 1971. Lower and more stable global food prices resulting from long-term UK supported crop breeding programmes have led to a reduction in the cost of a healthy diet in the UK by 1.2 percent. The same research estimates that an estimated additional £2.6 billion has been generated by agriculture-led economic growth in countries that have benefited from CGIAR innovations.[18][19] International investment in food and agriculture R&D generates net benefit back to the UK as well as supporting broader UK objectives on growth, stability and development. The UK also benefits economically from its leadership in frontier industries like agri-tech, with growing demand for UK expertise in international markets.

Barriers to implementing these innovations within the existing agricultural system

• The investment and infrastructure needed to support technological transition in agriculture globally.
• Steps to overcome these barriers.

35. While agricultural innovations may be adopted rapidly by farmers and other food system actors, their broader scaling (the process through which agricultural innovations are tailored, used, and embedded into agrifood systems and adapted to various contexts) can be slow and often faces significant barriers. Smallholder farmers and agri-SMEs, in particular, face barriers to accessing affordable finance. Infrastructure gaps, such as cold chains, storage, and digital connectivity, further constrain uptake. Public extension systems remain under-resourced, while private advisory services may risk excluding marginalised groups. These challenges are compounded by policy and regulatory uncertainty, limited data systems, and weak coordination across sectors. Critically, insecure land tenure undermines incentives for long-term investment in sustainable practices and limits access to credit and other services. Effective scaling requires supportive policies, adequate funding (e.g. for institutional delivery, research and development, and the farmer or end user), infrastructure (e.g. roads, energy, network coverage), and favourable market conditions, which may not be present in low-income, climate-vulnerable countries where food security depends both on the scaling of new innovations as well as low-technology practices.[20],[21],[22],[23]
36. Translation of promising ideas into products that meet user demand requires technical capacity, expertise, and incentives that are generally globally underrepresented in the public sector. However, even in the private sector capacity is often limited and will be deployed only within the most profitable and high priority markets and product lines. Public interventions can bridge some of these barriers, reducing the risks for private sector to take on risky, innovative, high pay-off R&D or move into less profitable markets with greater potential. An example is the development of the Centre for Livestock Vaccine Innovation and Manufacturing at Pirbright; co-funded by FCDO, UKRI-BBSRC and the Gates Foundation to accelerate the development of novel vaccines by the private sector for important and troublesome livestock diseases where conventional vaccines have not been effective.
37. Technology developed in one context may not perform well in others, and de-centralizing technology development requires investment in human and physical capacity as well as in management and innovation systems, including regulatory approval systems, to support the diffusion of ideas and technology into use. In many countries the cost of developing and delivering new technology is prohibitive especially when set against the scale and risk associated with the markets. Lowering the risks and associated costs through cost-sharing, pull-mechanisms or by investing in technical capacity or better regulatory frameworks can incentivise the private sector to invest in new products or markets but support needs careful targeting to avoid gaming of incentives or investment in unsustainable systems. Creating regional markets through standardised regulatory approval processes and regional standards that are more attractive to the private sector can also lower the product deployment risks.
38. Access to finance is a key barrier to technological transition in agriculture. The UK is deploying catalytic public finance to demonstrate how innovative financial mechanisms can unlock and direct more, and better-targeted, private capital into sustainable agriculture and food systems. By supporting mechanisms such as the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance, Aceli Africa, the common fund for Commodities, FASA, and the GAFSP Private Sector Window, the UK is helping to prove the viability of approaches like local currency lending, and performance-based incentives. Through the Climateshot Investor Coalition (CLIC), we also bring together investors to collaborate and test how to direct more climate finance – just 7 percent goes to agriculture despite its major role in driving climate change – to agriculture. By helping overcome barriers to uptake, including limited access to finance, high transaction costs, and weak investment readiness, these tools reduce investor risk and enable agri-SMEs and smallholders to adopt and scale innovative technologies & practices.
39. In the UK, a key financial demand on growing companies is funding access to infrastructure, whether that is building new facilities or paying for open access facilities. To address this, through the Industrial Strategy, the government announced the Engineering biology Scale-Up Infrastructure Programme with an initial £184 million to build and upgrade pilot and scale-up facilities connected to the needs of innovators. Overseas the UK is helping to address infrastructure gaps by supporting agri-SMEs and value chain actors through targeted investments in enabling infrastructure. Through British International Investment, AgDevCo, and the Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders and Agribusiness programme the UK supports the development of post-harvest storage, processing, and distribution systems.
40. Domestically, the UK Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO) addresses regulatory hurdles by focussing on technologies and sectors which have the greatest growth potential to get cutting-edge ideas to the market safely and swiftly such as engineering biology. A £1.4m innovation hub has been created to help build local regulatory capacity and technical expertise at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) with initiatives such as the Engineering Biology Sandbox Fund aiming to accelerate pro-innovation regulatory reform and encourage business innovation and investment - Round 1 delivered £1.6 million to the FSA for a sandbox on cell cultivated products. The Engineering Biology Regulators Network brings together regulators, agencies and policy teams, from across government, to share best practice on pro-innovation regulation, identify common challenges and collaborate on solutions.
41. International trade considerations also play a role in technological transition; divergent regulations on precision breeding and digital technologies could create barriers to market access or innovation. Alignment with key trading partners and international harmonisation of standards will be important to ensure resilience and maintain access to export markets. The Precision Breeding Act sets out a more proportionate and science-based regulatory framework for precision breeding that encourages innovation and enables products to be brought to market more easily. While the Act brings England in line with regulatory approaches adopted by key international partners such as Canada, Japan and Argentina, greater regulatory harmonisation around precision breeding is required to facilitate greater uptake and encourage innovation, particularly for commodity crops that are traded globally.
42. Overseas, the UK promotes policy and regulatory reform, to create the conditions for long-term, inclusive investment in agriculture, including for research and scaling of agricultural innovations. Through the Just Rural Transition programme, the UK supports governments to reform fiscal policies, including subsidies, and to align national strategies with climate, nature, and food system goals. The Global Land Governance Programme strengthens land governance and tenure security, by supporting institutional reform, capacity-building, and responsible investment.

The shape of a future agricultural system that can achieve global food security

43. A future agricultural system that can achieve global food security will need to produce more to meet the demand of a growing global population with changing diets, but on less land, with more efficient resource-use and much lower emissions, whilst protecting nature and adapting to the differential impacts of climate change.  This will require innovation but also effective systems to scale innovation and agri-tech solutions for different contexts, supported by the necessary infrastructure, enabling policy environment and open markets. It will require policy reform to incentivise and facilitate sustainable and efficient resource management across the system. Global action is also needed to facilitate increased public and private investment (including climate finance) into agricultural systems in low-income countries, with the least developed innovation and extension systems, to ensure they can adapt to climate change and scale appropriate innovations to support food security.   

• How innovation across sectors such as energy, transportation, or infrastructure can support agriculture.

44. Agriculture systems must also be underpinned by innovation across multiple sectors, including in energy, transportation, infrastructure, and digital systems. Agriculture is inherently multisectoral: it is the largest global user of freshwater, heavily reliant on energy for irrigation and processing, and dependent on transportation networks to move products. The UK recognises that cross-sectoral approaches are essential to unlock systemic change.
45. UK investments reflect this interdependence. For example, the FCDO’s agriculture partnership with the Shell Foundation and the Transforming Energy Access programme both support early-stage testing and scale-up of clean energy technologies, including solar-powered irrigation, sustainable cold chains, and productive energy use for smallholder farms. The Modern Energy Cooking Services programme complements this by reducing reliance on wood and charcoal, protecting ecosystems critical to food production. The Just Transitions for Water Security programme strengthens governance and investment in sustainable water use across land-based value chains, including in agriculture.

• The impact of technological solutions on inequality between or within countries.

46. Technological innovation in agriculture offers significant potential to reduce inequalities between and within countries, when designed and delivered through inclusive, equitable, and locally led partnerships. The UK’s approach to agricultural innovation is grounded in modern development partnerships with countries that aim to reduce inequality by strengthening local systems, building capacity, and co-developing solutions that enable farmers, institutions and governments to shape and scale technologies that meet their needs. Through research on equitable food systems, gender-sensitive technologies, and participatory approaches, technical expertise, embedded advisory support, and flexible tools, UK support helps partner countries unlock investment, strengthen delivery systems, and scale inclusive innovations.

30 September 2025