Organized with the High blessing of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, the 2023 solemn plenary session is attended by members of the Academy and eminent scientific guests, from Morocco and abroad, who will lead the proceedings of the various sessions, including Brazil, France, China, Canada and FAO.
The topic selected for this session, which continues until February 23, is particularly relevant to Moroccan agriculture, which is part of a long history, punctuated by successive innovations and adaptations whose pace has accelerated in recent decades, and which now raises various concerns (economic, social, scientific, cultural and environmental) particularly because of climate change and the problem of natural resources (water, soil and biodiversity).
As such, mobilizing all the possibilities offered by scientific and technological progress is imperative, whether it is the digital revolution likely to provide real services through the exploitation of numerous and varied data increasingly, the development of artificial intelligence, the significant advances in the field of biotechnology, especially to preserve biological diversity, or to proceed with the genetic improvement of edible plants and livestock.
In a speech, the Permanent Secretary of the Academy, Omar Fassi-Fehri said that with the surge in world food prices triggered by the destructuring of supply chains, due to the Covid-19 pandemi and amplified by the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on markets, the concepts of food security and food sovereignty are at the heart of questions that humanity is asking everywhere on the planet.
Faced with various hazards, including the degradation of land and water resources and the impact of climate change, the Kingdom must anticipate and act without delay, he stressed, noting that it needs a strategy that has as a starting point the identification of options and opportunities for action.
