A new Global Initiative on AI for Food Systems launched at the AI for Good Global Summit 2025 aims to ensure that artificial intelligence (AI) helps boost productivity, resilience, and global food security.
The initiative is led by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP), and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
“Through shared digital infrastructure, pilot projects and standards, we aim to empower governments and innovators to deliver real-world impact for resilient food systems,” said Seizo Onoe, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau.
“The outputs of this initiative will also feed into key ITU standardization workstreams, ensuring relevance and adoption at scale,” added Onoe.
It will keep up the momentum created by the ITU-FAO Focus Group on AI and Internet of Things for Digital Agriculture.
“With this initiative, we will continue our journey and make discrimination-free and open interoperability a reality in agriculture,” said the focus group’s Chair, Sebastian Sebastian Bosse, Head of Interactive and Cognitive System at ITU member Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute.
The initiative welcomes all experts and stakeholders. Interested in contributing? Contact the secretariat.
Urgent need for transformation
Over 700 million people struggle with hunger, according to FAO.
“We share a common sense of urgency,” said Dejan Jakovljevic, Director of the Digital FAO and Agro-Informatics Division.
“We see AI as one of the key enablers, but also accelerators, where we see agri-food systems that need to be transformed.”
While food security is a multi-dimensional problem, the research led by the initiative could help standards provide common platforms essential to all innovators, said Jakovljevic.
“We see horizontal issues around standardization, horizontal issues around structuring the framework on how to use AI, and responsibly, and in particular around reference architectures.”
WFP’s digital strategies are targeted at ensuring food reaches the people most in need.
“Innovations like AI are a strategic imperative,” said the agency’s Chief Data Officer, Magan Naidoo, citing WFP’s experience in tackling some of the world’s most complex situations.
“We see immense potential in AI to solve logistics challenges, as well as to build resilience into agriculture and food systems.”
Going the extra mile
IFAD – the United Nations specialized agency and international financial institution that drives rural investment to end hunger – supports governments with finance and expertise to transform lives in rural areas.
“Governments who have the right policies in place will be much more effective,” said Pieternel Boogaard, Managing Director of Technical Delivery at IFAD.
“With technology, we can now reach and connect people in remote areas where 80% of people are smallholders – people who produce one-third of the world’s food.”
Smallholder farmers, she added, are often the least connected, capitalized, and visible in global innovation systems. “In other words, they have hardly any external support.”
According to Boogaard, food security solutions based on AI must be designed with and for farmers, integrated into public systems, and supported by sustainable finance.
“Innovations will only make a difference at scale if they actually reach the last mile,” she said. “And that’s why this initiative matters.”
Source: https://www.itu.int/hub/2025/07/join-the-global-drive-to-ensure-ai-supports-food-security/
