bal agri-food systems are under immense pressure. The world’s population is estimated to increaseto almost 10 billion people by 2050 and feeding it would require increasing current foodproduction by 59–98 percent. Agriculture accounts for more than 70 percent of the global freshwateruse, about half of which gets wasted. Globally, about a third of the food produced gets lost of wasted.Agriculture is a major contributor to the climate crisis and is also impacted by it—particularly in developingcountries. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected the most vulnerablestakeholders, including smallholder farmers worldwide, and has put a spotlight on the severalsystemic issues in the sector.