Recently, the finals of the 2024 Youth Hackathon for Urban Agriculture were successfully held in Beijing. Co-hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), this event, as a flagship activity of the FAO-CAAS Innovation Platform, focused on "Urban Agriculture." It aimed to inspire youth innovation, promote sustainable urban and peri-urban agriculture, and contribute to global food security and urban resilience.

Following the success of the "Food Loss Reduction" and "Green Low-Carbon Agriculture" hackathon in 2022 and 2023, this year’s competition continued the spirit of innovation, attracting talented young agricultural innovators from around the world. After intense competition, 12 teams advanced to the finals to compete for the top three prizes under the themes of "New Technology, New Pattern, and New Service."

In his opening remarks, FAO’s Interim Representative to China, Vinod Saighal, highlighted the challenges posed by rapid urbanization, including increasing disasters and climate risks, which expose the vulnerabilities of urban food systems. He emphasized the urgent need for innovative solutions and recognized the potential of the 12 finalist teams in providing new perspectives for building resilient urban agriculture. Saighal reaffirmed FAO’s commitment to fostering youth innovation and encouraged young people to propose actionable solutions to address global agricultural and food system challenges.

The jury for the finals comprised distinguished experts, including Levite Herve, Senior Urban Bioeconomy Specialist at FAO’s Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity, and Environment; Qian Yu, Deputy Director General of the Department of International Cooperation; Yang Qichang, Academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences and Chief Scientist at the CAAS Institute of Urban Agriculture; Adrian Gutierrez, Science and Technology Counselor and Chief Representative of CDTI at the Embassy of Spain in China; and Yang Runxin, Vice President of K2VC. The panel commended the teams' outstanding performance and expressed optimism that their innovative solutions would significantly impact the future of urban agriculture.