Speaker: Dr. Zhongxin Chen – Digital FAO and Agro-informatics Division, The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Agri-food systems serve as the bedrock and critical support for human society’s prosperity and sustainability. However, the confluence of an ever-growing population, climate change, and resource scarcity presents formidable challenges to these systems. Simultaneously, the ongoing digital transformation is exerting profound impacts across various socio-economic sectors. Digital technologies, including GIS, remote sensing, and artificial intelligence, hold immense promise for enhancing the productivity, profitability, and sustainability of agri-food systems. Moreover, they play a pivotal role in advancing the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As a specialized UN agency dedicated to agri-food systems, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has spearheaded numerous applications and innovations in geospatial information technologies. In this seminar, the speaker will delve into FAO’s projects and activities that leverage GIS and remote sensing to address the challenges posed by digital transformation in agri-food systems. Additionally, the discussion will explore perspectives and highlight current hot topics related to geospatial applications within this crucial domain.
Dr. Zhongxin Chen is a Senior IT Officer at Digital FAO and Agro-informatics Division at United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). Now he is leading Agro-informatics team and activities, the agricultural applications of cutting-edge information technologies including geospatial IT and artificial intelligence. He is Co-Chair of the Geo-AI Working Group of UN Open GIS since 2020. He is also vice-chair of FAO-ITU Joint Focus Group on "Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) for Digital Agriculture" (FG-AI4A). He has engaged in promoting agriculture benefit using data science, AI, geospatial IT including remote sensing and GIS since 1999. His main interests and achievements are in agricultural digitalization, agricultural geospatial information platform and infrastructure, IT applications development, agro-informatics, and digital public goods. He has been PI for more than 50 national, ministerial and international research and applications projects. He has published more than 200 papers, books, book chapters, and reports. He was honored ‘National Outstanding Agronomist’ by the Ministry of Agriculture of China in 2015. He has also been honored in three National Science and Technology Advance Awards from Chinese Government (2012, 2014 and 2016) and one Newton Prize from UK Government (2019).
