Access to safe water is a fundamental human need. Water is a precious and finite resource and population is on the increase.  How can we feed an additional 2 billion people and manage water consumption in a sustainable way? Strategies to bring safe water to more people, to develop systems for more sustainable water use by industry and agriculture, and to develop crops that cope water scarcity will be examined.

Food is a universal right. How can we deal with exponentially growing demands for food and animal feed? How can we produce more food on less arable land, under more challenging environmental conditions? In this session strategies will be discussed to produce healthy, safe and sufficient food, to improve plant productivity and quality, and to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture.

Future geopolitical scenarios will be defined by inequalities in food and water availability. It is necessary to understand these problems from a historical perspective and face the ethical and political issues related to them, with the ambitious aim of eradicating poverty and hunger in the world.