Agriculture's Brave New World: Empowering Asia’s farmers in an era of Climate Change

Cherrie Atilano is the Founder and CEO of AGREAAgricultural Systems International, Inc., a for-purpose and inclusive business,that is creating the first replicable one-island economy that is zero hunger,zero waste, and zero insufficiency. Cherrie started teaching farmers at the ageof 12, has 22 years of vast experience in Sustainable Food Systems.

She is aHigh-Level Ambassador of UN Scaling Up Nutrition, Food Systems Champion of theUnited Nations, Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, Board Memberof the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), and the PhilippineAmbassador of Food Security. In 2020, with her leadership in COVID-19 responsefor connecting farmers to consumers - she is named the Best Top Manager inpost-pandemic economy of the APEC Best Award, and champion for UN Women WEPsAward for COVID19 response.

Mark is a Principal Scientist in the AgResearch FarmSystems and Environment Group.  His specialist research area is soil andnutrient management in agricultural systems with an emphasis on decreasedenvironmental impact. As a result of over 30 years of research, development andextension activity in this topic, he has a good grounding in the issues, andlegislation, relating to agri-environmental interactions, firstly in the UK(particularly the Nitrates and the Water Framework Directives) and now in NewZealand. Mark leads one of Agresearch’s key research programmes on ‘DigitalAgriculture’.  This investigates how new and emerging technologies couldenable the transformation of food production systems to address globalchallenges of sustainably supplying safe, nutritious food to a growing populationin a world with an increasingly volatile climate.

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PaulNicholson – Vice President and Head of Rice Sustainability and Research forOlam International Ltd. Prior to Olam, Paul began his career at theInternational Monetary Fund as a Senior Commodities analyst where he waspublished regularly in the World Economic Outlook. After the IMF, Paul was theExecutive Director and General Counsel of the Texas State Pension Review Board,an agency with fiduciary oversight of 400+ Pensions worth over US$200 Bn, and then the Global Head of Commodity Research at Kraft Foods where his teamsupported the hedging, accounting, and contracting of US$13Bn of globalcommodity exposures.

With Olam, Paul has established Sustainabilityprojects in India, Thailand, and Vietnam with more than 15,000 farmers in thenetwork receiving training and support with commitments to reach 50,000 inthree years. He has a wife and two children.

Chrisbegan his career in Federal and State politics in Australia, working forvarious elected representatives, including the Premier of South Australia.Subsequently, he worked extensively in the private sector in external affairsand communications, most recently with PepsiCo in Asia Pacific. Earlier thisyear, Chris joined Syngenta as Head of Business Sustainability for AsiaPacific.

In this role, he is responsible for shaping and implementing thecompany’s sustainability strategy in the region. As a champion for Syngenta’sGood Growth Plan, Chris is responsible for developing strategic partnershipsand community engagement with NGOs, value chain players, farmers and foodcompanies with the objective of delivering sustainable agriculture outcomes forall stakeholders.

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Junice is Eco-Business' Acting Executive Director, and Director for Greater China, based in Beijing and head of Eco-Business's consulting practice.

She was previously the Director for Southeast Asia at global sustainability advisory, Corporate Citizenship, where she worked with Asian-based corporations, governments and non-profits on strategic environment and social issues.

Junice is no stranger to China. She started her career in Shanghai with French consumer goods multinational, Danone. She returned to China again in 2011, where she was appointed by Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City (SSTEC) to be responsible for the marketing and communications of the bilateral project driving sustainable urbanisation. Prior to that, she spent four years as Deputy Head for the Switzerland's State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) based in the Embassy of Switzerland in Singapore, helping Swiss companies, particularly in the cleantech and sustainable architecture industries - invest into Southeast Asia.

A certified trainer under the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)'s GRI Standards, Junice has trained over 200 individuals on sustainability reporting. She has also trained community specialists on social impact measurement.

As a mother of two young kids, Junice has genuine concerns about their immediate futures in an era of imminent climate change. Besides brushing up on her Mandarin, Junice is committed to helping businesses in China bridge knowledge, ideas and understanding on sustaining our planet for generations to come.

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