The Alliance at Brussels Climate Week

Agriculture and food systems sit at the intersection of climate action, nature restoration and economic resilience. This Nature Day session will explore approaches ranging from regenerative and smart agriculture and land restoration to water resilience, traceability, digital solutions and financing for sustainable and resilient food systems.

The session will bring together perspectives from European institutions and other actors working across agriculture, land use and food systems.

Organised by: Brussels Climate Week

Visit the Alliance at the Nature Day Expo to discover how crop diversity and science can contribute to food security, resilience and more sustainable value chains.

The booth will feature two Alliance initiatives during the day.

Part/Focus 1: Conserving banana diversity for the future (09:00-12:30)

The International Musa Germplasm Transit Centre, hosted at KU Leuven in Belgium, holds the world's largest collection of banana germplasm, with more than 1,700 accessions of edible and wild banana species.

The exhibition will introduce how this global collection conserves banana diversity and makes it available for research and future use. It will also show why crop diversity matters for responding to pests and diseases, climate stress and changing production conditions, and for strengthening the long-term resilience of banana production.

Part 2: From cacao diversity to quality and market recognition (14:00-17:30)

Cacao of Excellence, led by the Alliance, works to recognize cacao quality and flavour diversity while strengthening producer knowledge, visibility and opportunities in higher-value markets.

The exhibition will show how science, quality assessment, standards and market recognition can help translate cacao diversity into value for producers and the wider sector, connecting biodiversity conservation with more sustainable and inclusive cacao value chains.

Opening reflections will set the context for the day and examine the role of science, partnerships and investment in building more resilient, diverse and sustainable food and land systems.

Soils across regions are under increasing pressure from degradation, erosion, declining fertility, climate shocks, rising input costs and fertilizer dependency.

This session will take a comparative perspective across Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia, examining how soil health approaches can move beyond fragmented evidence and isolated pilots. The discussion will consider what is needed to adapt, finance and scale effective solutions across different farming systems and policy contexts.

Opportunity crops can contribute to more resilient, diversified and lower-input food systems while supporting healthier diets, farmer livelihoods and local market opportunities.

The session will examine what is needed to move beyond small-scale initiatives by better connecting crop diversity with farmer knowledge, seed systems, processing, consumer demand, private sector engagement and investment. It will also look at how policy and research can help create the conditions for these crops to reach wider markets and contribute to more diverse food systems.

Deforestation-free value chains are increasingly important for climate, biodiversity, trade and smallholder inclusion. Effective implementation requires more than compliance: it depends on systems that are credible, practical and useful for producers, companies and producing countries.

This session will explore how data, mapping, traceability and digital tools can support implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation while creating value beyond compliance. The discussion will consider data governance, climate-risk information, tree-based production systems and producer incentives, and identify where further collaboration is needed across science, policy and value chains.

Smallholder farmers manage a significant share of the world's agricultural landscapes and are central to climate, biodiversity and food security goals, yet they remain underserved by many financial systems.

Led by ImpactSF, his session will explore how science and evidence can help reduce investment risk, identify nature-positive opportunities and strengthen the case for investment in smallholder agriculture and landscapes. It will consider how financial institutions, researchers and implementation partners can work together to channel more capital towards solutions that deliver measurable benefits for nature and livelihoods.

Moving an agrifood innovation from research or pilot stage to widespread use requires more than a promising technology. Validation, market readiness, financing, partnerships and clear adoption pathways all influence whether an innovation can scale.

Led by the Accelerate for Impact Platform (A4IP), this session will bring together perspectives from research organizations, startups, investors, industry, public actors and innovation intermediaries. It will examine barriers to scaling science-based agritech and explore how stronger links between research, entrepreneurship, markets and finance can help innovations reach farmers and other end users.

The Forum will close with reflections on the main issues emerging from the day and opportunities for further collaboration across science, policy, finance and implementation.

An informal opportunity to continue discussions and connect with speakers, participants and partners from across the day's sessions.