After becoming one of the top three wheat exporters in 2008, Russia is now determined to play a pivotal role in the flow of worldwide agriculture markets. Russian Federation’s President Dmitry Medvedev has proposed closer coordination between global grain exporters and said, “excessive protectionism had encouraged speculation in global grain markets,” during the World Grain Forum which took place over the weekend in Saint-Petersburg. This challenge was spurred in part by the number of people globally  who are stricken with extreme starvation: 1 billion.

Russia is also the second largest oil supplier and intends to get into the biofuels game. However, Medvedev said to the more than 1,000 forum attendees that the country would only support sustainable fuels developed from non-food sources.

“The technology now exists and we think the world community has to find a compromise between the issues of energy and food security,” Medvedev said in Rueters’ article Kremlin urges grain exporters to tackle world hunger. “The growth of biofuels should not become a reason for a growing deficit of food grain.” The country plans on more than doubling its agriculture land and production over the next few years.

Syngenta Chief Operating Office Crop Protection, John Atkin was also a speaker during the World Grain Forum and during his presentation emphasized the critical role of technology in meeting current and future global food needs.

“The world must work together, Atkin said, “to accelerate technology adoption. We could already realize significant yield
potential within the next three years by comprehensively deploying existing technologies.”