Q&A: Objective science news needed now more than ever

By: Fiona Broom

The need for objective coverage of science is greater now than ever before, according to Daniel Elger, who took over last month as the chief executive of the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI, theparent organisationofSciDev.Net）。

Elger说科学新闻是至关重要的,这样走od science could rise above a public discourse where “little premium” was put on facts.

“That’s important in itself, but it is also important if good science is going to rise above appearing to just be another opinion in this new public landscape, where little premium is put on facts and people aren’t necessarily questioning the veracity of evidence,” he toldSciDev.Netin a wide-ranging interview as he started his tenure at the head of the intergovernmental organisation.

As well asSciDev.Net, CABI also runs programmes such asPlantwise, a global network of plant clinics, and producesCABI Agriculture and Bioscience，由同行评审的跨学科研究杂志着重于beplay下载官网西西软件,food security, and thebeplay足球体育的微博。

What are the urgent issues facing agriculture and biosciences?

The first obvious one is food security. With 800 million people undernourished worldwide, the adverse effects of新冠肺炎, and more broadly looking ahead to a need to feed 10 billion people by 2050 — that’s clearly one of the big challenges. The smallholderfarmerswho run more than 500 million small farms worldwide are going to be absolutely critical. CABI is focussed on the fact that around 40 per cent of crops grown worldwide are lost to pests and diseases, we have the mantra that we’re seeking to support smallholder farmers in growing more and losing less [to crop pests and diseases].

Food security is quite a complex issue, it’s a much bigger issue than just the supply of food,per se。If women farmers have access to the same resources as men, among smallholder farmers in particular, that would immediatelyreduce the number of hungry people worldwideby 150 million or so, which gives you an idea of some of the important social dimensions beyond food production.

“很多我们想做的项目mes now, in the next phase, is to work towards being able to predict the threats to the productivity and livelihoods of smallholder farmers.”

Daniel Elger, chief executive, CABI

After habitat loss, invasive species are actually the biggest threat tobiodiversityworldwide, and are reckoned to cost the world economy about US$1.4 trillion every year. [CABI has] had a long tradition of working in the area of invasive species, we’ve got our对入侵者的行动计划研究利用自然敌人并为入侵物种开发生物控制。

What shape will CABI research take over the next five years? How will your background and experience drive the direction of this research?

我是一个完全转换为价值的innovation在产生可以积极影响人们生活的变革中。我已经看到，在我在医疗保健领域的前职业中实践中。我认为我们保持对创新的承诺非常重要。

When we think about the science base of the organisation now, we think about both natural sciences and social sciences, because so much of what we are trying to do is to achieve impact not only at the level of farmers being able to grow more crops and improve their productivity, but embedding that in positive broader social change, particularly in some of the really important, cross-cutting themes —气候,性别equity, and other themes that are crucial to our member countries.

我们希望更多地依赖数字方法。A lot of what we’re trying to do with the programmes now, in the next phase, is to work towards being able to predict the threats to the productivity and livelihoods of smallholder farmers, and put preventative measures in place for when threats do manifest. A lot of theresearch将围绕最佳实现这一目标的方法。

You’ve joined the organisation during a pandemic; it’s a weird time with immense logistical challenges. How will you get to know the issues that face CABI’s member countries if global travel restrictions continue or field work is not possible?

无论如何，这种[数字]趋势正在发生，Covid-19的情况已经加快了这一趋势，并为能够使用数字渠道吸引人们而增加了更多的溢价。对于像我们这样拥有50个成员国的组织，非常重要的是，我们与这些成员国及其在所做的一切中保持密切联系，因此我们当然将数字方法带到了更多的方面。沟通and in making sure that we’re staying engaged with what’s happening on the ground.

We do have the advantage that we are increasingly a decentralised organisation, so around half of our overall team work in the global South. That’s allowed us to function more effectively than if we were trying to do things on a very centralised basis.

We’ve seen a big increase this year in the use of a lot of our数字资源。Some of what we do in the field has been affected, because it relies on direct contact with our stakeholders and the smallholder farmers that we’re working with. But, we have managed to carry on a very significant part of our overall work and supplemented that with digital channels.

CABI’s mission is to make knowledge useful, to improve lives in the global South. What are some of the barriers that are stopping science from being accessible and usable, and how can access models be improved?

这不仅与可用的研究有关，而且还关乎该研究的形式。我们试图使全球南方人士，特别是小农户的人们提供研究的产出。在许多国家 /地区，获得[农业信息]扩展服务的访问非常有限。beplay下载官网西西软件Programmes like Plantwise，在人们能够直接和以不受扫盲考虑影响不利的形式获得最佳实践知识和专业知识的地方 - 这很重要。

Part of the attraction of digital approaches is that they can be targeted. Some of the groups who often have less access to research knowledge can be reached — digital approaches can be intrinsically quite attractive to youth, and youth are often marginalised or less targeted in conventional extension approaches. We can develop approaches that specifically target the needs of women, who again may not be well reached by other channels.

We’re committed to open access printables — we’ve just launched anew open access journal。We’ve also done a lot of work on access to data. There’s a lot of emphasis on South-South transfer of data and technology and on triangular cooperation, which have come to the fore in recent years.

Reliable information can be hard to come by in the ‘缺乏流行’这是在这个大流行期间发展的。科学新闻的角色是什么，您认为科学新闻格局正在发生变化？

回去，更广泛地思考，令人难以置信的是，在过去十年左右的时间里，在公共话语中，对基于证据和理性的方法的整个概念面临着如此巨大的挑战policymakingand to how we should think about the world, which I think is quite shocking in many respects. The need for objective coverage of science news is probably greater now than it has been ever — that’s not just about covering scientific developments and breakthroughs, it’s also vital that there are good sources that bring to public attention the scientific method, given the challenges to a rational view of the world.

It’s really important thatjournalismis critical and looks at the biases and the broader framework that impacts what questions we’re asking in science, who’s asking the questions, and how that science is being conducted. That’s important in itself, but it is also important if good science is going to rise above appearing to just be another opinion in this new public landscape, where little premium is put on facts and people aren’t necessarily questioning the veracity of evidence.

SciDev.Net显然起着出色的作用，特别好SciDev.Netprovides more exposure for stories about scientific and technological innovations that originate from the global South. I’ve been enjoying theAfrica Science Focus最近几周的播客系列 - 这是整个科学技术领域，其他媒体常常被忽略。

We need to find people that have that skill of translating science in a way that the public can appreciate and understand and engage with. It all helps to aid the advancement of a rational discourse about scientific developments.

This article was produced by SciDev.net's Global edition.