Agricultural technology for sustainable development A/RES/72/215 17 to 20 October 2016, 15 and acknowledging the positive transformative potential of strengthened urban-rural linkages and urban farming in achieving sustainable development, Welcoming also the United Nations strategic plan for forests 2017–2030, 16 and acknowledging that forests provide essential ecosystem services, such as timber, food, fuel, fodder, non-wood products and shelter, as well as soil and water conservat ion and clean air, and that forests prevent land degradation and desertification and reduce the risk of floods, landslides and avalanches, droughts, dust and sand storms and other disasters, Recognizing that agricultural technology has a beneficial impact on and an important role in the successful implementation of the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Recognizing also that agricultural technologies have improved the productivity of agriculture and enhanced the sustainability and resilience of food production systems at the local level, Recognizing further that the agriculture sector is inextricably linked with the entire food system and that agricultural technologies can add value throughout the food system by improving the sustainability of storage, transport, trade, processing, transformation, retail, waste reduction and recycling, as well as interactions among these processes, Stressing the crucial role of women in the agricultural sector and their contribution to enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and nutrition and eradicating rural poverty, and underlining the fact that meaningful progress in agricultural development necessitates, inter alia, closing the gender gap, introducing appropriate gender-responsive interventions at all stages in agricultural innovation processes, including at the policy level, and ensuring that women have equal access to agricultural technologies, related services and inputs and all necessary productive resources, including tenure rights and access to land, fisheries and forests, as well as to affordable education and training, social services, social protection, health care, health services and financial services, and access to and participation in local, regional and international markets, Recognizing that young people play a significant role in supporting sustainable economic growth and that agricultural technology has an essential role to play in facilitating access to agricultural skills for young women and men, improving the livelihoods of youth and securing the prohibition and elimination of t he worst forms of child labour, Recognizing also the rapid evolution in science and technological innovation, and that the development and open access to mega data and information will bring about profound changes in agricultural research, agricultural e xtension and rural development, Noting that sustainable agricultural technology, as well as technological, social, economic and institutional innovations that build on the knowledge and capacities and respond to the needs and realities of smallholders and family farmers, in particular women and youth in rural areas, can contribute to their transition from subsistence farming to innovative, commercial production, helping them to increase their own food security and nutrition, generate marketable surpluses and add value to their production, __________________ 15 16 17-23284 Resolution 71/256, annex. See resolution 71/285. 3/7