FAO honours global network that includes SLU's research farms
The Global Farm Platform (GFP), a network of research farms on six continents, has received prestigious technical recognition from the UN agency FAO. The farms, three of which are at SLU, contribute to more sustainable livestock production through experiments and demonstrations.
The award was presented on 15 October 2025 during a ceremony at FAO Headquarters in Rome, Italy, as part of the organisation’s 80th anniversary celebration and the World Food Forum. The citation recognised the GFP’s innovative approach, which connects cutting-edge research with real-world farming practices to advance global food security, sustainable development, and agrifood systems transformation.
“This is of course only symbolic, but the fact that our animal research farms are part of this fine network is fantastic,” says SLU's representative in the platform's steering group, Mårten Hetta, a researcher in ruminant nutrition. “And we have already had a researcher who wants to come to SLU because of this membership.”
The Global Farm Platform is a pioneering collaborative network of around twenty experimental farms on six continents. The research farms act as model farms and regional hubs for experiments and demonstrations, while commercial farms and smallholders adopt and disseminate locally relevant, economically viable, and environmentally sustainable practices. This model ensures scalable solutions tailored to diverse farming communities worldwide, from smallholder systems in Malawi to dairy farms in the UK.
“This FAO recognition reinforces the Global Farm Platform’s role as a global leader in sustainable livestock transformation,” said GFP Chair, Dr Jordana Rivero (Promar International and Rothamsted Research) in a press release. “We aim to foster collaboration across continents, empowering farmers, researchers, and policymakers with innovative, scalable solutions that tackle climate change, biodiversity loss, and food security whilst advancing One Health principles.”
“At SLU's research farms, Lövsta, Röbäcksdalen and Götala, we have initiated several innovative projects that aim to break the trend towards increasingly geographically separated animal husbandry and crop production in Sweden,” says Mårten Hetta. “Two examples are the Blandskap and Mulcropa projects”.
Contact at SLU
Mårten Hetta, Researcher
Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Telephone: +46 90 7868747, +46 70 5898355
E-mail: marten.hetta@slu.se