At the RIO+AGRO 2025 conference in Rio de Janeiro, October 2025, Dr. Florian Kongoli, President of FLOGEN Stars Outreach and a renowned scientist in the field of sustainability, delivered the keynote lecture titled “The Revolutionary Role of Artificial Intelligence and Automation in Sustainable Agroeconomy.” Addressing an audience of experts and policymakers, he argued that artificial intelligence (AI) and automation—often viewed with suspicion as threats to employment or economic balance—are, in fact, powerful tools to positively transform global agriculture. According to Kongoli, these technologies enable the optimization of water, soil, and fertilizer use, the reduction of production costs, the increase of crop yields, and the improvement of human well-being by freeing people from repetitive tasks to focus on innovation and creativity.

To assess their true sustainability, Dr. Kongoli relies on his FLOGEN Sustainability Framework, a model he developed in 2015 based on three core criteria — economic development, environmental protection, and social progress — which must be fulfilled simultaneously, supported by three pillars: science and technology, governance and law, and civil society and industrial practice. This framework was officially adopted in 2024 as a constitutional law by the municipality of Nova Friburgo, Brazil, making it the first city in the world to legally require that every strategic or operational project be evaluated according to these sustainability criteria before approval.

Using historical and empirical evidence, including the example of the Green Revolution, Kongoli demonstrated that scientific and technological progress—particularly automation—has consistently allowed global food production to grow faster than the human population, disproving long-standing predictions of mass famine since Malthus. He concluded that the future of agriculture depends on the wise integration of AI as a tool capable of measuring, predicting, and optimizing every process, thus creating a sustainable, efficient, and human-centered agriculture built on knowledge, balance, and responsibility.

Keynote Lecture by Dr. Florian Kongoli, President of FLOGEN Stars Outreach, delivering a presentation to participants at the Rio+Agro, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 2025.