"The world is facing a barrage of shocks". Director General and applied agricultural economist Shenggen Fan of International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) was one of the keynote speakers of this year’s Tropentag 2015. This was the striking statement he mentioned on his talk. Refugees and humanitarian assistance of Syria, persistent conflicts, food insecurity, water stresses, land degradation, and agriculture-related risks to health were few of the highlights. He also emphasized the key role of social capital and the importance of investing into efficiency. He ended his talk by their Compact 2025 i.e. to support knowledge and innovation to pave the way to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), to anchor the the post-2015 agenda and a hope to end hunger and malnutrition by 2025. Our feature video of Shenggen Fan together with Brave Ndisale is coming soon! He has been with IFPRI since 1995.