Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction

Building a better future: Sustainable (and Resilient) intensification the key to

food securityAndrew Noble

May 2014

Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction

Challenges to the global food system

Population growth and

demographic change

Rising average incomes

Resource competition and scarcity

Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction

Challenges to the global food systemNeed to

reduce GHG emissions

Environmental change

Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction

We need to change the way we do Agriculture that builds

Resilience into our food systems

Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction

How will we feed the Future?Addressing a ‘wicked problem’ will require

behavioral changes by all of us.

Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction

We need a food revolution!

We need to shift from productivity enhancement while reducing environmental impacts

Sustainable governance and management of ecosystems, natural resources and Earth system

processes at large, provides the basis for practical solutions towards a sustainable resilient agriculture.

Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction

CGIAR Research Program on Water Land and Ecosystem (WLE) Vision:

A world in which agriculture thrives within vibrant ecosystems, where communities have higher incomes,

improved food security and the ability to continuously improve their lives

Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction

How will we achieve this?Sustainably Increasing Land and Water

Productivity;

Regenerating Degraded Agricultural Ecosystems;

Recovering and Reusing Resources in Urbanizing Ecosystems;

Managing Resource Variability and Competing Uses;

Strengthening Decision Analysis and Information Systems

Gender and Equity

Ecos

yste

m S

ervi

ces

and

Resi

lienc

e

Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction

Big problems demand innovative solutions and thinking . . .

What if salinized lands could be turned back into production?

What if waste and used water could have a second life for agriculture?

What if famers in Africa could farm all year around?

What if water could be stored after floods and used during droughts?

Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction

We have the technologies that will contribute to sustainable agricultural intensification

Projected impacts of alternative agricultural technologies on global harvested areas for maize, rice and wheat in 2050. (Ringler et al., 2014; IFPRI).

Recovering and reusing resources

Urbanization offers opportunities in recovering nutrients and water at scale.

Technical knowledge is available to safely utilize these valuable wastes – however there is a need to bring this to scale.

Focus of Research: Development of viable business models that can be taken to scale through engagement with the private sector, public-private partnerships, and business schools.

Faecal sludge Nutrients for agricultural production

Take Home Messages• There are no magic bullets

or quick fixes to the challenges we face with respect to global food security.

• It will require greater perseverance, significant human behavioral change, hard decisions and choices, and political will.

• It will require everyone to change.

Uniting agriculture and nature for poverty reduction

Thank YouA month of

Resilience on the Blog

wle.cgiar.org

wle.cgiar.org/

blogs