science priorities for sustainable agriculture · 3/30/2011 · feeding the planet is a global...

1Future of Global Food and Farming 30 March 2011, Brussels

Science Priorities for Sustainable Agriculture

Adapted from MA

Future of Global Food and FarmingHow can Science support food security?30 March 2011- Charlemagne Building, Brussels

Leen HORDIJK

Director, Institute for Environment and Sustainability


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Food Security is not only about food supply. It involves three other dimensions: access, utilisation, stability

•

Many socio-economic issues: Livelihood, nutrition, heath, stability, land tenure, governance and policies

•

Food security has very different meanings-

For Europe/ the North

-

For “emerging”

countries-

For the most food insecure developing countries where more than 1 billion persons are chronically food insecure, most of them in rural areas.

A very challenging issue (1)


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Agriculture is now back on the top of Food Security / Development Policies

•

But Agriculture is also on many global agendas: Climate change (adaptation and mitigation) Energy / Biofuels Greenhouse gas emissionCarbon - REDD++Environment, Biodiversity ….

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All these agendas are closely and complexly inter- related, at different levels and time scales

A very challenging issue (2)


Review of the Top 100 questions (Perry et al., 2010)•

Section 1 Natural resources inputs 33 questions

Climate and Water, Soil, Biodiversity, Energy and CC resilience•

Section 2 Agronomic practices 25 questionsCrop production, Crop genetic, Pest and disease, Livestock

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Section 3 Agricultural development 20 questionsSocial gender and extension, Dev livelihoods, Gov policy and investment

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Section 4 Market and consumption 22 questions Food supply chain, Price market and trade, consumption and health

No shopping list but selected strategic issues

Overall priorities


Seven priorities

� Reference data for analysis� Accounting tools –

monetary, entropy

� Holistic management of problems and solutions

� Transition between technical and economic perspectives

� Increasing production –

setting the frame� Resources –

finite supplies

� Reducing waste –

post-harvest loss


Reference data for modelling

•

Feeding the planet is a global issue-

But we have no harmonized tools for monitoring

-

A global monitoring program is required -

“A key step towards making agriculture sustainable is evaluating the effects of different farming systems around the world”

(Sachs et al. 2010)

•

We have insufficient or not up-to- date information on farming

systems-

e.g. CAPRI uses 2002 data

-

Can we extrapolate 50 years using decade-old data ?

-

Do we have enough knowledge / understanding of the present dynamics?


How to assess efficiency and productivity ?

•

Agriculture is a way to domesticate photosynthesis to capture solar energy /carbon and produce some of our needs (4 Fs: Food, Feed, Fuel, Fiber)

•

Traditional optimization modeled in economic terms (euros & dollars) for maximization of profit, return on investments, etc-

But how can we account for externalities (erosion, leaching, water pollution, etc)?

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Or for other ecosystem services (biodiversity, carbon, landscape)?

•

What are the alternative / complementary metrics and standards to assess productivity and compare farming systems in other terms: Energy efficiency ? Carbon print? Water use efficiency? Overall entropy … ?


Holistic management – soil, water

•

Integrated or holistic farm management long recognised as essential to sustainable practice

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Soils and water are two key resources needing integrated management

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Holistic approach must also integrate farm-regional-global scales


From technical solutions to economic understanding

The success and limits of green revolution shows us•

That technology is only part of the answer-

It need to be integrated within farming practice and whole-farm management & economy (resources, inputs, labour, calendar)

-

optimised according to farm typologies (size, equipment, production orientation) and environment (soil, climate)

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taking into account socio economic conditions (land tenure etc.)

•

That increasing production doesn’t solve by itself food security-

If market structures / storage capacity are not appropriate

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If livelihood (access to food) is not sustainably increased at the level of producers or consumers (urban)

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If increase of mean productivity doesn’t ensure the minimum food supply

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Need of targeting pro-poor development programs, increasing also assets and resilience of small farmers and households


Increasing productivity by 70%

•

FAO estimates 70% by 2050 required-

~1% compound growth: last 40 years tells us this is achievable

•

How and where to do it ? •

“Horizontal”

// “vertical”

growth

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With the highest sustainable gain (and the lowest environment print)

•

What are the technical preconditions and Policy framework required?•

Need strong innovation programs (testing at farm level, dissemination)

•

Create favourable conditions for adoption by farmers and investment•

Increasing price stability; market infrastructure and storage

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Secure access to land (land tenure)•

Risk mitigation (e.g. insurance)


Sustainability of inputs

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N, P finite resources-

N: because of energy requirement; energy itself will pose a challenge to all production targets

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P: key reserves being depleted –

peak production forecast 2030 to 2040

•

Assuming no technical change or adaptation, agriculture as we know it -

is clearly unsustainable

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as well as potentially very damaging for the environment


•

Post harvest losses (occurring from harvest to local market including on farm storage) can represent more than 20% of the harvest in Africa

•

The JRC’s

APHLIS developed by NRI (Natural Resources Institute) UK in relation with FAO, provides scientific information on the amount of losses and the main factors in play …

Post Harvest losses?

Source FAO WFP


The African Post Harvest losses Info system

Postharvest Losses Information System

APHLIS site: www.aphlis.net

•

Post harvest losses and Food Security are affected by poor drying (meteo conditions at harvest), winnowing or threshing techniques, and mainly by type of granary, duration of on-farm-storage and infestation by large-grain-borer (a pest spreading in East Africa)

•

A second phase will allow extension to whole sub Saharan Africa,

the development of standard assessment methods ( field manual)


•

The challenge needs huge scientific investment, international and multi-disciplinary collaboration

•

Breaking the silo between teams and bridging the traditional “cultural”

divide between disciplines

Agriculture is part of the solution and not only the problem •

There are no technological “magic”

or turn-key solutions –

instead,

many elements contribute to a solution•

The innovation process needs a lot of work and time to disseminate / implement the research results adapted to specific

environment / socio-economic contexts

Conclusions 1


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The sustainable adoption by farmers needs a whole favourable environment

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Rather stable prices are better than high volatility

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Critical for small subsistence households who need first to secure minimum livelihood before trying to maximise production

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Policy frameworks should sustain a favourable environment for agriculture and rural development

•

Scientists must be concrete and provide advice to policy makers-

on the information infrastructure to be implemented

-

to monitor and adjust the policies-

to manage key resources such as water and Land resources

Conclusions 2


Thanks for your attention !

Adapted from MA

Leen HORDIJK

Director, Institute for Environment and Sustainability(with inputs from Simon Kay and Olivier Leo)

science priorities for sustainable agriculture · 3/30/2011 · feeding the planet is a global...

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