What agricultural systems will deliver on the need for a paradigm shift while addressing the sustainability development goals

Background/Question/Methods

The groundbreaking report written by a group of over 400 stakeholder in agriculture and food systems and sponsored by six UN agencies, and a large group of countries, private sector companies and NGOs, Agriculture at a Crossroads, has set clear priorities for a paradigm change in agriculture and food system. The challenges that were specifically analyzed were ho to deal with the persistent hunger and poverty nexus, the growing health and nutrition problems, increasing inequity and lagging development in rural areas from a knowledge, science and technical angle, while taking into account climate change, diminishing natural resources and energy availability. There was also a strong message that while solving these key problems linked to the Millennium Development Goals, there will be a need to keep an eye on the social and environmental aspects of agriculture, in addition to the usual economic ones.

Results/Conclusions

The report made suggestions on what type of system would be most appropriate to further the goals of food and nutrition security, what research and extension would be required. It further made the case for more diversification of both the agricultural systems and the crops and animals within these systems, to increase the resilience potential in the face of major climate events. It was recommended that one way to support and realize the transition of traditional and conventional agriculture types towards truly sustainable ones, there is a need to reassign perverse subsidies towards the transition, pay farmers for new machines and a possible short term yield depression. The other key message was that ecological farming is knowledge intensive and funding should be made available to farmer communication and education campaigns, the dissemination of locally relevant information, the inclusion of famers and in particular women in the research and results dissemination processes. Agriculture in the developing countries will also only move forward, once Government protect their farmers from subsidized import, assure a level playing field before opening the border. These governments also need to invest vastly increased amount in their agriculture, the backbone of most African economies. The report also insisted on the need to change the policies regarding research by reorienting it towards ecological and organic agriculture. One of the key suggestions on how to make a successful shift was to establish the value of ecosystem services in given zones and also introduce true pricing by including the externalities into the final retail prices.