FOOD SECURITY ADN THE ENVIRONMENT

Feeding another 3 billion people by the year 2030 will require rapid gains in agricultural production. Achieving those gains without damaging natural resources on which both agriculture and life itself depend will require a modified approach to food production compared with the past - an approach that builds on ecological principles such as diversity, resilience and efficient energy use.

Limited Resources, Vulnerable Resources

IN ORDER TO MEET MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS of a growing population, food production will need to double over the next 30 years. Yet the natural resources required to produce this additional food such as soil, water and the diversity of crops and livestock - are finite and vulnerable to degradation.

Between 1950 and 1995, for example, rapid population growth cut in half the amount of cultivated land per person - from more than half a hectare to barely a quarter.Because only about 11 percent of the world's land is really suited to agriculture, the amount of arable land per person will continue shrinking. By the year 2020, for example, Southeast Asia will have only 0.09 hectares per person - an area barely one-tenth the size of a soccer field.

Per caput water availability is also falling rapidly. In Africa, for example, the amount of water available per person has dropped almost 75 percent since 1950 - from over 20,000 cubic metres a year to a little over 5,000 cubic metres. Experts define countries where the amount of water available for all purposes, including agriculture and industry, amounts to less than 1,000 cubic metres per person per year. More than 230 million people - mostly in Africa and the Near East - now live in such countries.

Soil limits agriculture

The Price of Expanded Production

PUSHING AGAINST RESOURCE LIMITS to increase food production can damage or degrade natural resources in many ways:

soil degradation - Expansion of agriculture onto less suitable land exposes fragile soils to the dangers of erosion and nutrient depletion. Human-induced degradation already affects almost 2 billion hectares, or 15 percent of the world's soils.

deforestation - During the 1980s, more than 15 million hectares of tropical forests were lost each year, mainly to provide land for agriculture.

drainage of wetlands - Felling and drainage of mangrove forests and other coastal wetlands destroys spawning and feeding grounds for fisheries. About 95 percent of the world's marine production originates from coastal ecosystems.

loss of biodiversity - The conversion of forests and other natural habitats to food production has been the primary reason for the rapid loss of biological diversity that threatens between 5 and 20 percent of some groups of vertebrates and plants with extinction.

overfishing - almost 70 percent of those stocks of marine fisheries for which assessments are available are being fished at levels close to or beyond the maximum sustainable yield.

Land cleared for agriculture

Intensive Production - Promise and Peril

Applying intensive production techniques to increase output from Lands already under cultivation could both provide enough food to meet the needs of an expanding population and relieve pressure on marginal Lands and vulnerable ecosystems. Research stations typically obtain yields more than double those achieved by farmers under similar conditions.

But intensive food production can also take a heavy toll on the environment.

Poorly managed irrigation can lead to salinization and waterlogging. Some 30 million hectares of irrigated Land have been severely damaged by poor drainage and accumulation of salt in the soil.

Irrigated land affected by salinization

Reliance on a few high-yielding varieties of plants and Livestock has eroded biodiversity within the limited number of species used for agriculture, increasing vulnerability to pests and diseases. Thirty percent of all breeds of Livestock have less than 20 breeding males or Less than 1000 breeding females remaining.

Intensive aquaculture systems, such as cage culture of salmon and Large-scale shrimp culture in coastal areas, can cause excessive nutrient enrichment of water bodies, degradation of wetlands and the loss of biological diversity from the introduction of exotic species.

How to Reduce Environmental Impacts

ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND food production systems must achieve three aims: increase production and productivity, reduce pollution and resource degradation, and be socially and economically viable.

Among hundreds of attractive possibilities, the following will have priority:

• the prevention of soil erosion with live hedges, grass strips, orchard trees, simple bench and ridge terraces, contour ploughing, strip cropping, limited tillage, green manuring, windbreaks and mulches;
• improving the management of irrigated areas, in particular by improving drainage to the 11 million hectares of waterlogged irrigation land in Asia;
• large-scale promotion of integrated plant nutrition systems, which provide crops with the nutrients they need at the optimal return to the farmer;
• large-scale promotion of integrated pest management systems, which use biological and other techniques to control crop pests with a minimum use of pesticides;
• development of intensive methods of livestock production, of biogas units for use of animal wastes, and of diets to reduce methane emissions from cattle;
• improved fishery management to allow marine stocks to recover, as well as intensive development of aquaculture and inland fisheries;
• the development of non-wood forest products as sources of income;
• fuelwood plantations around homesteads and in pert-urban areas;
• the use of agroforestry to diversify production, increase productivity and stabilize soil and water resources; and
• policy adjustments to foster biodiversity through techniques such as mixed use buffer zones to protect existing areas, and the maintenance of crop diversity through crop rotations and sequences.

Erosion control in Peru

Securing Food within Nature's Limits

SCIENTISTS believe that technical options are available to provide enough food for future populations without harming the environment.

Keys to achieving this in practice will be:

• the efficient use of resources - that is, converting scarce resources into useful products in a way that is economically viable but that minimizes impact on the environment during production, processing and marketing;
• the use of planning and implementation frameworks to facilitate and diffuse the responses provided by science and technology to the demand for more food. an approach to governance that promotes dialogue with diverse interest groups and shares decision-making authority and control over allocation of resources to district and local levels, while simultaneously discouraging corrupt or inefficient practices.

The political and administrative framework for achieving these goals should have at least four main elements:

• introduction of ecologically-sound, participatory land-use planning to identify and mitigate the environmental impacts of increased food production;
• social and economic policies that encourage food producers to manage their soil fertility and moisture, pest populations and biological diversity through integrated management systems. In many cases, success will depend on first addressing social or economic constraints such as equitable land tenure and access to capital, unemployment and the marginalization of women;
• investment in human capital and rural infrastructure by integrating agricultural research, education and extension and training agricultural advisors to help farmers apply environmentally-sound food production methods;
• continuous environmental assessment, monitoring and evaluation of the impacts of food production practices, and feeding this information back to policy-makers and producers.

The Role of Government

Unlike many other sectors, governments have a special role to play in promoting rural development and environmentally sound agriculture. Governments should:

• support environmentally-based practices through incentives that promote the efficient use of inputs and encourage the full use of human resources
• reduce subsidies that lead to adverse environmental impacts introduce water pricing policies and institutional changes to increase the efficiency of water use in all sectors
• develop polices to promote the best land-use practices and the equitable distribution of resources
• transform smallholder agriculture into modern, competitive and productive enterprises by investing in sustainable agricultural and rural development
• assess food production potential in and around cities, and produce more food near to where it is consumed
• improve infrastructure so that farmers can deploy quality seed, fertilizer and equipment, and equip extension staff to promote sound environmental management practices

IPM training in the Philippines

For further information, please contact:
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy
Information Division, Tel: (39-6) 5225-3276/5225-4781/5225-4243
Sustainable Development Deprtment , Tel: (39-6) 5225-3450
Internet, http://www.fao.org or gopher.fao.org

or

United Nations Environment Programme, P.O. Box 30552 Nairobi, Kenya
Information and Public Affairs
Tel: (254-2) 621234; Fax: (254-2) 226831;
Internet: http://www.unep.org