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DISCUSSION No. 145   •   FSN Forum digest No. 1325

Sustainable Farming Systems for Food and Nutrition Security

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© LANSA

Dear Members,

The discussion Sustainable Farming Systems for Food and Nutrition Security has come to an end. First of all let us say thank you to all participants for this interesting exchange.

To wrap up the past three weeks we would like to share with you a brief thank-you-note from the co-facilitators of this discussion and the summaries of the latest comments we received.

Over the next few weeks we will prepare a summary in an attempt to capture the wealth of knowledge that emerged from your comments.

The complete proceedings of the online discussion are available on the FSN Forum website, where you will also find the introduction and the guiding questions.

We look forward to our next exchanges and welcome you to browse the other activities that are currently taking place on the FSN Forum:

Your FSN Forum team

Alan Dangour, Aliza Pradhan and Md. Sirajul Islam, co-facilitators of the discussion

On behalf of the LANSA research consortium, may I thank you all enormously for contributing to a hugely interesting debate on the critical issue of sustainable farming systems for food and nutrition security. Contributions have been wide-ranging in both content and geographic focus and have demonstrated the impressive commitments and resolve of practitioners and researchers in this field.

As the COP23 meetings enter their second week in Bonn, it is clear that agriculture is becoming a critical focus area for policy makers. At this time more than ever, high quality research evidence is needed to support policy makers to make decisions about how to sustain national and global agricultural systems in an uncertain future.

The quality of the debate on this forum has encouraged me greatly that there is much excellent work underway. But the challenge is big and there is much still to do.

Thank you again.

Alan Dangour, Aliza Pradhan, Md. Sirajul Islam

CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED

iconFlorence Egal, Food Security and Nutrition expert, Italy

Florence proposes a twin-track perspective focusing on both the household/community and the territorial level. At household level, farming systems should be seen in the context of sustainable livelihoods, which should also include off-farm income. At territorial level, we should be looking at sustainable food systems, with farming systems constituting only one key element.

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iconBhavani R Vaidyanathan, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, India

Bhavani stresses the importance of linking research with policy suggesting the implementation of a process of continuous engagement with policy makers at multiple levels, keeping them informed, producing briefs that convey the evidence from research in simple, understandable terms.

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iconDurlave Roy, Northern Agro Services Ltd, Bangladesh

Durlave states that to feed the growing population of the world it is essential to increase the agricultural production radically. For this, it is important to improve the efficiency of fertilizers and of fertilizer practices through continuous research and innovation.

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iconMilly Monkhei, University of Agriculture and Natural resources (BUAN), Botswana

Sharing the example of the failed adoption of raw planting in Botswana, Milly argues that it is of paramount importance to consider the implications and consequences of policies on different target groups before they are implemented, especially in heterogeneous populations.

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iconMahesh Maske, Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), India

Mahesh lists practices and technologies that have the potential to mitigate climate change induced risks. These need to focus on water utilization, adaptation to changing weather, smart plant nutrient practices, carbon emission, energy consumption and knowledge.

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iconAklilu Nigussie, Ethiopian Institutes of Agricultural Research, Ethiopia

Aklilu informs us that his institute is running detailed analyses of teff and wheat farming system inducing their environmental impact. Regarding interventions needed to increase the agriculture sector resilience to environmental stressors, he mentions tools to forecast the variability trends, integrated climatic information, development of technical expertise and diversification as important starting points.

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iconMohammad Abdul Mazid, IFPRI/HarvestPlus Washington, Bangladesh

Mohammad Abdul stresses the importance of adopting bio-fortified rice based cropping patterns paired with proper post-harvest processing and marketing links for improving food and nutrition security of rural small holders living on marginal lands.

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iconAnita Pinheiro, Research and Information Systems for Developing Countries, India

Anita argues that the changes being implemented in the current agri-food regime are in favour of large-scale farming systems and hardly address the concerns of smallholder farmers and resilience of marginal and small-scale food production systems.

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iconLily Dora Núñez De La Torre Caller, Asociación de Mujeres Indigenas Tawantinsuyo, Peru

Lily Dora shares detailed information on the environmental factors that most heavily affect agriculture and food security in Peru.

Read the contribution (in Spanish)
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