" Governments must strive to make a major shift towards small-scale farming if endemic food crises are to be overcome and the production boosted to support the global population, according to the UN.
In its annual World Economic and Social Survey, released yesterday, the UN said a transformation from large-scale and intensive systems of agriculture was vital if growing environmental and land degradation was to be avoided.
The food crisis of 2007/8 and a price spike this year “have revealed deep structural problems in the global food system and the need to increase resources and innovation in agriculture as to accelerate food production”, it said.
Food production would have to increase by between 70 percent and 100 percent by 2050 to sustain a world population that would have grown by 35 percent from the present 6.9 billion to around 9 billion by that time.
“With current agricultural technology, practices and land use patterns, this cannot be achieved without further contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution and land degradation,” the UN said.
In its turn, the resulting environmental degradation would undermine any growth in food productivity.
Of the 925 million people – nearly a seventh of the population – who are undernourished, 98 percent live in developing countries.
The survey said that achieving food security would provide a long-term solution to hunger and malnutrition, easing price volatility and protecting the environment.
“The main challenge is to improve incentives so that they promote and lead to the development of sustainable agriculture by small farm holders,” the survey said.
“Evidence has shown that for most crops the optimal farm is small in scale and that it is at this level that most gain in terms of both sustainable productivity increases and rural poverty reduction can be achieved.” –Reuters "
Cape Times July 2011
Robert Evans
Geneva
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