Working Together to Create the Future and Dismantle
the Barriers
Remarks by Andrew Bennett, Executive Director
The Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture
Basel, Switzerland
PURPOSE OF SESSION
To clarify the meaning of sustainability in agriculture and resource
management
To identify the key challenges and barriers
To discuss and identify ways forward
SUSTAINING WHAT AND FOR WHOM?
Survival is the strongest human instinct. Our inventiveness and our ability to
work together to overcome adversity are the reasons why the human race has
been so successful. The dire predictions of Thomas Malthus, that our ability to
reproduce would eventually outstrip our capacity to produce food have not
proved correct - yet!
In its simplest definition 'sustainability' is the ability to meet today's demands
without prejudicing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
We have succeeded in meeting the demands of growing populations for food
and agricultural commodities through combinations of changes in agricultural
practices, new technologies, greater use of water and increasing the areas of
land under cultivation. We have mechanised, made greater use of fertilisers
and crop protection chemicals, enhanced the biological potential of crops and
livestock to provide the products society - or rather markets - want. In wealthy
countries for various reasons we have subsidised production and
consumption. The success of these actions is that cereal and commodity
prices are at an all-time low. We have sustained supply.
There have been environmental and social costs in achieving these
successes.
We have destroyed forests, over-extracted fresh water, allowed land to
become saline and so degraded soils that they can no longer support
productive farming. We have released a wide range of exotic pollutants into
the environment; the impact of these is only partially understood. We have
drained swamps, lost biological diversity, overworked coastal resources and
over-fished the major fisheries of the world. Our destruction of forests and
natural habitats, coupled with our persistent use of fossil fuels is resulting in
climate change. Climate change could lead to the wetter and temperate areas
of the world benefiting from warmer climates and greater precipitation, while
the poorer drier parts of the world will get drier - and poorer.
In a globalising world of plenty - it is unacceptable that over 800million people
are hungry and malnourished, one in five live on less than a dollar a day and
very large numbers of people rely on food aid for their survival. In many parts
in the world inequity, injustice and marginalisation of individuals and
communities continue. These are breeding grounds for unrest and terrorism.
In richer countries fewer and fewer people earn their livelihoods from farming
alone.
So agricultural production has kept pace with demands - but there have been
significant social and environmental costs - which caste doubts on the
'sustainability ' of our current production systems. But we must ask whether
business as usual can meet the demands of the future.
THE CHALLENGES
Agriculture is more than food production. Farmers are managers of
landscapes, biodiversity and water catchments, which provide a wide range of
goods and service to individuals and to society.
In some countries agriculture is expected to be the main engine of economic
growth and export earnings, a source of employment and major contributor to
poverty reduction. In other countries there is a growing interest in the social,
cultural and environmental goods and services it can deliver - biomass,
carbon sequestration, clean water, wildlife, leisure and access. In the
provision of many of these outputs there is considerable market failure.
Strategic considerations and this multi-functional nature of landscape
management and rural life have led richer countries to subsidise domestic
farming. This has resulted in surpluses that on the one hand, keep food
prices low for the urban poor, but on the other, distort markets making it
difficult for the non-subsidised to compete.
The wealthier urban societies have a growing interest of food quality and
safety and the means of production - eg fair trade, child labour, animal welfare
and the conservation of forests and biodiversity -- as they battle with obesity
and longevity. They want more information and choice - and can pay for
them. Consumers are the dominant force in the market place for agricultural
products.
In the poorest parts of the world the concerns are more of food security,
access, income, livelihoods and survival. The majority of producers are also
the main consumers. In drier countries the challenge is not only more crop (or
production) per drop - but also more jobs per drop!
IFPRI and FAO predict that the demand for food and livestock products will
double, they have also identified the rising demand for forest and marine
derived goods and services. They have warned us that the rates at which
cereal yields are rising has slowed and that using existing technology will not
enable us to keeping pace with rising demands and population increases.
The growing demands will be driven by:
Population increases;
Economic growth;
The needs to reduce poverty, hunger, malnutrition, inequity,
marginalisation, instability and risk;
Urbanisation;
Globalisation;
Education;
Cultural changes.
There are many definitions of sustainable agriculture and the sustainability of
production systems - many of them give emphasis to environmental criteria,
however sustainability requires a dynamic balance between economic, social
and environmental criteria.
The challenge for sustainable agriculture is to satisfy the growing, diversifying
and sometimes conflicting demands of individuals, communities and society
for a full range of economic, social and environmental goods and services
derived from land and water management. This is a dynamic and ever
changing process requiring negotiation and the ability to cope with changing
values and choices. In many areas there will be conflicts of interest and
priority for example between different production systems (organic and
intensive) and landuse (farming, leisure, infrastructure) options.
THE BARRIERS AND THREATS
The barriers and threats are many:
Bad policies;
Poor governance;
Resources tenure;
Instability;
Corruption;
Distorted markets;
Environmental change and degradation;
HIV/AIDS SARS;
Unforeseen shocks and events.
However in the longer term the greatest threats:
Lack of unity of purpose - sustaining what, for whom, where, how, for how
long and who pays?
Under investment in publicly funded research and development.
Agreed means of assessing whether production processes are
sustainable.
THE WAY AHEAD
Tasks are huge and beyond the capacity of individuals to solve. In a
globalising society we are increasingly interconnected and interdependent.
Globalisation is both opportunity and threat to sustainability: it is here to stay -
but can we make it work for the poor, the environment and sustainable natural
resource management? We must!
It is difficult to see how this challenge will be met without new partnerships
and improved technology.
The future agenda will require purposeful combinations of:
Unity of purpose
Partnerships
Choice
Information
Technology
Trust
Ideas
Leaderships
CONCLUSION
Sustainable agriculture cannot be achieved alone by factors or actions within
the sector; externalities trade, economic growth, and changing values and
standards of society - will determine what types of agriculture can be
sustained. Societies may choose to use markets, regulation or social
pressures to implement their views.
Sustainability is not a Utopian Plateau or a return to Arcadian values.
It is a dynamic process of change to meet these increasing and diversifying
demands of markets and society. It will require better access to knowledge,
constant negotiation between those with differing views, compromise and an
acceptance that there will have to be trade-offs. It is not a theoretical construct
but a practical and complex process in which technologies can provide
options, solutions and choice. Science can increase opportunities and inform
choice.
Sustainability will be both a symptom and product of democracy.
|
