The foundation of sustainable development rests on three pillars, the 3 Ps of sustainability- People, Planet and Profits. To make the foundation stronger, two more Ps can be added- Pro-activeness and Purpose. Environmental sustainability cannot be achieved without eradicating poverty and hunger and thus it has to go hand in hand with economic and social sustainability. Accordingly, one of the major challenges in achieving sustainability is meeting the food demand of our growing population.

In this regard I am updating the forum on ‘World Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future.’

 

Co-authored by Janet Ranganathan, Richard Waite, Tim Searchinger and Craig Hanson in 2018, this report is a World Resources Institute (WRI) publication. WRI is a global research organization spanning more than 50 countries worldwide, their experts collaborating with governments to turn sustainability ideas into action in relation to climate, energy, food, forests, water, and cities and transport.

 

The report predicts a huge shortfall in the amount of food needed to feed the estimated 10 billion world population in 2050. Considering increasing consumption of resource-intensive animal-based foods, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural production and conversion of forests to agricultural lands to meet food demands; the three main factors to be considered for food sustainability and a zero hunger world, relate to the amount of food required, the agricultural land area necessary to grow this food, and the need to minimize ensuing GHG emission in the process of meeting food demands. It is important to understand that food gap widens the land gap, which further impacts GHG mitigation gap.

 

Solutions suggested in the WRI report for a Sustainable Food Future

WRI research on how to create a sustainable food future has identified practical solutions to close the food, land and GHG mitigation gaps. The relevance of these solution may vary from one region to another based on area specific conditions but their importance and impact is significant. The solutions are organized and listed below under five headings:

 

Reduce Growth in Demand for Food and other Agricultural Products

Avoiding food waste, shifting to sustainable diets and reducing overall food demands can help bridge the food gap for our growing population based on the following solutions:

 

Reduce food loss and waste

Loss and waste all along the food chain, from farm to fork, causes about one fourth of the produced food going waste. Reducing waste will automatically reduce demand. This can be achieved by measuring and assessing food waste, setting reduction targets, improving food storage in developing countries and streamlining expiration labels.

 

Shift to healthier and more sustainable diets

Ruminant meat (beef, lamb and goat) is resource-intensive to produce, per gram of edible protein as compared to common plant proteins (eg. beans, peas and lentils). Limiting ruminant meat consumption can be achieved by implementing favorable policies and active marketing of plant-based foods, as well as improving plant-based meat substitutes.

 

Cut down production of bioenergy from food crops and land.

While biomass is a relatively inefficient energy source, producing bioenergy uses food or energy crops or dedicated land thus competing with food production; and widening the food, land and GHG mitigation gaps. Phasing out existing biofuel production on agricultural lands can be promoted by eliminating biofuel subsidies and not giving “carbon-neutral” status to bioenergy.

 

Achieve replacement-level fertility rates

Considering that food gap is driven by population growth, voluntary reduction in fertility rates can be promoted through social progress by increasing education and awareness programs for girls, expanding access to reproductive and health services, and reducing infant/child mortality.

 

Increase Food Production Without Expanding Agricultural Land

Following solutions can be employed to meet food demand without having to increase the agricultural land areas:

 

Increase productivity of livestock and pastures 

Growing demand for animal based food requisites boosting livestock productivity to yield better output of meat and milk. This can reduce pressure to use agricultural land as pasture land, as also cut down GHG emissions. Governments can provide financial and technical assistance to farmers, towards improving fertilization and animal breeds, better feed quality and veterinary care; and employing rotational grazing.

 

Improve crop breeding

Improving yield is essential to keep pace with food demand. Selection of best-performing crops based on genetic traits, aided by advanced molecular biology offer great promise for additional yield gains. Governments can support farmers by increasing public and private crop-breeding budgets, especially for regional “orphan crops” like millet and yam that have been neglected as they are not globally important.

 

Improve soil and water management

Improved soil and water management practices can boost crop yields in degraded soils, drylands and areas with low carbon. High yields from maize production trial sites in Zambia integrated with Faidherbia albida trees, exemplified that Agroforestry can rebuild degraded lands to boost crop yields. Support for rainwater harvesting, farmer education and reforming tree-ownership laws can also help.

 

More frequent planting of existing croplands

Increased Planting and harvesting frequency by reducing fallow lands or by increasing “double cropping” (planting two crops in a field in the same year), can boost food production without requiring new land. Research and analysis to determine where cropping intensity increases are most feasible, factoring in water, emissions and other environmental constraints.

 

Adapt agriculture to climate change

Climate change is a reality. Our crops and agricultural practices have to adapt to the changing temperatures to minimize drop in yields, by implementing other menu items, breeding crops resistant to higher temperatures, establishing water conservation systems, and introducing new production systems in areas where crop production is greatly affected by climate change.

 

Limit Agricultural Land Expansion to Preserve/Restore Natural Ecosystems

The delicate balance between expansion of agricultural land use and preservation of natural ecosystems can be maintained through the following solutions:

 

Link productivity gains with protection of natural ecosystems

Productivity gains must be well weighed and integrated with protection of natural ecosystems. Land use planning, infrastructure and agricultural investments need to be judiciously considered. Low interest credit for forest protection as promoted in Brazil, can also ensure preservation of endemic habitats.

 

Limit cropland expansion to lands with low environmental opportunity costs

When cropland expansion is inevitable, governments and investors should support expansion onto land with low environmental opportunity costs, limited biodiversity or carbon storage potential, but high food production potential. It is ideal to use tools and models to estimate ‘yields and effect’s on ‘biodiversity and climate change’, guide land-use regulations, plan roads and manage public lands.

 

Reforest agricultural lands with little intensification potential

Abandoned or unproductive or low productivity agricultural lands with limited improvement potential can be restored back into forests or other natural habitats, to offset the inevitable expansion of agriculture into other areas.

 

Conserve and restore peatlands

Conversion of Peatlands into agricultural land requires drainage, releasing large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Restoring the world’s drained peatlands to wetlands would contribute towards close the GHG mitigation gap. Funding of peatland restoration can greatly help in this direction, by improving peatland mapping and establishing laws to prevent peatlands from being drained.

 

Increase Fish Supply

Fisheries are an important source of food supply and can contribute greatly towards a zero hunger world if managed properly as per the following solutions.

 

Improve wild fisheries management

Marine stocks have been overfished or fished at maximum sustainable levels.  Catches need to be reduced to allow wild fisheries to recover so that it is not required convert land to supply the equivalent amount of fish from aquaculture. It is imminently needed to implement catch shares and community-based management systems, and remove subsidies that support overfishing.

 

Improve productivity and environmental performance of aquaculture

Aquaculture productivity has to meet the projected increase in fish consumption. Current challenges including conversion of wetlands, use of wild-caught fish in feeds, high freshwater demand and water pollution; need to be addressed through selective breeding to improve growth rates, improving feeds and disease control, water recirculation and pollution controls, and expansion of marine-based fish farms.

 

 

Reduce GHG Emissions from Agricultural Production

 

Major GHG emissions from agricultural production arising from livestock farming, application of nitrogen fertilizers, rice cultivation and energy use can be addressed based on the following solutions.

 

Use new technologies to reduce enteric fermentation from cattle

Emissions from ruminant livestock are largely due to “enteric methane,” or cow burps. Increasing productivity of ruminants can reduce methane emissions, when more milk and meat is produced per kg of feed. New technologies can be employed (like 3-nitrooxypropan, an additive tested in New Zealand) to cut methane emissions by reducing enteric fermentation. Research and use of such measures is required.

 

Reduce emissions through improved manure management

Improving animal-manure management with sophisticated pollution control systems, better separating liquids from solids, capturing methane, and other strategies can greatly reduce emissions while also adding to health, water and pollution related benefits. Governments can regulate farms, fund technology development, and establish monitoring programs to detect and control leakages from digesters.

 

Reduce emissions from manure left on pastures

Un-managed manure, livestock feces and urine deposited in fields turns into nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas. This can be tackled by growing grasses that prevent this process naturally or by applying chemicals to prevent nitrogen from turning into nitrous oxide. Governments can initiate research into such chemical and biological nitrification inhibitors and promote their use among farmers.

 

Reduce fertilizer emissions by increasing nitrogen use efficiency.

More than half the nitrogen applied as fertilizer is emitted into the atmosphere or lost as run off. Composition of fertilizers and their management needs improve to increase nitrogen uptake and reduce the amount of fertilizer needed. Governments can support subsidies, as also promote and fund development of improved higher nitrogen-efficiency fertilizers.

 

Adopt rice management and varieties targeted at reducing emissions

Low emission varieties and low resource intensive rice production can reduce methane emission from paddy fields. Shorter flooding duration can reduce water levels and growth of methane-producing bacteria, while saving water and increased rice yields on some farms. Identifying best practices, rewarding water-efficient farming, and investing in research on lower-methane varieties can help to boost yields.

 

Increase agricultural energy efficiency and shift to non-fossil energy

Emissions from use of fossil fuel energy in agriculture should be reduced by increasing energy efficiency and switching to clean energy options like solar and wind. Suitable solutions include integrating low-carbon energy sources and efficiency programs into agriculture programs and using renewable energy options in manufacture of nitrogen fertilizers.

 

Implement realistic options to sequester carbon in soils

Carbon sequestering in soils can be achieved through practices such as no-till farming. Further, carbon loss from soils can be arrested by stopping forest conversions, protecting/increasing soil carbon by boosting productivity of grasslands and croplands, increasing agroforestry, and adopting innovative strategies for building carbon where soil fertility is critical for food security.

 

Conclusion

A sustainable food future is needed to meet the challenge of feeding ten billion people by 2050 and continuing to do so for years thereafter. The mammoth task demands an action plan to initiate a major shift in how we produce and consume food. Implementing the above solutions will not only help close the food, land and GHG mitigation gaps, but meeting the food demands will also prove beneficial for farmers, society and human health.

 

Sources & References

How to Sustainably Feed 10 Billion People by 2050, in 21 Charts

by Janet Ranganathan, Richard Waite, Tim Searchinger and Craig Hanson - December 05, 2018

https://www.wri.org/blog/2018/12/how-sustainably-feed-10-billion-people-2050-21-charts

Image Source

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