FAO Tries To Evoke Urgency

The global agriculture industry is gearing up to feed nine billion people in 2050, and it won’t be possible without crop protection. Growers will need access to and education about the industry’s leading chemical technologies to keep pace with demand. But more importantly, it must provide low-use chemicals and supporting best practices to create a sustainable agriculture platform.

Shivaji Pandey, director of Plant Production and Protection Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), recently made this point at the World Congress on Conservation Agriculture in New Delhi.

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"The world has no alternative to pursuing Sustainable Crop Production Intensification to meet the growing food and feed demand, to alleviate poverty and to protect its natural resources,” he told attendees. “Conservation Agriculture is an essential element of that Intensification.”

Soil health, biodiversity and irrigation will be new metrics for success in this growing population. On current trends, the rate of growth in agricultural productivity is expected to fall to 1.5% between now and 2030 and further to 0.9% between 2030 and 2050, compared with 2.3% per year since 1961, according to FAO.

Pandey said training, participatory research and building strong farmers’ organizations should be accelerated, and our industry could be seen as innovators if they take the lead in helping to feed the world.

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