Farming needs major shift, says FAO

PARIS|LONDON: World farming needs a “major shift” to more sustainable practices as intensive crop production since the 1960s has degraded soils, depleted groundwater and caused pest outbreaks, the United Nations said. More farmers need to reduce ploughing and alternate cereals with soil-improving plants, and use an “ecosystem approach” based on natural systems to promote crop growth, save water and fight pests, the UN’s Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization said in a guide to policymakers published today.

The so-called Green Revolution that started in the 1950s and spread in the 1960s introduced more productive wheat, corn and rice varieties and relied on “high levels” of fertiliser and pesticides , the UN agency said. That boosted cereal yields and food production, saving an estimated 1 billion people from famine and jump-starting Asian economies, the FAO said.

“Those enormous gains in agricultural production and productivity were often accompanied by negative effects on agriculture’s natural resource base, so serious that they jeopardise its productive potential in the future,” the FAO said in the book on farming, “Save and Grow.” Negative effects include land degradation, salt build-up in irrigated areas, depletion of groundwater , pest resistance and pollution , according to the agency. “It is also clear that the current food production and distribution systems are failing to feed the world,” the FAO said. “The number of undernourished people in 2010 was estimated at 925 million, higher than it was 40 years ago.”

The world population is forecast to climb to 9.2 billion in 2050 from an estimated 6.9 billion in 2010, requiring a 70% jump in world agricultural production, the FAO said. With “virtually no spare land” in parts of Asia and Africa, yield increases and more intensive cropping will be needed, the agency said. Between 2015 and 2030, “an estimated 80% of the required food production increases will have to come from intensification in the form of yield increases and higher cropping intensities,” the FAO said. About 70% of the area that is available to increase agricultural production, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, suffers from soil and terrain constraints , according to the FAO.