{"id":3699,"date":"2019-07-10T11:43:03","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T11:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=3699"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:24","slug":"sustainable-agriculture-feeding-africa-and-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/07\/10\/sustainable-agriculture-feeding-africa-and-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Feeding Africa And The World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The\nworld\u2019s cultivated\narea has grown by 12 percent over the last 50 years<\/a>.\nThe global irrigated area has doubled over the same period, accounting for most\nof the net increase in cultivated land. Meanwhile, agricultural production has\ngrown between 2.5 and 3 times, thanks to a significant increase in the yield of\nmajor crops. However global achievements in production in some regions have\nbeen associated with the degradation of land and water resources, and the deterioration\nof related ecosystem goods and services. These include biomass, carbon storage,\nsoil health, water storage and supply, biodiversity, social and cultural\nservices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agriculture\nalready uses 11 percent of the world\u2019s land surface for crop production. It\nalso makes use of 70 percent of all water withdrawn from aquifers, streams, and\nlakes. Agricultural policies have primarily benefited farmers with productive\nland and access to water, bypassing the majority of small-scale producers, who\nare still locked in a poverty trap of high vulnerability, land degradation, and\nclimatic uncertainty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Land\nand water institutions have not kept pace with the growing intensity of\nagricultural development and the increasing degree of interdependence and\ncompetition over land and water resource. Much more adaptable and collaborative\ninstitutions are needed to respond effectively to natural resources scarcity\nand market opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Towards\n2050, rising population and incomes are expected to call for 70 percent more\nfood production globally, and up to 100 percent more in developing countries,\nrelative to 2009 levels. Yet the distribution of land and water resources does\nnot favor those countries that need to produce more in the future: the average\navailability of cultivated land per capita in low-income countries is less than\nhalf of high-income countries, and the suitability of cultivated land for\ncropping is generally low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some\ncountries with a rapidly growing demand for food are also those that face high\nlevels of land or water scarcity. The largest contribution to the increase in\nagricultural output will be most likely to come from intensification of\nproduction on existing agricultural land. This will require widespread adoption\nof sustainable land management practices <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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No till Agriculture helps in mitigating climate change | Photo by Climate Vulture <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

 A series of land and water systems now face\nthe risk of progressive breakdown of their productive capacity under a\ncombination of excessive demographic pressure and unsustainable agricultural\npractices. The physical limits to land and water availability within these\nsystems may further be exacerbated in places by external drivers, including\nclimate change, competition with other sectors and socioeconomic changes. These\nsystems at risk warrant priority attention for remedial action simply because\nthere are no substitutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npotential exists to expand production efficiency in order to address food\nsecurity and poverty while limiting impacts on other ecosystem values. There is\na scope for governments and the private sector, including farmers, to be much\nmore proactive in advancing the general adoption of sustainable land and water\nmanagement practices. Actions include not just technical options to promote\nsustainable intensification and reduce production risks, they also comprise a\nset of conditions to remove constraints and build flexibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nremoval of distortions in the incentives framework, the improvement of land\ntenure and access to resources, strengthened and more collaborative land and\nwater institutions, efficient support services (including knowledge exchange,\nadaptive research, and rural finance), and better and more secure access to\nmarkets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Widespread\nadoption of sustainable land and water management practices will require the\nglobal community to have the political will to put in place the financial and\ninstitutional support to encourage widespread adoption of responsible\nagricultural practices. The negative trend in national budgets and official\ndevelopment assistance allocated to land and water needs to be reversed.\nPossible new financing options include payments for environmental services\n(PES) and the carbon market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally,\nthere is a need for much more effective integration of international policies\nand initiatives dealing with land and water management. Only by these changes\ncan the world feed its citizens through sustainable agriculture that is\nproduced within environmental limits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world\u2019s cultivated area has grown by 12 percent over the last 50 years. The global irrigated area has doubled over the same period, accounting for most of the net…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-responsibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}