By Ibrahim Thiaw, Director of the Division of Environmental Policy Implementation
United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
It is very likely that by 2050 the planet’s population will have passed 9 billion people. The question we are all asking is how to feed them when it is already a challenge with our current population at 7 billion.
While new agricultural practices have made enormous progress in boosting our food resources and have lifted millions of people out of hunger, not everyone goes to bed with a full stomach. Indeed, more than one billion people are now undernourished, and the hurdles ahead do not portray a bright future.
Terrestrial ecosystems are struggling to support the existing agricultural activities. For instance, in some places, soils are irreversibly eroded, water tables are low, glaciers are retreating, and biodiversity, crucial to the stability of ecosystems and agricultural productivity, is declining. The scarce land available for food production is now also in demand for the production of biofuels. There is always the same quantity of water and land on earth. Where will we get the additional resources required?
Food prices are expected to rise even further as a result of land and water scarcity so that increasingly food security and human wellbeing are at risk. Climate change adds another layer of uncertainty and complexity in the search for a solution. As temperatures rise, extreme events are more likely to occur and we will witness unpredictable weather patterns, posing new threats and risks to farmers worldwide.
The solutions we have found so far to confront hunger and low agricultural productivity have in many ways worsened the present situation and what is in store for the future. We have put even more land into production, and substituted the natural ecosystem services with external inputs, creating strong dependencies on fossil fuels both in the form of energy and fertilizers. All this has impacted even further our ecological base and exacerbated the impacts of climate change.
While it is imperative to stabilize our climate, improve our supply chains, and reduce wastes and post-harvest losses, it is equally crucial to safeguard, protect and enhance the ecological foundations of our food systems. This is an unprecedented challenge. There is an urgent need recognize the interrelations of the ecosystems in which we live and to embrace an integrated landscape approach to agriculture that simultaneously meets the goals for food production, ecosystem health, and human wellbeing. Working across sectors to find solutions will move toward a “re-greening” of agricultural systems. It can be done!
As one of the Co-Organizers of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) sees the importance of simultaneously addressing livelihood considerations and the health of the environment, coordinating between stakeholders to develop solutions. UNEP’s work is supporting the creation of enabling conditions for understanding how the environment is connected to us and we are connected to the environment. Unless this inter-relationship is protected, the difficulties we face now and those of feeding 9 billion people in 2050 will remain challenges of survival.
Comments are closed.