Sustainable farming is the only way to feed the planet going forward
mongabay.comFebruary 05, 2009
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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,” Shivaji Pandey, Director of FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division, said in a keynote speech at the Fourth World Congress on Conservation Agriculture in New Delhi, India. “Conservation agriculture is an essential element of that intensification.”
Conventional intensive agricultural methods have often resulted in environmental damage, leading to lower agricultural productivity rates over the long term, said Pandey.
 Tea plantation in Uganda |
“In the name of intensification in many places around the world, farmers over-ploughed, over-fertilized, over-irrigated, over-applied pesticides,” he said. “But in so doing we also affected all aspects of the soil, water, land, biodiversity and the services provided by an intact ecosystem. That began to bring yield growth rates down.”
Pandey said that sustainable agriculturee will both boost yields and help the environment by "restoring soil health, saving water and energy use and reducing the footprint of a sector which currently accounts for some 30 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions."
This article is based on materials from the U.N. and F.A.O.
