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Recognizing the complexity and severity of food insecurity and the environmental challenges it poses, the Aspen Institute's Food Security Strategy Group met in Milan this week to discuss how to take a long-term, global, systems approach to understanding and optimizing food security over the next 30 years. The group’s third dialogue was specifically scheduled in Milan to take advantage of the Milan Expo 2015, which is focusing on food security under the theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.”
GEF CEO Naoko Ishii, a member of the group, attended the dialogue to share perspectives on the importance of environmental sustainability and resilience for food security in the coming decades. “I believe there is a way that agriculture can meet the sharp increase in demand for food without compromising natural capital and the vital ecosystem, which are the basis for future development,” said Ms. Ishii. She highlighted the new U$S 120 million flagship program approved by the last GEF Council Meeting as a model for integrating environmental management into agriculture to promote sustainability and resilience: “To pursue our thinking in the GEF, we are launching a new flagship program we call an Integrated Approach to Foster Sustainability and Resilience of Food Security in Africa,” she continued.
Challenges in this area are mounting dramatically. The world population will grow from current 7 billion to 9 billion, with 3 billion more middle class by 2050. This demands not only more food but more energy, transport, and buildings. Agriculture is expected to meet the growing demand for food by 70%. The global challenge ahead of us is how to feed the growing population while reducing the footprint of agriculture land-use change, tropical deforestation, global greenhouse gas emissions, and use of freshwater.
This challenge is particularly acute in Africa, where about one quarter of Africa’s population is undernourished today. Crop yields are the lowest in the world. Soil quality is poor. Meanwhile the demand for food in Africa will grow more rapidly in the coming decades, due to a dramatic increase in Africa’s population, namely doubling by 2050.
Therefore, “the focus of our program is to help small holders manage their natural capital in a sustainable manner—the land, soil, water, vegetation and genetic resources that are vital for continued and increased agricultural productivity,” explained Ishii. For example, the program will help small holders to strengthen the management of soil health, improve management of water to sustain flows, and enhance on-farm agro-biodiversity. The GEF will also support governments, both central and local, to strengthen institutional frameworks that promote sustainable intensification of small-holders’ agricultural production.
“A paradigm shift is needed in agricultural development that places natural capital at the heart of investment decisions for long-term sustainability and resilience,” concluded Ishii. She recognized the effort done by the Aspen Institute in creating the space for this timely and critical debate: “Serious preemptive intervention is needed to ensure that the agriculture of tomorrow can both feed the world and reduce its harmful footprint on the environment.”