Helping farmers innovate to harvest more from less
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By 2050, we face the challenge of feeding 50% more people
within the finite and diminishing resources on the planet.
Significant investment is going into the development of
new crop varieties that will offer higher yields, greater
pest resistance or better tolerance of adverse conditions.
There is also a vigorous debate about the potential to
extend available farmland and increase the global area
under cultivation. These developments can be only part of
the solution. Agriculture will face increasing competition
for scarce water and land resources as society seeks
to balance its needs and desires for more food with
demands for increasingly scarce (and hence lucrative)
mineral resources, space for urbanisation, protection of ecosystems and
protection of biodiversity. Simply expanding agricultural capacity will not
be sufficient. We must lose less of what we already grow and use existing
inputs more efficiently if we are to meet the challenge of achieving global
food security. On average, 40% of the crops grown worldwide are lost
to pests and diseases before they reach the consumer, on top of which
is wastage during processing, spoilage at retailers and over-purchasing by
consumers. This paper considers how innovations in pest management,
water usage, fertiliser technology and soil health improvement can help us
feed more people. To be effective, new technologies or techniques must be
communicated to and adopted by farming communities around the world
for innovation and uptake to take place. In the face of a chronic shortage of
funding, skills and resources to support extension systems worldwide, this
paper also looks at how new approaches and technologies can be used to
get relevant actionable information to rural smallholders.