Posted on September, 2, 2022 at 08:49 am
We are faced with an almighty challenging question. How to deliver more food, more sustainably, under increasingly testing circumstances?
Robert Renwick is the Head of Business Sustainability, Europe, Africa and Middle East at Syngenta Crop Protection. Jerome Barbaron is the Head of Africa and Middle East at Syngenta Crop Protection.
The agricultural industry has always adapted and thrived by mixing a blend of old and new techniques to optimize yield. Modern advances allow growers to work smarter, with more precise crop protection, minimizing waste and impact on the environment.
However, new technologies are beyond the reach of many farmers and growers. Greater accessibility and the acceleration of the take up of improved technology and practices must be a priority for all involved in the food chain, including policy makers and the agriculture sector.
In the case of Africa, this means boosting a key sector for food security and economic growth. Increasing access to technology and know-how empowers communities and helps to unlock sustainable growth.
Spotlight on Africa
In 2020, one in five people in Africa faced starvation. The situation has deteriorated since then with COVID-19, combined with war-induced disruptions to the global cereals trade and increased prices of fertilizers and other inputs.
On top of this, there have been climate change-induced droughts, floods with consequential impacts on pests and diseases in a continent where most farmers don’t have irrigation and rely on rainfall, which is ever more erratic.
By 2050, it is expected that a quarter of the world’s population will be living in Africa, compared with less than 10% in 1950. To put this into context, the equivalent of the population of France, or Thailand, is being added to the continent every two years.
Debates around the future of food systems tend to focus on inputs rather than outcomes. This has led to limits on use of certain inputs in Europe and mirrored approaches imposed on other parts of the world. Such limits are not based on local impact assessments conducted in Africa or other parts of the world and therefore their local impact is not known nor accounted for.
It is not a level playing field. For example, mirrored approaches do not factor resources available to EU farmers in the form of subsidies, so it is not a matter of one policy should fit all. Policy needs to be tailored to reflect the differences in circumstances and available resources.
Due consideration is needed on how highly destructive pests can be managed sustainably, like the Fall Armyworm, which pose a risk to the livelihood and food security of over 300 million people.
Green Africa
Africa is undergoing a unique agricultural revolution. What this environmentally sustainable transformation will look like is currently being shaped, but it has great potential.
A uniquely African green transition will need to account for Africa’s current starting base of technology use, food security needs, smallholder realities, rainforests, tropical climates, subsidy regimes, and pest pressures to name a few.
For a key staple crop in Africa for food security and livelihoods such as maize, farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa produce under four times less per hectare than farmers in Europe.
Sustainable technology innovators have a role to play as partners in this journey towards a greener future.
Trade rather than aid
Trading rules that enable access to the necessary yield boosting technologies and subsequent access to markets, where farmers can sell their produce with ease are crucial. Improved access drives opportunities to turn subsistence farming into businesses that empower communities.
The average farm in Africa performs at 40% of its potential. The result is that annually, according to the FAO, Sub-Saharan Africa alone spends more than $40 billion a year on importing food, with a resulting hefty carbon-footprint.
Boosting food production can mean that some of the billions of dollars spent on food imports can instead be used to boost the incomes of local communities as well as improved environmental outcomes.
A message for policymakers
The world needs an outcomes-based policy approach to sustainable and regenerative agriculture to unlock the power of new technologies that have the potential to deliver greater food security in a more climate-friendly way.
Policymakers should also keep in mind the positive role trade plays. By enabling trade, parts of the world, especially Africa, can become less dependent on aid.
We stand ready to provide the necessary sustainable outcome-boosting technologies and support with know-how, but barriers to their take up must be eliminated to help accelerate the transition towards more sustainable practices.
Green ambitions and plans should be proportionate, appropriate, and practical and go hand in hand with economic and social development of successful rural communities.
Source: Euractiv