Agriculture%20at%20a%20Crossroads_Global%20Report%20(English)

24 | IAASTD Global Report
where 0.8 million hectares were planted in 2004 using this
system (Malik, Yadav and Singh, 2005).
Broader adoption of conservation agriculture practices
would result in numerous environmental benefits such as decreased
soil erosion and water loss due to runoff, decreased
carbon dioxide emissions and higher carbon sequestration,
reduced fuel consumption, increased water productivity, less
flooding, and recharging of underground aquifers (World
Bank, 2004a).
Agriculture, agrifood systems and value chains
Agrifood systems are described as including a range of activities
involved at every step of the food supply chain from
producing food to consuming it, the actors that both participate
in and benefit from these activities, and the set of
food security, environmental and social welfare outcomes
to which food system activities contribute (Ericksen, 2006).
They include the primary agriculture sector and related service
industries (i.e., veterinary and crop dusting services);
the food and beverage, tobacco and non-food processing
sectors; the distribution sector (wholesale and retail); and
the food service sector. Value chains are multinational enterprises
or systems of governance that link firms together in a
variety of sourcing and contracting arrangements for global
trade. Lead firms, predominantly located in industrialized
countries and comprising multinational manufacturers,
large retailers and brand-name firms, construct these chains
and specify all stages of product production and supply
(Gereffi et al., 2001). The value chain perspective shifts the
focus of agriculture from production alone to a whole range
of activities from designing to marketing and consumption.
Agrifood systems range from traditional systems that are
localized where food, fuel and fiber are consumed close to
the production areas using local resources, to large agrifood
industries that are globalized and linked to integrated value
chains. Traditional systems may include hunter-gathering
and peasant agriculture that meet the needs of the community
from local resources. The major traditional agrifood
systems comprise small family farms that supply products
to the local markets but are continuously being transformed
in response to market signals. At the other end, there are
large agrifood industries consisting of international or transnational
companies that are globalized and integrated into
complete value chains. These systems are continuously being
transformed by market and consumer demands, with new
agrifood systems emerging that consider social and environmental
aspects and use technological innovations. Organic
agriculture is an example, which showed rapid growth in
the 1990s in Europe, where 4% of EU agricultural land area
is now organic, compared with only 0.3% in North America
(Willer and Yussefi, 2006).
Agrifood systems have a strong influence on culture,
politics, societies, economics and the environment, and their
interactions affect food system activities. Agrifood system
activities can be grouped accordingly: producing, processing
and packaging, distributing and retailing, and consuming
(Zurek, 2006). As the agrifood systems become more sophisticated
and globalized, they have to adhere to regulations
and standards to meet product safety and quality, and
consumers’ specific needs in order to survive. New and more
innovative technology in food production, post-harvest
treatment, processing, packaging and sanitary treatment are
now playing a more important role.
Agriculture and the environment
Land cover and biodiversity changes. Beyond its primary
function of supplying food, fiber, feed and fuel, agricultural
activity can have negative effects such as leading to pollution
of water, degradation of soils, acceleration of climate
change, and loss of biodiversity. Conversion of land for production
of food, timber, fiber, feed and fuel is a main driver
of biodiversity loss (MA, 2005b). Many agricultural production
systems worldwide have not sufficiently adapted to
the local/regional ecosystems, which has led to disturbances
of ecosystem services that are vital for agricultural production.
Requirements for cropland are expected to increase
until 2050 by nearly 50% in a maximum scenario, but
much less in other, more optimistic scenarios (CA, 2007;
see Figure 1-11).
Soil degradation has direct impacts on soil biodiversity,
on the physical basis of plant growth and on soil and water
quality. Processes of water and wind erosion, and of physical,
chemical and biological degradation are difficult to reverse
and costly to control once they have progressed. The
Global Assessment of Human-induced Soil Degradation
(GLASOD) showed that soil degradation in one form or another
occurs in virtually all countries of the world. About
2,000 million hectares are affected by soil degradation. Water
and wind erosion accounted for 84% of these damages,
most of which were the result of inappropriate land management
in various agricultural systems, both subsistence
and mechanized (Oldeman et al., 1990).
Water quality and quantity changes. Access to enough, safe
and reliable water is crucial for food production and poverty
reduction. Most people without access to an improved
water source are in Asia, but their number has been rapidly
decreasing since 1995, which is less the case in sub-Saharan
Africa, Latin America, West Asia and Northern Africa (see
Figure 1-12).
However, putting more water into agricultural services
threatens environmental sustainability. Water management
in agriculture thus has to overcome this dilemma (CA,
2007). Intensive livestock production is probably the largest
sectoral source of water pollution and is a key player
in increasing water use, accounting for over 8% of global
human water use (Steinfeld et al., 2006). Excessive use of
agrochemicals (pesticides and fertilizers) contaminates waterways.
Better management of human and animal wastes
will improve water quality. Agriculture uses 85% of freshwater
withdrawals in developing countries, mainly for use
in irrigation, and water scarcity is becoming an acute problem,
limiting the future expansion of irrigation (CA, 2007).
Water conservation and harvesting also have an important
potential for rainfed farming (Liniger and Critchley, 2007)
as water scarcity is widespread.
Climate change: Climate change influences and is influenced
by agricultural systems. The impact of climate change
on agriculture is due to changes in mean temperature and
to seasonal variability and extreme events. Global mean
temperature is very likely to rise by 2-3°C over the next