Planting the future: opportunities and challenges for using ... - EASAC

1 Introduction
1.1 Global societal challenges
A billion people experience hunger and another billion
lack essential vitamins and minerals in their diet (FAO,
2010; Fan and Olofinbuyi, 2012). Agriculture faces some
major inter-connected challenges in delivering food
security; sustainably balancing future supply and demand,
at a time of increasing pressures from population growth,
changing consumption patterns and dietary preferences,
and post-harvest losses. These problems are compounded
by climate change, social and economic inequity and
instability, and the continuing imperative to avoid further
loss in ecosystems biodiversity (IAASTD, 2008; Godfray
et al., 2010). One-quarter of all agricultural land is
highly degraded, yet over the next 40 years, agricultural
production must increase by 60%, sustainably and with
fairer distribution, to provide global food security, a
major contributor to social stability (OECD–FAO, 2012).
At the same time, there are growing opportunities and
demands for the use of biomass to provide additional
renewables, for example energy for heat, power and fuel,
pharmaceuticals and green chemical feedstocks.
The European Union (EU) is not immune from these
challenges for food and other products (European
Commission, 2011b) and there are particular problems
regarding the sustainability of current agricultural
practices in terms of water and fertiliser use, the
degradation of land with deterioration in soil quality and
loss of other natural resources. The introduction of new
EU legislation requiring farmers to reduce reliance on
crop protection chemicals creates additional challenges
for maintaining levels of production. For at least the
past decade, yield increases on farms have been limited
or static for most major crops in the EU (House of Lords
European Union Committee, 2010) despite the increasing
genetic potential provided by improved varieties and
evident from trial plots. The need to increase agricultural
productivity and efficiency in developed as well as in
developing countries is now well accepted and this will
require policy and action to capitalise on the scientific
advances that have emanated from recent publicly
funded investment in the EU and elsewhere.
Previous EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) measures
focused on constraining production. The lack of political
priority to generate greater efficiency in the EU has
inevitably led to considerable exploitation of land mass
outside EU borders for EU needs; this is estimated to
be equivalent to the size of Germany (about 35 million
hectares; von Witzke and Noleppa, 2010). As well as
being a significant exporter, the EU is now the world’s
largest importer of agricultural commodities. Currently
less than half of the food and feed consumed in the EU
is produced within its borders (EASAC, 2012). However,
EU policy is changing to support food security (European
Commission 2011b; Joint Research Centre, 2011). Better
use of advances in science can help to close the present
gap between supply and demand, enabling the EU both
to generate a higher proportion of its domestic food
requirements and to contribute solutions to the global
food and feed challenges.
1.2 The strategic framework for generating and
using science
The sustainable production of more food requires crops
that can make better use of limited resources, including
land, water and fertilisers. The necessary strengthening of
innovation in agricultural production systems will require
a new commitment to research, education, infrastructure
and extension services (OECD–FAO, 2012). Capitalising
on the improved use of plant genetic resources is seen as
a critical part of the necessary response to the challenges
for food and farming. No new technology should be
excluded a priori on ideological grounds (Pretty, 2008;
Government Office for Science, 2011).
Historically, EU researchers have played a major role
in advancing the multi-disciplinary science that is
essential for agricultural innovation, but they need to
be encouraged to continue doing so. The European
Commission has already recognised that efforts to
increase agricultural research can be an important part
of ensuring food security (European Commission, 2008).
However, the increased requirement for innovation
has yet to be aligned with the reform of CAP or with
biodiversity and rural development activities that can
also do more to support genetic diversity in agriculture
(European Commission, 2011a). Even though its main
focus is on industrial biotechnology, the European
Commission’s adoption of the Bioeconomy Strategy
for Europe (European Commission, 2012a) is welcome
in encouraging further investment in research and
innovation as well as advocating reinforcement of a
coherent policy framework and market conditions in
delivering food security. However, as the European
Commission Staff Working document accompanying
the Strategy (European Commission, 2012b)
observes, there are justified concerns about the longterm
competitiveness of European industry for the
bioeconomy, increasingly losing out to other players, ‘…
thus it has already lost leadership in plant biotechnology’.
This assessment is realistic, if disappointing: at the onset
of the biotechnology era more than three decades
ago, Europe was competitive with the USA in plant
genetic research. It is vital that sustainable agricultural
production and food security harnesses the potential of
biotechnology in all its facets. There are still considerable
strengths in the underpinning sciences in many Member
EASAC Planting the future | June 2013 | 3