A transformation of today’s predominant agriculture paradigms is urgently needed because conventional (industrial) agriculture as practiced in the developed world has achieved high productivity levels primarily through high levels of inputs (some of which have limited known natural reserves), such as chemical fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides; extensive farm mechanisation; high use of transportation fuels; increased water use that often exceeds hydrologic recharge rates; and higher yielding crop varieties resulting in a high ecological footprint. Similarly, traditional (subsistence) agriculture as practiced in most developing countries, which has much lower productivity, has often resulted in the excessive extraction of soil nutrients and conversion of forests to farmland.
The need for improving the environmental performance of agriculture is underscored by the accelerating depletion of inexpensive oil and gas reserves; continued surface mining of soil nutrients; increasing scarcity of freshwater in many river basins; aggravated water pollution by poor nutrient management and heavy use of toxic pesticides and herbicides; erosion; expanding tropical deforestation, and the annual generation of nearly a third of the planet’s global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).
Agriculture that is based on a green economy vision integrates location-specific organic resource inputs and natural biological processes to restore and improve soil fertility; achieve more efficient water use; increase crop and livestock diversity; support integrated pest and weed management and promotes employment and smallholder and family farms.
Green agriculture could nutritiously feed the global population up to 2050, if worldwide transition efforts are immediately initiated and this transition is carefully managed. This transformation should particularly focus on improving farm productivity of smallholder and family farms in regions where increasing population and food insecurity conditions are most severe. Rural job creation would accompany a green agriculture transition, as organic and other environmentally sustainable farming often generate more returns on labour than conventional agriculture. Local input supply chains and post-harvest processing systems would also generate new non-farm, value added enterprises and higher skilled jobs. Higher proportions of green agricultural input expenses would be retained within local and regional communities,
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and the increased use of locally sourced farm inputs would substitute for many imported agri-chemical inputs, helping to correct developing countries’ foreign trade imbalances.
Ecosystem services and natural capital assets would be improved by reduced soil erosion and chemical pollution, higher crop and water productivity, and decreased deforestation. A greener agriculture has the potential to substantially reduce agricultural GHG emissions by annually sequestering nearly 6 billion tonnes of atmospheric CO2
. The cumulative effect of
green agriculture in the long term will provide the adaptive resilience to climate-change impacts.
Investments are needed to enhance and expand supply-side capacities, with farmer training, extension services, and demonstration projects focusing on green farming practices that are appropriate for specific local conditions and that support both men and women farmers. Investments in setting up and capacity building of rural enterprises are also required.
Additional investment opportunities include scaling up production and diffusing green agricultural inputs (e.g. organic fertilisers, biopesticides, etc.), no-tillage cultivation equipment, and improved access to higher yielding and more resilient crop varieties and livestock. Investments in post-harvest storage handling and processing equipment, and improved market access infrastructures would be effective in reducing food losses and waste.
In addition to production assets, investments are
required to increase public institutional research and development in organic nutrient recovery, soil fertility dynamics, water productivity, crop and livestock diversity, biological and integrated pest management, and post-harvest loss reduction sciences.
Secure land rights, and good governance, as well as infrastructure development (e.g. roads, electrification, the internet, etc.) are critical enabling conditions for success, especially in the rural sector and particularly in developing countries. These investments would have multiple benefits across a wide range of green economy goals and enable the rapid transition to greener agriculture.
Public policies are needed to provide agriculture subsidies that would help defray the initial transition costs