“Massive agriculture intensification is contributing to increased deforestation, water scarcity, soil depletion and the level of greenhouse gas emission,” Graziano da Silva said.
He stressed that while high-input and resource intensive farming systems have substantially increased food production, this has come at a high cost to the environment.
“Today, it is fundamental not only to increase production, but to do it in a way that does not damage the environment,” he said. “Nourishing people must go hand in hand with nurturing the planet.”
This is in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, he added.
“We have to move from input intense to knowledge intense production systems,” he said.
Speaking to members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Graziano da Silva highlighted the findings of the FAO's report, The future of food and agriculture: trends and challenges.
Among the 15 trends described in the report are the impacts of climate change, conflicts and migration. The FAO report also foresees 10 challenges for achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture worldwide.
In his address, he focused on four main issues: climate change; the spread of transboundary pests and diseases; food loss and waste; and the importance of eradicating not only hunger, but all forms of malnutrition in the world.
Graziano da Silva underscored that no sector is more sensitive to climate change than agriculture — especially for smallholders and family farmers from developing countries — while at the same time, agriculture and food systems account for around 30% of total greenhouse emissions.
“In agriculture, adaptation and mitigation go hand in hand,” Graziano da Silva said. “There is no trade-off between the two.”
He pointed to the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while at the same time building the resilience and promote the adaptation of farmers to the impacts of climate change.
To this end, the FAO supports countries through different initiatives and approaches, including climate-smart agriculture, agroecology and agro-forestry.
Globalization, trade and climate change, as well as reduced resilience in production systems, have all played a part in dramatically increasingly the spread of transboundary pests and disease in recent years. These constitute a major threat to the livelihoods of farmers and the food security of millions of people.
For its part, the FAO supports countries to implement prevention and surveillance system.
“Even in situations of conflict and protracted crises, we promote programs of (livestock) vaccination, as we are currently doing is South Sudan and Somalia,” he said.
According to the FAO, today the world produces enough to feed the global population, but about one third of this food is either lost or wasted, while at the same time there is also a waste of natural resources such as land and water.
The FAO currently supports about 50 countries in the area of food losses and waste, including through the SAVE FOOD initiative, a unique partnership — with more than 850 members from industry, associations, research institutes and non-governmental organizations — that addresses these issues “across the entire value chain from field to fork,” he told the European parliamentarians.
Citing estimates that indicate that nearly half of the European Union’s adult population are overweight, Graziano da Silva noted how malnutrition affects both developed and developing countries.
“The way to combat this is to transform food systems, from production to consumption, and provide healthier diets to people,” he said.
He called on the parliamentarians as lawmakers to ensure that adequate policies, programs and operational frameworks are anchored in appropriate legislation.
“Parliamentarians not only have the means to place nutrition at the highest level of the political and legislative agenda, they also can guarantee that programs will have the necessary budgets for implementation,” Graziano da Silva said.
