Achieving food security demands that we look at new agricultural pathways

Food systems play a pivotal role in sustainable development as they are at the centre of the nexus between food and nutrition security, human health, provision of ecosystem services, climate change and social justice.

However, the agriculture sector faces the challenge of meeting the food demands of a growing population without degrading the environment. An increased world population of nine billion people from the current seven billion by 2050 will exert pressure on the agriculture sector to produce enough food to feed the increasing global population.

Food production must increase by approximately 70% by 2050 to meet future food and nutritional demands.

But such changes will have to happen when essential resources such as water, energy and land are depleting and degrading. The challenges are compounded by climatic and environmental changes induced by unsustainable food systems.

The need to produce more food has witnessed an increase in the global cultivated area to more than a third (4.8 billion hectares) of the total global surface area (13.5 billion hectares). As a result, agriculture is among the largest contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

As achieving sustainable food systems has been elusive, there is a need for pathways that drive towards sustainability in agriculture by 2030. A sustainable food system refers to an agricultural system that delivers healthy food to meet current food requirements for all while at the same time preserving healthy and sustainable ecosystems that are capable of providing food for generations to come, with a controlled negative impact on the environment.

It is a system that encourages local production and knowledge, providing nutritious and healthy food that is available, accessible, and affordable to all at all times while protecting farmers, workers, consumers, and communities.

In this context, the promotion and mainstreaming of underutilised indigenous crops have taken centre stage as they are adapted to harsh local climatic conditions and do not require many nutrients and chemicals compared to adapted food crops like maize, wheat, and rice.

The key argument is that underutilised crops don’t require a lot of nutrients that are toxic to the environment and cause eutrophication in rivers, or require a lot of water which is scarce.

• Integrated pathways should emphasise critical biophysical and economic “leverage points” in food systems, with a focus on resource-use efficiency and on enhancing food production processes and the performance of the environment with the least effort and cost. This calls for the adoption of modern technologies that enhance productivity;


• Advances that are earmarked to improve agricultural productivity should also consider enhancing the resilience of food systems. Although high-efficiency and mechanised agriculture has many benefits, it is also highly vulnerable to disasters that include extreme weather events, novel pests and diseases, and economic shocks;


• There is an urgent need to develop methods to evaluate trade-offs of agricultural practices and balance with the advances in technological developments. Research should develop decision support tools to support management decisions, productivity, and environmental stewardship;


•  Sustainable development in the agriculture sector should be at par with technological development, as informed by circular modelling which enhances transformational change, ensuring food security and environmental performance of food systems; and


• Transitioning towards sustainable food systems should be supported by coherent policies that create a strategic and conducive environment for agroecology.