Food security and ecosystem services in a changing world: it is time for agroecology

Tittonell Pablo. 2014. Food security and ecosystem services in a changing world: it is time for agroecology. In : Abstracts for the International Symposium on Agroecology for Food Security and Nutrition. Scientific knowledge session, 18 September 2014. FAO. Rome : FAO, Résumé, 5-6. International Symposium on Agroecology for Food Security and Nutrition, Rome, Italie, 18 Septembre 2014/19 Septembre 2014.

Résumé : Most of the agricultural land in the world is currently producing below its capacity (e.g ., van Ittersum et al., 2013). At global scale, however, the average yield of most major crops has increased steadily over the last 50 years (FAO, 2012). Such growth has been unequal across the world and today's productivity tends to be the lowest in the poorest regions of the world, where food is most needed, and even lower for the least resource-endowed farmers at any given location (Tittonell and Giller, 2013). Although, globally speaking, the world produces enough food calories to feed everyone (2700 Kcal person-1 day-1 produced vs. 1800 to 2100 Kcal person-1 day-1 required - W HO, 2013), food production per capita remains at the same level as in the 1960s in the least favored regions of the world (W F P, 2012). In such regions, inadequate models of agricultural development coupled with increasing (settled) population densities in rural areas led to severe degradation of the natural resource base. Most farmers in these regions do not have access, cannot afford or are unwilling to adopt 'modern' agricultural technologies. Such technologies were not developed to fit their reality of their systems and their environment and hence they are ineffective at increasing crop and livestock productivity. In the most affluent regions of the world, by contrast, agricultural intensification through the use of inputs in excess of what their factor elasticity would dictate led to environmental pollution with often noxious consequences for human health and high costs for society as a whole (costs that are never internalised in the price paid for the agricultural produce). Climate change further threatens both food production and environmental risks in the South and in the North. The time has come to rethink our current agricultural model, one that has been conceived to address the world's problems in a completely different historical context. It is time for a new agricultural model that ensures that enough quality food is produced where it is most needed, that preserves nature and that delivers ecosystem services of local and global relevance. It is time for agroecology. I will explore this concept as put forward by different schools of thought around the world, and provide evidence from science, practice and policy on the potential of agroecology to propend to restorative, adaptable, inclusive and resource use efficient agriculture. (Texte intégral)

Classification Agris : F08 - Systèmes et modes de culture
E14 - Économie et politique du développement
A01 - Agriculture - Considérations générales

Auteurs et affiliations

• Tittonell Pablo, CIRAD-PERSYST-UPR AIDA (NLD)

Source : Cirad-Agritrop (https://agritrop.cirad.fr/576231/)

Métriques

[ Page générée et mise en cache le 2024-03-29 ]