ELO-Syngenta "1st Forum The Future of Agriculture"
Panel: Agriculture and the Question of Food Security
HOW CAN FOOD SECURITY BE ACHIEVED (Research perspective)
Timothy Hall – Acting Director, DG Research, European Commission
The Main Issues
Some of the most important challenges we have to face are considered to be:
1. Climate change which will have many effects such as:
- more water shortages (and unpredictability of supply)
- higher temperatures
- spread of exotic or neglected animal and plant diseases
- soil degradation including desertification
2. Competition for land use between food production and:
- biomass crops for energy, fibre and green chemicals
- habitat protection and biodiversity preservation
- recreation
3. Significant global population increases (around 25%) over next 25-40 years together with rapidly increasing calorie and meat consumption per capita.
Alleviating the Problems
Since there is little potential for expanding significantly, the area of cultivated land, we need to find ways of maximising food production in a sustainable way from the land we already use for agriculture.
Research can provide a number of potential technology options for reducing the impact of these effects as well as addressing socio-economic aspects. Significant advances are possible in all aspects of agri-related research provided adequate financial resources are available: a few are cited for illustrative purposes.
Better exploitation of the genetic potential of crop plants and livestock.
This requires a greater knowledge of the genetic basis of fundamental processes and their interaction and greater use of biotechnologies. It also requires better understanding of available biodiversity and how to conserve it. In practical terms, with crop plants, we need to improve their efficiency in making use of light, water and mineral nutrients. Plant breeders have tended to select for high yields under high input regimes – it is now necessary to focus more on developing varieties that perform well with lower inputs. Particular attention should be given to stress tolerance from water shortages, salinity and excessive heat.
Two specific examples where concentrated research effort could achieve breakthroughs:
– grain-legumes have the potential to be highly environmentally (nitrogen fixing) efficient, multi-functional crops and could be grown much more widely in
- in aquaculture new sources of the Omega 3 fatty acid, currently coming from increasingly scarce supplies of fish oil and fish meal, are needed. New plant varieties will have to be developed with enhanced levels of this essential feed ingredient.
With livestock, advances in genomics and bioinformatics will assist in balanced improvement of sustainable animal production in terms of, for example, performance, susceptibility to disease, response to vaccination and behaviour.
Reduction of crop/livestock losses due to pests and pathogens.
Research can help to reduce the significant losses occurring in crops and livestock from fungal, viral and bacterial pathogens, insect and other pests and weeds with further work on genetic resistance and agronomic practices in the case of crops and development of vaccines in the case of livestock diseases. In the context of climate change we will need to anticipate the arrival of unfamiliar pests and pathogens well in advance and be ready with new control measures to combat them. Rapid detection and diagnostic methods, as well as improved surveillance are also needed here. Topical examples of major disease problems which are causing major economic losses include black stem rust, avian influenza and blue tongue.
For post-harvest crop losses, while further research is still needed, full application of existing knowledge and technologies would make a big impact.
Efficient conversion of biomass to energy and/or green chemicals.
In attempting to reduce the competition from crops grown for non-food purposes, research is concentrating on developing efficient, integrated bio-refinery processes (second and third generation) able to use crops grown specifically for biomass production as well as bio-waste. This will limit the diversion of food crops for energy purposes and will, at least, help to ensure that land is used more efficiently.
Developments in precision farming
Further developments are needed to bring high performance technologies (such as information and communication technologies, remote sensing, robotics, biosensors etc) into farming for real-time monitoring of crops and livestock including nutritional and water status and health. This will facilitate rapid decision making by the farmer, optimum use of resources and enhanced sustainability.
Enhanced Collaborative Research
The research needed is extremely complex and requires major collaborative efforts. The EU Framework Programmes are addressing these issues (and many others), and will continue to do so but with about 5% of the total European R&D effort, only part of the work can be done. What is needed is a more efficient use of the other 95% which is in the hands of the Member States. With more coordination, pooling of research efforts and joint programming, more effective use of the funds could be made. The Commission has been promoting the progressive realisation of a European Research Area (ERA) for a number of years, and for example, has facilitated the setting up of a number of ERANETs - coordination mechanisms bringing together national programme managers and/or funders on specific topics such as organic farming, plant health, and animal health. In addition, various industry sectors have set up technology platforms relevant to agriculture and related areas eg "Plants for the Future", "Farm Animal Breeding", Global Animal Health, "Food for Life" and more recently "Aquaculture". However, in order to gain more momentum, the Commission published a green paper last year to stimulate a broad institutional and public debate on ways of enhancing the process. As a result, a number of new initiatives will be introduced during the year.
I would like to stress that the Standing Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR) - revived about three years ago - is providing a very effective basis on which to build this enhanced coordination. For example, it has already organised a foresight study which has helped to focus minds on potential long term research priorities as well as highlighting the need for a properly resourced and structured, efficient agri-research system in
Since “Food security” is a global issue, international RTD collaboration beyond
Conclusion
While increased coordination across Europe and more pooling of resources will improve efficiency of the current total European research effort, many of the solutions needed to address the various complex global food security and sustainability issues, may not be found quickly enough unless in the near future, additional financial resources are allocated across Europe to agri- related research.
