The technology challenge: Increasing productivity and protecting the environment

1
The technology challenge Increasing productivity
and protecting the environment
Plant Production and Protection Division

• Shivaji Pandey
• Director
• Plant Production and Protection Division
• FAO

2
Challenges We Face

• To feed 9 billion people in 2050, global food
  production must increase by 70 -- 80 to come
  from yield increases and 20 from area expansion

• Developing countries must almost double
  production with little possibility of land
  expansion in many countries

• Yield growth rate for cereals declining 3.2 in
  1960 to 1 in 2050

• Land area (per cap.) declining from 4.3 ha in
  1961 to 1.5 ha in 2050

• Climate change likely to add greater and
  unpredictable stresses

• Increased demand for better variety, quality and
  safety of agricultural products

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For Farmers to Increase Yield

• Greater public investment in institutions and
  infrastructure

• Improving research-extension-farmer linkages

• Better varieties and management practices

• Policies that increase use of technologies that
  raise yield and lower cost - increasing farmers
  income

4
For Farmers to Increase Yield

• Massive investment in agricultural RD

• Getting right technologies to real farmers
  women and smallholders

• Conservation Agriculture

• Improving fertilizer use efficiency

• Integrated pest management

• Irrigation and water use efficiency

• Genetic enhancement of crop plants

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Additional Technologies

• Livestock
• Genetic and feed improvement in poultry
• Heat stable Newcastle Disease vaccine
• Global Early Warning and Response System (GLEWS)

• Food Safety
• Nano-enabled rapid diagnostic tools

• Aquatic animal and plant species
• Genetic improvement for yield and feed use
  efficiency
• Modern tool for rapid identification of diseases
  and cost-effective vaccines

6
Additional Technologies

• Sustainable intensification of wood production
• through soil treatment, weed control,
  fertilization and genetic improvement for
  fast-growing plantations
• For packaging and transport of food, and 50 of
  rural household energy in 2050 to still come from
  fuelwood

• Energy and farm power in sub-Saharan Africa
• Subregion had more tractors than India in the
  1970s but has less than 10 of them in 2008

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No amount of technologies or external
assistance can feed a nation that does not itself
prioritize food security and agriculture
Norman Borlaug 1914 -2009

• Address a problem
• Multidisciplinary approach
• A single technology not enough
• Must be locally adapted
• Must be accompanied by appropriate policies
• Consideration for sustaining productivity

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Discussion Points

• Do we have right technologies available? If yes,
  why are they not being used by small farmers?
• Incentive structures needed for diffusion and
  adoption of modern technologies
• Ensuring development and deployment of
  technologies, especially for women farmers
• Increasing funding, so right and climate-change
  relevant technologies are developed Role of
  CGIAR
• Stimulating research of modern plant breeding
  techniques, regulatory and approval systems, and
  public-private partnerships
• Role of public institutions and farmers
  organizations in diffusing technologies,
  particularly to small-holder and women farmers
• Is a second green revolution possible? If yes,
  what should be its characteristics?