Countries are facing multiple challenges in the pursuit of sustainable agricultural development. At the global level, nutritious food needs to be produced for a population of 9 billion by 2050 while keeping emissions from agriculture and land uses – currently 30% – in check. Yet, negotiators at this year’s UN climate change conference walked away from climate-smart agriculture. On the local level, smallholder farmers still do not have sufficient access to information and resources for climate adaptation and sustainable agriculture.
Sustainable Development Goals, set to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, provide an opportunity for supporting sustainable land use across sectors. The Sustainable Development Solutions Network, a collaboration of research institutes, civil society and private sector groups informing the United Nations sustainable development process, has issued a policy brief focused on the role of agriculture in the Sustainable Development Goals.
The authors propose a list of ten Sustainable Development Goals. Six of them are directly related to agriculture (marked with * ), the others have indirect links:
- End extreme poverty, including hunger*
- Achieve development within planetary boundaries
- Ensure effective learning for all children and youth for life and livelihood
- Achieve gender equality, social inclusion and human rights for all
- Achieve health and wellbeing at all ages*
- Improve agriculture systems and raise rural prosperity*
- Empower inclusive, productive and resilient cities
- Curb human-induced change and ensure sustainable energy*
- Secure ecosystem services and biodiversity, and ensure good management of water and other natural resources*
- Transform governance for sustainable development*
Achieving these ambitious goals for agriculture will require major transformational shifts across sectors. Goal 6, for example, recognizes that agricultural solutions need to be sensitive to other factors: food production systems can only be sustainable if they combine high yields with high efficiency of water, nutrients and energy. One target should therefore aim at the halt of forest and wetland conversion to agriculture, while ensuring that farming systems are resilient to climate change and disasters.
Targets for rural development should stress equity, by securing farmers’ land rights and increasing the proportion of rural households with access to low-interest credits.
The authors conclude that more complex and cross-cutting measures will also require significantly improved data collection and greater investments into monitoring rural systems.
At the recent Global Landscapes Forum in Warsaw during the UNFCCC COP19, participants discussed landscapes approaches as one way of assessing land uses and their development benefits. A High-level panel discussed experiences from various country specific and institutional backgrounds:
