Over the coming 35 years, agriculture will face an unprecedented conflence of
pressures, including a 30 percent increase in the global populatin, intensifying
competiin for increasingly scarce land, water and energy resources, and the ex-
istentil threat of climate change. To provide for a populatin projected to reach
9.3 billion in 2050 and support changing dietary pattrns, estiates are that food
productin will need to increase from the current 8.4 billion tonnes to almost 13.5
billion tonnes a year. Achieving that level of productin from an already seriously
depleted natural resource base will be impossible without profound changes in
our food and agriculture systems. We need to expand and accelerate the transitin
to sustainable food and agriculture which ensures world food security, provides
economic and social opportunitis, and protects the ecosystem services on which
agriculture depends.