Objectives: It is important to clarify the sustainability objectives: What is to be sustained, for
how long, and at what level? These questions have to do with national or regional policies
and goals for agricultural production. For example, in view of India's large population and for
strategic reasons, food production goals have been synonymous with food self-sufficiency.
On the other hand, China, which also with a large population, has recently been forced to
giving up the goal of self sufficiency in food grains because of severe water shortages