4.4. Increase productivity and conserve natural resources
Increasing the productivity of smallholders, fishers and foresters
through appropriate application of good practices and improved
technologies should be a priority for developing countries wishing
to achieve food security. This was also underlined at the UN Summit
in New York on 20–22 September 2010, when Heads of State
and Government committed themselves to accelerating progress
in order to achieve Millennium Development Goal 1 through a
series of actions, including “Increasing the growth rate of agricultural
productivity in developing countries through promoting
the development and dissemination of appropriate, affordable and
sustainable agricultural technology, as well as the transfer of such
technologies on mutually agreed terms, and supporting agricultural
research and innovation, extension services and agricultural
education in developing countries” (UN, 2010).
Increasing productivity can improve food security in two ways.
First, the increasing demand for agricultural products in low- and
middle-income countries provides an opportunity for the rural
poor to increase their incomes and to improve their livelihoods.
Second, increased productivity can also lead to reduced food prices,
benefiting many poor people in both urban and rural areas (the
rural landless) as poor households typically spend a large proportion
of their income on food.
Increased productivity should be achieved while simultaneously
conserving the natural resource base upon which future
productivity increases depend. In this way, the farmer’s income
growth can be combined with truly sustainable resource use. The
importance of productivity increases is especially clear if it is considered
that increases in food production for the future may only
come in part from further expansion of agricultural lands and that
the majority should come from increased yields per unit of land.
This challenge is made more difficult by climate change, which
is expected to have significant impacts on agriculture and food
production patterns, and the fact that reduced investments in agriculture
have led to a slowdown in productivity growth compared to
previous decades. It is therefore necessary to substantially increase
investments in international and national public agricultural R&D,
strengthening, in particular, the Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and the national agricultural
research systems.