Graphics: Why agriculture needs to be greener

Agriculture has one of the highest potentials for reducing carbon emissions and helping vulnerable people adapt to climate change. As it stands, industrial agriculture that uses toxic chemical inputs of fertilizer and pesticides for growing highly destructive monocultures and antibiotics for animals that are fed unnatural foods in terribly confined conditions is taking a huge toll on the planet. Agriculture is one of the world’s biggest causes of deforestation and, thus, loss of biodiversity and vastly increased rate of species extinction; currently species are disappearing at 50-500 times faster than background fossil record rates. If we continue at current rates, another 10bn ha of natural ecosystems would be converted to agriculture by 2050. This type of land use change is the single most largest contributor to emissions in developing countries, making agriculture responsible for 18 percent of all GHG emissions in the world (74 percent of which are in Developing Countries) – which is larger than the whole of the transport sector. Intensive farming practices have added to soil degradation so much so that 17 percent of Earth´s vegetated land in now classified as degraded. In addition, agriculture consumed 90 percent of global freshwater during the last century and because renewable freshwater stocks are very low, demand from the projected additional 2.3bn people by 2050  will need to be met from existing irrigated land. This is particularly a problem since 64 percent of the world´s population is projected to live in water-stressed areas by 2025. While additional pressures on agriculture are coming from new projects such as carbon sequestration and the rising global demand for biofuel crops.

The agricultural sector is central to the economies of the least developed countries (LDCs). It represents a large share of gross domestic product (GDP) (from 30 to 60 per cent in two-thirds of them around) and employs a significant proportion of the workforce. Although agricultural development is not a panacea solution as was recently argued by Mieke Dale-Harris, many countries where agriculture is important cannot really move forward on the path of economic expansion, the poverty reduction and greater food security if they do not value green economy and potential productive capacity of the agricultural sector. For today’s Monday Graphic series we share with you a short video produced by Farming First that puts this in a good perspective. The clip tells The Story of Agriculture and the Green Economy, arguing that we need to make global agricultural greener if we are to reach sustainable livelihoods for all.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE: The Story of Agriculture and the Green Economy

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Garance Marcotte is a research and communications intern with INESAD.

For your reference:

FAO (2010) “Climate Change and its Impact on Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries Production in Latin America and the Caribbean”,Conference Paper, 31^st Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean, Panama City, Panama, 26 to 30 April 2010. Available online at: http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/018/k7837e.pdf

Khan S. & Hanjra M. A. (2009) “Footprints of water and energy inputs in food production – Global perspectives”, Food Policy, Vol. 34, pp. 130–140

FAO (2009) “Global Agriculture Towards 2050″, How to Feed The World 2050 Series Paper, Available online at:http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/wsfs/docs/Issues_papers/HLEF2050_Global_Agriculture.pdf

FAO (2006) “Livestock´s long shadow: environmental issues and options”, Available for download at: http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.HTM