Global agricultural production has increased, but at an environmental and social cost. All over the world, some 800 million people are still undernourished, most of them in rural areas. At the same time, a similar number of people globally are overweight with obesity rates on the increase. Currently, 1.9 billion hectares of land is affected by significant land degradation. Agriculture today uses about 70 percent of the world’s freshwater, nutrient run-off from farmers’ fields’ causes pollution of all major rivers in the world, and agricultural production emits gases contributing to climate change. Food export bans and speculation disturb supplies to the poor in importing countries, even if production is sufficient. The recent global food crisis shows that agro-technology and markets alone cannot reduce hunger. A ground-breaking three-year study recently concluded that the agriculture sector should use the know-how of smallholder farmers better.
