Plants that capture insects in Kenya and the use of ducks in Bangladesh to eat weeds in rice fields are among the examples of measures taken to increase foodproduction for the world’s population, the UN says it will reach 7 billion people this year and 9 billion by 2050.
“Agriculture is at a crossroads,” the study said Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food in a campaign to reduce the record prices of food and avoid industrial farming model, which has high cost and is dependent on oil.
The “agroecology” can also make agriculture more resilient to the projected impact of climate change, including droughts, floods and high sea levels, which, according to thereport, has made fresh water near some coastal salt could be used for other irrigation.
Until now, eco-agriculture projects in 57 countries brought average gains of 80 percent in crops, using natural methods to enrich the soil and protect against pests, says thereport.
Recent projects in 20 African countries led to the doubling of harvests within three to ten years. According to the survey, these lessons can be replicated in other parts of the world.
“The correct ecological agriculture can increase production significantly and in the long run, be more effective than conventional farming,” said De Schutter told Reuters, referring to measures such as greater use of natural fertilizers or tall trees to shade the coffee.
The benefits are greater “in regions where little effort has been invested in agriculture, especially in sub-Saharan Africa,” he said. “There are also several very promising experiences in parts of Latin America and Asia.”
“The cost of food production has been closely monitoring the cost of oil,” he said. The riots in Tunisia and Egypt were partly linked to dissatisfaction with rising food prices.
“If food prices are not controlled, and people can not feed themselves, we will see increasingly troubled states and the emergence of more failed states,” said De Schutter.
De Schutter also called for a campaign to diversify the overall agricultural production, to reduce dependence on rice, wheat and maize in the diets.
But, he said, developed countries will fail to adhere to agroecology quickly due to their “dependency” of an industrial model of agriculture based on petroleum. Even so, the author of the study requires a comprehensive long-term effort towards ecological agriculture.
Cuba has demonstrated that change is possible, after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, cut off their supply of cheap fertilizers and pesticides. After a drop in the 1990s, Cuban agricultural production rose again, to the extent that farmers have adopted more environmentally friendly methods of cultivation. For the latest updates PRESS CTR + D or visit Stock Market news Today
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