Abstract
Agricultural and food system can unequivocally be described as major agent of global change since it has been responsible for more environmental externalities than any other technology in a variety of ways. This system has also had a major impact on humanity, notably through the process of development with which it is intimately associated. In the meantime, the converse aspect of the relationship between agriculture, environment, and people means that the environmental, socioeconomic, and technological developments have had, and will continue to have, repercussions for agricultural and food system. Thus, the real agricultural and food challenges of the future will differ according to their geopolitical and socio-economic contexts. From a policy viewpoint, however, it is also critical to understand the degree to which agriculturally related activities may contribute to global-scale environmental change and the extent to which policies to prevent, mitigate, or adapt to environmental change may themselves affect agriculture and food security. With reference to this multidimensional approach, the present chapter analyses the interactions between agriculture and global environmental change and highlights the related dynamics pertaining to socio-economic drivers, science and technology. Policy implications are underlined within the perspective of making these interactions sustainable and human security-oriented.
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Notes
- 1.
The concept of global change is now well understood and to a large extent accepted amongst scientists, agencies and the informed public. Issues such as climatic change, desertification or the loss of biodiversity are not only major media topics, they are also regulated by international conventions aimed at finding solutions to these problems, inter alia through choices related to policy, technology, economics, and social awareness.
- 2.
The case of Sudan can be given as example.
- 3.
Africa is the only continent that has yet to achieve food surpluses. This continent has not been able to increase its agricultural production to keep pace with population growth, leading to periods of decline or stagnation in its food and total agricultural outputs per capita. Africa has yet to experience the kind of technological revolution enjoyed elsewhere and still uses few modern inputs in agricultural production. As a result, yields of all major crops in Africa have grown little over the past 40 years and cereal yields have stagnated for the past 20 years. Moreover, and while hunger is now largely a distributional problem in most parts of the world, Africa still faces the additional burden of a classic food shortage problem. Sub-Saharan Africa still relies on food aid, and the food gap is projected to increase significantly in the future (Hazell and Wood, 2008), especially within the perspective of climate change, water shortage and conflicts.
- 4.
Food security is essential to support the health and nutrition that are vital for sustained progress in developing nations. Up to 1/3 of child mortality in these countries is a direct consequence of malnutrition (WHO, 2009). Diseases like malaria are also spreading to new geographic areas due to climate change (IPCC, 2007), further impeding the productivity of agricultural workers and others. Tackling the impacts of climate change on malaria, malnutrition and diarrheal disease could add as much as 1 % of current gross domestic product (GDP) in sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia up to 2030 (Accenture et al., 2011).
- 5.
Concerns about the food security dangers of current biofuels development have prompted the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Jean Ziegler to call biofuels a “crime against humanity.” In 2008, when food prices were soaring, he demanded an international five-year ban on biofuels production (Ziegler, 2008).
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Behnassi, M., Shahid, S., Gopichandran, R. (2014). Agricultural and Food System—Global Change Nexus: Dynamics and Policy Implications. In: Behnassi, M., Shahid, S., Mintz-Habib, N. (eds) Science, Policy and Politics of Modern Agricultural System. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7957-0_1
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