Sustainable smallholder agriculture: feeding the world, protecting the planet

As the world belatedly turns its attention to the pressing issues of environmental degradation, resource scarcity and climate change, the concept of sustainability takes its rightful place at centre stage in discussions about agricultural and rural development.

The Thirty-fifth Session of IFAD’s Governing Council provides a forum for Member States, partners and the public to discuss and debate what needs to be done to enable smallholder farmers to contribute to raising food availability by 60 per cent by 2050, which is what will be required to feed a growing, more urbanized population.

Over the course of the two-day event, world leaders, prominent movers and shakers, policymakers, academics and, most importantly, farmer representatives will reflect on and answer fundamental questions such as:

• • Given current knowledge aboutsustainable agriculture and the evidenceof how these approaches havesucceeded throughout the world, whyhas there not been a concerted effortfrom governments to create the policy environment for scaling up these approaches globally?
• Do subsidies of fertilizer and othernon-green inputs necessarily harm the sustainability of smallholder agriculture?
• Can green approaches – such as conservation agriculture, sustainable forest management and integrated est management – be applied universally? What are the barriers to their implementation?
• Do land acquisitions by private entities affect the adoption of sustainable agriculture?
• What are the key gaps in our knowledge of green technologies, and how can we facilitate more research and development to fill them?
• What sources of finance are available to leverage the adoption of sustainable agricultural intensification approaches, and how can we ensure that it reaches smallholders in an efficient and timely manner?
• How can public-private partnerships be promoted and used to drive green growth for smallholders? How can value chains be harnessed as pathways to scale up sustainable agriculture?