Experts warn that clearing forests to open up planting areas is no solution to ensuring global food security. In a report released on Wednesday (05), during the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP-24) in Poland, the US environmental organization World Resources Institute (WRI) shows that it is possible to increase food production and achieve environmental goals.
According to Agência Brasil, the study was done in partnership with the World Bank and the UN Environment and presents solutions to sustainably guarantee the feeding of at least ten billion people, population projection for the year 2050. Currently, the planet has 7.5 billion inhabitants.
To achieve the goal of feeding the entire population in a sustainable way, the study suggests increasing harvests and producing more milk and meat on the same amount of land and increasing the efficiency of animal use and fertilizer inputs.
Experts also suggest improvements in the productivity of small farmers in developing countries and that governments link gains in productivity and income to initiatives to protect forests and other natural areas.
Researchers point out that if there is no adaptation effort in the food production mode, carbon emissions from agriculture and other land-use activities will increase from 25 percent of the overall emissions to 70 percent. For the authors of the study, this increase would be inadmissible.
One of the problems noted in the report is the migration of agriculture to land rich in carbon and biodiversity, such as low tropical forests. One of the researchers’ recommendations is to double or even quadruple livestock productivity in the world’s most humid lands, and to adopt technological innovations in farming methods.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.