Small-scale farms could abate world hunger – UN

Small-scale “eco-farming” could double food production in many of the world ’s poorest regions and also help fight climate change, according to a United Nations report.

The spectre of world hunger looms ever larger as the global population continues to balloon, especially in the least-developed nations.

Today, more than a billion of the planet’s nearly seven billion people live at the edge of subsistence on less than a dollar per day.

Food prices have flared in recent years due to climate-related natural disasters, with the cost of several staple foods reaching unprecedented levels last month, according to the UN’s Food Price Index.

By mid-century, when the global population is expected to surpass nine billion, food shortages will become even more critical, as will the need for additional output.

But the key to boosting output in poor countries is a shift from mono-crops doused with chemical fertilisers and pesticides to more sustainable techniques that can both increase yields and repair the environment, the report said.

“We are not in a situation in which agriculture can only be about increasing production,” said lead author Olivier De Schutter, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.

“It must also be about limiting the impact on ecosystems ... and preserving agro-biodiversity. It must be about increasing the income of the farmers.”

Conventional farming degrades soils, fuels climate change, is vulnerable to weather shocks, and relies on expensive inputs, he pointed out.

UN investigators searched scientific literature published in the last five years to identify agricultural techniques that work best in poor countries.