Dear David

It is an interesting topic that has occupied most researchers' mind for a few decades. It is likely we need to use intensive agricultural production in order to meet future food requirement but sometimes intensive agriculture heavily depends on intensive application of agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, or even fuels. Imagine greenhouse production which is regarded as one of the best solution for intensive production. of course there are good solutions to reduce environmental burdens produced by intensive agricultural systems, i.e. in greenhouse production solar energy can be used to produce electricity instead of using fossil fuels in plants to generate electricity. application of different source of renewable energies in agricultural production along with reduction in intensive application of fertilizers and pesticides can help us to achieve sustainable production with less environmental burdens. Also, it cannot be ignored that the increase in crop yield is another solution to decrease the amount of burdens per tonne of crops.

Regard

Thanks a lot Benyamin for the brilliant response. Narrowing down on most developing countries where agriculture/food production is dominated by small-holder farmers (most of which lack knowledge/expertise on the greenhouse system of production and hindered financially in their cropping -bearing in mind land tenure implications as well), how feasible and through which educative channels do you think they can be introduced to this production system at affordable/reasonable costs? This question is being posed on the assumption that most of these small-holders are subsistence-directed as against commercialization by large scale producers (who could afford these greenhouse system)

Regards

I agree with you. But I want to come back to your initial question where you mentioned about future food needs. In this case we cannot forget the role of governments especially in developing countries. If agricultural policy makers are meant to increase the level of total production in their countries they should invest in this field and provide financial aspect of this plan for small-holder farmers. Of course it is not as simple as I have mentioned but it is better that all aspect of this topic be considerd to make a better judgement.

Interestingly, you've hit the nail right on the head. Easing access to credit for the small-holder farmers in most of the developing countries has been quite a challenge. Access has been quite a problem or that credits are made available to farmers but at a high interest rate. This precludes (and or disincentizes) farmers from adopting innovations vital for increasing agricultural output to meet the ever increasing food demands. Most of the research works I have come across so far seem to ignore the policy and political roles, focusing solely on on-field activities. So I had a problem figuring out how we can meet future food needs through intensification while reducing environmental impacts, ignoring the role of policy makers in the process (knowing that agricultural production is dominated by the poor small-holder farmers who are financially constrained in their cropping

Thanks a lot Benyamin for the brilliant responses

Very interesting notes. I guess the agriculture intensification can only be done in developing economies when agriculture land holdings can be consolidated. The average land holding in most developing countries is so small that a farmer cannot sustain himself and his family. The result is that these land holdings are fallow now and the farmers have become labors in cities. Now the government should encourage business houses to invest in mechanized agriculture and greenhouses to meet the growing food demand.

Thanks a lot Saif for the brilliant suggestion. The role of government in meeting of future food demand has mostly been ignored, with emphasis been always placed on field activities. Increasing productivity of current fields of farmers (suggested by Norman and Kebe (2006) to be low in productivity for those in Africa) from developing countries aforementioned by Benyamin indeed involves not only biophysical role, but also economic and policy/political role. Meeting the ever increasing needs of the current generation and the posterity will be an all-hand-on-deck affair (a complex interaction of forces)

yes David I agree, it I a mammoth task, but government has to take an active role. I give you an example that millions of tonnes of food grain is lost in India due to improper storage facility.

Thanks a lot Saif once again for the response. As a researcher (and a potential policy analyst), what has been your role among other researchers in drawing government's attention to the impacts of such occurrences on welfare of producers and consumers, within and without India? Has any of your efforts so far to help address this issue been appreciated by the government through implementation of policies to help address suggestions you've made so far? And have there been improvements in any way now?

David have never worked on Indian agriculture policies but have studied and followed closely. As part of EIA I have looked to agriculture and crop water requirements in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait some of the recommendations from our research were followed and had led to huge savings in irrigated water, and recently in recovering a substantial quantity of agriculture land which was waterlogged due to improper irrigation practices. In Saudi Arabia that problem was severe in eastern area and in Kuwait in south. But we were able to advise authorities on the root case and environmental implications. 95% of wells were plugged, treated waste wart is being supplied instead for irrigation but still the gravity irrigation is being used which we advised against. But enforcement of such practice is more challenging for government and it is a problem on part of farmers.

Oh ok, that's quite an excellent and great role you played there. Having identified loose strings in India now, why don't you try as well to make some policy recommendations through research to help mitigate any adverse implications on future food supply and poverty reduction of the current situation?

Hi David , interesting discussion. I'm thinking to do my dissertation in sustainable intensification in Oman aiming to cover the gap between the actual and potential yield? what do you think the proper scheme to do this?

cheers