the nfu champions british farming and provides professional representation and services to its...
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The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
Sustainable IntensificationThe challenges
Rachel Carrington
NFU Senior Policy Adviser
16 November 2011
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
The ‘perfect storm’:• Population – 9 billion by 2050 (+50%)• Income growth and changing consumption
patterns• A doubling of world food demand in just 39
years!• Greater demand for water and energy• Increased urbanisation
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
Sustainable Intensification
An integrating concept to meet all primary challenges:
“Simultaneously raising productivity, increasing resource use efficiency and reducing negative environmental impacts of agriculture”
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
Sustainable IntensificationProducing as efficiently as possible on the smallest footprint of land capable of delivering market requirements is the “greenest” and usually the most profitable way to farm.
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
Current global land use (13,009Mha)
Forest & Savannah
Cereals5% Pasture & Range
26%
30%
Other crops7%
Desert/mountain/ice
32%
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
The global significance of crop loss due to diseases, pests and weeds
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
Sustainable intensification will contribute to:• Reducing GHG emissions and adapting to climate change
• Increasing production efficiency
• Increasing competitiveness
• Land sparing for:
• carbon capture and storage
• bioenergy
• biodiversity conservation
• Maintaining ecosystems services
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
How do we meet the challenge of increasing food production?
• Need the right price and;• the right policy signals• Greater productivity• Increased efficiency • Farm more efficiently on the most productive
land
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
Solutions• Increase R&D spend • Increased use of technology
– GPS/GIS– Precision farming– Machinery
• Crop and variety choice – genetics and plant breeding• Biotechnology• Attention to detail• Policies that recognise the need for food security
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
Dairy farming Mexico style 12,000 cows
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
Soya harvest/cotton sowing Brazil style
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
The global food system must not fail on sustainability...
• Sustainability needs to move to centre stage
• Agriculture currently consumes 70% of total global water withdrawals from rivers and aquifers
• Agriculture directly contributes 10-12% of GHG emissions
• Ever increasing public interest in the countryside
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
Six main points• UK challenges and global challenges are closely connected
• R&D is essential (but not sufficient)
• Efficient land use and its management provide the key to meeting the challenge (= “Sustainable Intensification”)
• A focus is needed on increasing and realising genetic potential as well as reducing waste and environmental impact
• Innovation which adopts an “ecosystems approach” coupled with new technologies is necessary
• Climate change presents opportunities as well as risks and adaptation will require investment (and more information)
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
Sustainable Intensification
Environmental Sustainability
Alex Dinsdale
NFU Countryside Policy Adviser
16th November 2011
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
Environmental schemes
• Part of the Common Agricultural Policy
• Since the 1980s
• ESA and CSS
• Environmental Stewardship
• CAP reform
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
Campaign for the Farmed Environment
• Promotion of, and an add-on to, Environmental Stewardship
• Targets to hit by June
• An alternative to regulation
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
Water quality
• Water Framework Directive
• Catchment sensitive farming
• AE schemes
• Nitrates Directive
• Education and awareness
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
Water availability• Variability and unpredictability of
precipitation
• Likely to become more of a problem
• More reservoirs
• Rainwater harvesting, water management efficiency
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
Climate Change
• Renewable energy – many options
• Scale
• Diversification
• Energy
• Adaptation
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
Soil• Not as much focus as there should be –
will this change?
• Cultivation
• Organic matter
• Climate adaptation
• Water pollution
The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members
CAP reform
• Greening–Ecological Focus Areas
–Rotation
–Permanent pasture ploughing ban