Supporting the agricultural transition, the keystone of sustainable food
Just like there is no food without water, there is no food without agriculture either. By 2050, agriculture will have to feed two billion more people, while it will face more and more restrictive imperatives in the future. Agriculture faces the prospect of increasingly scarce water resources, and the need to produce more food on less land, that will be more arid and less alive. So, in the context of resource scarcity, increasing yields is the first part of the agricultural transition. The second aspect lies in the fact that agriculture will have to produce food in a better way, by scaling down the use of chemical or fossil-based inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, soil amendments, plant protection products, etc.). It must therefore transform, or even reinvent,
Improving the management of water, our primary staple food and resource
Food and water go hand in hand. Water is essential to every living process and is the staple of all food. Therefore, feeding the planet means, first and foremost, providing every human being access to sufficient quantities of healthy drinking water. Today, 844 million humans are still deprived of any elementary drinking water services. But water is also essential for every link of the food chain. Food chain that accounts for 70% of worldwide water consumption and 28% of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). The main priority is therefore to save water, to rationalise its use, to reduce leaks from irrigation networks, but also to promote the use of alternative water resources, such as the recycling of wastewater. The solutions to this global problem are mostly local. In the Amman region, in Jordan, almost 4,000 farms can use the water that is retreated by our teams in the As Samra wastewater treatment plant, thanks to a process that makes it possible to avoid 300,000 tonnes of CO2 every year.
CHALLENGE
© L oï c M er m ill io d
The food challenge must involve the agricultural sector in an environmental transition and in the preservation of natural capital.
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