Transforming Agri-food System with Forests

Transforming Agrifood System with Forests

• A report on deforestation, livestock grazing, and farmer field schools was recently published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
• At the digital conference FAO-Global Landscapes Forum: Transforming agrifood systems with forests, FAO released the report.
• A group of farmers, livestock keepers, or fishermen attend a farmer field school to learn how to transition to more sustainable production methods by improving ecosystem services and understanding complicated agro-ecosystems.

What are the Report's Highlights?

• The amount of food needed to feed the world's population will increase by 50% by 2050 compared to 2012.
• Crop and animal production will require 165 to 600 million additional hectares of land, the majority of which is already covered by forests and other vital ecosystems.
• Nearly 90% of global deforestation between 2000 and 2018 was caused by increased agricultural production.
• This has a detrimental effect on related ecosystem services including biodiversity and carbon sequestration.
• According to the FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment 2022, 420 million hectares of forest have been destroyed worldwide over the past 20 years.
• To reduce deforestation, which reached at 11 million ha per year between 2000 and 2010, forests are essential.

What suggestions are made?

• Tree Positive Building sustainable global agrifood systems based on the interactions between agriculture and forestry, which benefit both industries, is urgently needed to produce enough food.
• In order to increase production while minimising the damage on forests and biodiversity, governments must establish the right conditions for farmers to adapt their methods.
• Smallholder farmers, who produce about 35% of the world's food but frequently live in poverty and cannot afford the costs or disruptions to their income imposed by changing the way they work, require special attention from governments.

Bringing Back Degraded Land:

• In order to stop desertification, restore damaged land with trees, and enhance dryland wildfire protection, properly integrated grazing might be extremely important.
• About 25% of the world's population lives in drylands, which also house 50% of the world's cattle, 27% of its forests, and 60% of the world's agricultural area.
• For halting land degradation, silvopastrolism—the practise of grazing animals among trees—can also improve the food security and economic well-being of nearby populations.
• In drylands, woody plants produce fruit, lumber, and food for animals. They also help to increase biodiversity and control the soil and water cycles.
• Grazing livestock also aids in regulating vegetation, lowering the danger of wildfires, accelerating nutrient cycles, and enhancing soil fertility.

One element of the remedy:

• Landscape planners and decision-makers should take livestock into account as part of the solution and carefully restore open tree cover (when tree cover is between 30 and 70%) as part of an integrated landscape approach utilising agroforestry.

About FAO.

• The FAO is a specialised agency of the UN that directs global initiatives to end hunger.
• Every year on October 16th, World Food Day is observed to commemorate the FAO's foundation in 1945.
• It is one of the UN food aid organisations based in Rome (Italy).
• Its sister bodies are the World Food Programme and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Initiatives Taken:

• Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS).
• Monitors the Desert Locust situation throughout the world.
• The Codex Alimentarius Commission or CAC is the body responsible for all matters regarding the implementation of the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme.
• The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

Flagship Publications:

• The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA)
• The State of the World's Forests (SOFO)
• The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI)
• The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA)
• The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets (SOCO)
• World Food Price Index

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