100. While the Green Revolution averted massive hunger, it also led to increased pressure on resources that has since been recognized as unsustainable. Agriculture became heavily dependent on fossil-fuel-based inputs and, in the process, vulnerable to high oil prices, and often used water profligately, to the extent that it now accounts for 70 per cent of global freshwater use. Now, a twenty-first-century green revolution is needed — one that not only increases productivity, but also drastically reduces resource intensity and protects biodiversity at the same time.

101. The new agricultural revolution should focus on sustainable intensification (practices with low external inputs, emissions and wastes) and on crop diversification and resilience to climate change. New “green” biotechnologies can play a valuable role in enabling farmers to adapt to climate change, improve resistance to pests, restore soil fertility and contribute to the diversification of the rural economy.

102. An immediate push on sustainable agriculture would yield enormous social, economic and environmental dividends. Three quarters of the world’s poor live in rural areas, and 2.5 billion rural inhabitants are involved in agriculture, with 1.5 billion of them living in smallholder households. With global demand for food projected to rise by 70 per cent by 2050, the opportunity exists for a dramatic improvement in these people’s lives, while at the same time helping them to move to more sustainable production models.

103. Smallholder farmers have enormous untapped potential to increase yields, stimulate rural economies and become export earners instead of net food buyers. In order for this to happen, however, smallholder farmers — who support almost a third of the world’s population — need access to assets (ranging from land to the tools needed to till the ground), markets (from rural roads to twenty-first-century communications tools for monitoring prices on the global market), credit and risk management (such as crop insurance and social protection) and research and technology.

104. Success will depend, in great part, on investment. Much of this will continue to come from countries’ own resources, but additional resources will need to come from official development assistance. Although overall aid to agriculture has declined since the mid 1980s by 43 per cent, it has seen a recent upward trend and has held steady in regions of highest need, such as sub-Saharan Africa and South and Central Asia. The private sector and public-private partnerships will also be essential, and innovative financing issues may also be relevant in this context (see sect. IV below).

105. While investment in the agricultural sectors of low-income countries is urgently needed, the new trend of land access deals often compounds local, well- established and persistent constraints faced by the poor in obtaining access to land and water. Estimates suggest that as much as 80 million hectares of land (and the water that flows over and beneath it) have been acquired in new international investment deals since 2000, more than half of it in sub-Saharan Africa. However, there exists policy guidance — such as the 2009 Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment that Respects Rights, Livelihoods and Resources — for Governments, the private sector and all stakeholders to promote sustainable decision-making in such arrangements and not create barriers to trade.

106. Success will also depend on institutions and initiatives with capacity to effectively coordinate efforts in priority areas of agriculture, land management and water. Institutions that lead in research, policy guidance and knowledge-sharing, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, are increasingly important for coordinated problem-solving. Ultimately, however, integrated resource management will depend on good governance and management. These are perhaps most critical for watershed management, where integrated schemes are needed that reflect the pressing multisectoral demands on this resource from competing sectors, as well as the need for a comprehensive response.

107. A sustainable agricultural revolution will need renewed efforts to reduce barriers to international agricultural trade, in particular by concluding the Doha development round. It will also require attention to many factors, including a massive upgrade of extension services, which need to be gender-sensitive, given that most small farmers are women, as well as a strong focus on rolling out sustainable innovations and greatly increased investments in agricultural research and development. This effort should have a particular emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa, where agricultural yields have fallen by 10 per cent since 1960 and where climate change has the potential to hit farming particularly hard.

Recommendation 15
108. Governments and international organizations should work to create a new green revolution — an “ever-green revolution” — for the twenty-first century that aims to at least double productivity while drastically reducing resource use and avoiding further loss of biodiversity, topsoil loss and water depletion and contamination, including through the scaling-up of investment in agricultural research and development, to ensure that cutting-edge research is rapidly moved from laboratory to field. Governments should task FAO with working with key partners and stakeholders to initiate and coordinate this task, as that organization has a unique mandate to reduce the world food deficit.

Recommendation 16
109. Governments should work towards agreement on global principles for sustainable and responsible land and water investment deals, including ongoing efforts to promote responsible agricultural investment (RAI), with particular emphasis on protecting the rights and livelihoods of poor people who depend on these basic resources, while ensuring environmental sustainability.

Recommendation 17
110. Governments should establish and scale up integrated water resource management schemes, bearing fully in mind that water plays multifaceted roles, including for drinking, sanitation, agriculture, industry and energy.