In association with University of Exeter and with support from Associated British Foods
With increasing scarcity of some key resources needed for global agricultural production, such as water, minerals and energy, and the impact of a changing climate being felt for example through drought and floods, how will agricultural systems need to change to feed the anticipated global population of 9 billion in 2050?
Global agriculture has become more input intensive over recent decades as new technologies have become available and the scale of agricultural production has increased to meet the growing demand for food. This intensive use of resources, such as energy, water and fertilisers, is expected to increase, with availability of some inputs becoming increasingly scarce.
This conference focused on how to ensure long-term sustainability of agricultural production, looking at how to husband and adapt the use of inputs and farming approaches to cope with the changing dynamics of increasing global population, dietary changes and climate change.
With the decreasing availability of new agricultural land and the pressures of modern production on existing land the appropriate use of inputs is critical. How to ensure that land use can be both productive and sustainable? What does sustainable intensification mean in practice?
This conference is the fifth in a series on ‘Global agriculture, food and land use: the international policy challenges’ which we are running over three years in association with the University of Exeter. The previous conferences have focused on: volatility and markets; land use; sustainable diet and nutrition; and the role of science and technology in agriculture.
Further information
Previous conferences in this series focused on volatility (of price and trade), land use and diet and nutrition.
Meeting on Global food and agriculture: policy options in response to increased volatility
Meeting on Global land use: policies for the future
Meeting on Improving diet and nutrition: challenges for global food, agricultural and land use policies
Meeting on Global food security: the role of science and technology
