NEXT GENERATION PRODUCTION

Akila Wijerathna emphasises the need to invest in sustainable food systems

COVID-19 has revealed how vulnerable some countries are in terms of food security. The FAO and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) announced not long ago that there were enough global stocks of staples such as wheat and rice for the rest of 2020. However, there are fears of food shortages caused by panic buying and supply chain disruptions.

Addressing the shortage of labour to grow, process and handle food has been hampered due to physical distancing measures. This is likely to affect supplies in the near future as ripe crops are not harvested, and next generation crops and animals aren’t placed into growing cycles.

North America and Australia are reportedly facing a major problem with migrant labour. In general, any restriction on transportation – including the movement of food and people involved in the food sector – will have a severe dampening effect on food supply.

Besides pandemics, many factors influence food security – poverty and climate change are the foremost challenges

Other visible effects of mobility restrictions include the reduced availability of fresh produce for consumers. This imposes financial burdens on producers and impedes physical access to food – a critical dimension of food security.

However, the global community has been forced to ask if long and energy intensive food supply chains should be replaced by local produce.

We have witnessed the reverse migration of millions from urban to rural areas during the pandemic. How can they be encouraged to remain and produce food in the countryside in a profitable manner through increased state investment in agriculture?

If we cannot ensure active agriculture during a pandemic, a crisis might arise in the form of global food security. More importantly, providing jobseekers a fresh start in the sector is vital.

Besides pandemics, many factors influence food security – poverty and climate change are the foremost challenges.

Changing temperatures, unpredictable rainfall and the increasing frequency of extreme events have impacted agricultural activities everywhere, creating unfavourable condi-tions for food production. Furthermore, the shift from multi to mono-cropping systems limits product diversity.

Likewise, an increasing inclination towards cash crops and changing habits restrict people’s dietary intakes – and this may lead to malnutrition, undernutrition and even micro-nutrient deficiencies.

The global food supply system and the land, water, energy and climate interconnections are complex. Presently, this system isn’t sustainable. What can be produced, and whether growing and changing requirements can be met, will depend on the availability and productivity of resources – most notably land and water.

These resources are already under pressure and although technical progress has improved productivity, evidence suggests that this growth – at least in terms of crop yields – is slowing. Moreover, food losses and waste place unnecessary pressure on resources along the value chain. Addressing this will improve environmental sustainability throughout the system.


The next generation of food systems may have a profound effect on how we eat in the future – e.g. automated vertical farms, ‘aquaponics,’ in vitro meat and artificial animal products. However, these innovations are more focussed on labour saving technologies rather than sustainability.

Regulations on inputs would relax – including those on the quantities and types of chemicals used in mass production – while agricultural input markets become increasingly concentrated with progressively expanding oligopolies.

Agricultural land would expand in leaps and bounds, while crop diversification remains low and monoculture prevails to support mass production.

Resilience to shocks would be limited for family farmers and moderate for large commercial farms. Heavily processed food for mass consumption would be increasingly deregulated in terms of quality labels, origin or content. Meanwhile, the elite would consume lightly processed or fresh foods.

In the meantime, prices would increase globally due to lower yields associated with resource degradation. In this scenario, family farmers are particularly vulnerable and could suffer from crop losses due to extreme climatic events.

Food and agriculture feature prominently in many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) because they’re interconnected with almost all aspects of the economy, the environment and society – from hunger, malnutrition, desertification, sustainable water use and biodiversity loss, to overconsumption, obesity and public health.

Achieving these goals calls for determination and commitment from nations.

There is a need to formulate policies that support investment in agriculture, providing subsidies and incentives, promoting child and women healthcare, prioritising nutrition programmes, and boosting the production and consumption of climate resilient native nutritional crops.

These are some elementary practices that will be crucial in creating a ‘zero hunger world’ by 2030.