The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members Sustainable Intensification The.

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Sustainable IntensificationThe challenges

Rachel Carrington

NFU Senior Policy Adviser

16 November 2011

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

The ‘perfect storm’:• Population – 9 billion by 2050 (+50%)• Income growth and changing consumption

patterns• A doubling of world food demand in just 39

years!• Greater demand for water and energy• Increased urbanisation

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Sustainable Intensification

An integrating concept to meet all primary challenges:

“Simultaneously raising productivity, increasing resource use efficiency and reducing negative environmental impacts of agriculture”

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Sustainable IntensificationProducing as efficiently as possible on the smallest footprint of land capable of delivering market requirements is the “greenest” and usually the most profitable way to farm.

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Current global land use (13,009Mha)

Forest & Savannah

Cereals5% Pasture & Range

26%

30%

Other crops7%

Desert/mountain/ice

32%

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

The global significance of crop loss due to diseases, pests and weeds

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Sustainable intensification will contribute to:• Reducing GHG emissions and adapting to climate change

• Increasing production efficiency

• Increasing competitiveness

• Land sparing for:

• carbon capture and storage

• bioenergy

• biodiversity conservation

• Maintaining ecosystems services

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

How do we meet the challenge of increasing food production?

• Need the right price and;• the right policy signals• Greater productivity• Increased efficiency • Farm more efficiently on the most productive

land

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Solutions• Increase R&D spend • Increased use of technology

– GPS/GIS– Precision farming– Machinery

• Crop and variety choice – genetics and plant breeding• Biotechnology• Attention to detail• Policies that recognise the need for food security

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Dairy farming Mexico style 12,000 cows

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Soya harvest/cotton sowing Brazil style

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

The global food system must not fail on sustainability...

• Sustainability needs to move to centre stage

• Agriculture currently consumes 70% of total global water withdrawals from rivers and aquifers

• Agriculture directly contributes 10-12% of GHG emissions

• Ever increasing public interest in the countryside

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Six main points• UK challenges and global challenges are closely connected

• R&D is essential (but not sufficient)

• Efficient land use and its management provide the key to meeting the challenge (= “Sustainable Intensification”)

• A focus is needed on increasing and realising genetic potential as well as reducing waste and environmental impact

• Innovation which adopts an “ecosystems approach” coupled with new technologies is necessary

• Climate change presents opportunities as well as risks and adaptation will require investment (and more information)

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Sustainable Intensification

Environmental Sustainability

Alex Dinsdale

NFU Countryside Policy Adviser

16th November 2011

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Environmental schemes

• Part of the Common Agricultural Policy

• Since the 1980s

• ESA and CSS

• Environmental Stewardship

• CAP reform

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Campaign for the Farmed Environment

• Promotion of, and an add-on to, Environmental Stewardship

• Targets to hit by June

• An alternative to regulation

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Water quality

• Water Framework Directive

• Catchment sensitive farming

• AE schemes

• Nitrates Directive

• Education and awareness

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Water availability• Variability and unpredictability of

precipitation

• Likely to become more of a problem

• More reservoirs

• Rainwater harvesting, water management efficiency

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Climate Change

• Renewable energy – many options

• Scale

• Diversification

• Energy

• Adaptation

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Soil• Not as much focus as there should be –

will this change?

• Cultivation

• Organic matter

• Climate adaptation

• Water pollution

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

CAP reform

• Greening–Ecological Focus Areas

–Rotation

–Permanent pasture ploughing ban