"Agriculture provides food
for all of us and income for more than 1 billion people around the
world," said Danielle Nierenberg, director of Worldwatch's Nourishing
the Planet project. "Relatively simple innovations to reduce the amount
of food we waste, or to help the urban poor become more self-sufficient,
can help agriculture feed the world without destroying the planet. The
progress we have witnessed in these areas over the last year is
definitely encouraging."
The 15 innovations are used
by farmers, scientists, activists, politicians, and businesses and
promote a healthier environment and a more food-secure future.
1. Guaranteeing the Right to Food. Some
1 billion people worldwide experience chronic hunger, and 98 percent of
these people live in developing countries. To combat hunger in rural or
remote communities, the Brazilian government operates the Food
Acquisition Program, which funds local organizations, including
community kitchens, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and schools, to
buy and distribute fruits, vegetables, and animal products from
smallholder farmers in their region.
2. Harnessing the Nutritional and Economic Potential of Vegetables. Micronutrient
deficiencies, including lack of vitamin A, iodine, and iron, affect 1
billion people worldwide and stem partly from a lack of variety in
people's diets. Slow Food International works to broaden diets, and
preserve biodiversity, by helping farmers grow local and indigenous
varieties of fruits and vegetables, organizing cooking workshops, and
helping producers get access to traditional seeds.
3. Reducing Food Waste. The
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that
roughly a third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted
globally, which amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year. In New York
City, City Harvest collects nearly 28 million pounds of excess food
each year from restaurants, grocers, corporate cafeterias,
manufacturers, and farms and delivers it to some 600 local food
programs.
4. Feeding Cities. Poor
urban households spend from 60 to 80 percent of their income on food,
putting them at risk of hunger or malnutrition when food prices rise or
their incomes fall. The French non-governmental organization Solidarités
has provided women in Kibera, an urban slum in Nairobi, Kenya, with
training, seeds, and sacks to grow vegetables in "vertical farms," a
space-efficient way to increase food security in cities.
5. Getting More Crop per Drop. Millions of farmers, including the majority of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, depend on rainfall to water their crops----which
climate scientists predict will decline in coming decades. The company
International Development Enterprises sells simple and inexpensive
irrigation systems to farmers in Zambia, India, and other countries.
Their systems include a treadle pump that draws water from underground
without the use of fossil fuels, and a drip irrigation kit that costs
just US$5 can efficiently water 20 square meters.
6. Using Farmers' Knowledge in Research and Development. Many
agricultural research and development programs exclude smallholder
farmers. But in Kenya, the Muyafwa Development Program, with help from
the U.S.-based nonprofit World Neighbors, involves local farmers in
comparing a newly introduced sweet potato variety with the existing
indigenous one----ensuring detailed and accurate feedback on the productivity, taste, storability, and hardiness of each variety.
7. Improving Soil Fertility. Each
year, more than 29 million acres, or enough land to grow 20 million
tons of grain, turn into deserts. To combat desertification and land
degradation, the International Crops Research Institute for the
Semi-Arid Tropics is training farmers in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger
to apply small and targeted quantities of fertilizer to crops at
planting time or soon after. This has increased yields of the staple
crops sorghum and millet by between 44 and 120 percent.
8. Safeguarding Local Food Biodiversity. According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a quarter of the world's known plant species----some 60,000 to 100,000 species----are threatened with extinction, while soy, wheat, and
maize become more and more prevalent in people's everyday diets. In
Norway, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault protects thousands of seed
varieties that farmers in developing countries can use to help
re-harvest crops that have been affected by disease, climate, or conflict.
9. Coping with Climate Change and Building Resilience. Global
climate change will negatively affect agriculture by reducing soil
fertility and decreasing crop yields. In preparation for these impacts,
and in response to the land degradation that has already occurred,
farmers in Niger have planted nearly 5 million hectares of trees that
conserve water, prevent soil erosion, and sequester carbon, making their
farms more productive and drought-resistant without the use of
chemicals.
10. Harnessing the Knowledge and Skills of Women Farmers. Women
farmers face a variety of obstacles, including a lack of access to
information technology, agricultural training, financial services, and
support networks like co-operatives or trade unions.
The Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), a female trade union in
India that began in 1992, helps poor, self-employed women achieve full
employment and self-reliance by linking them to markets, banks,
co-operatives, and self-help groups.
11. Investing in Africa's Land. Governments
and private investors are acquiring large swathes of agricultural land
around the world at very low or no cost, particularly in Africa and Asia----often
displacing indigenous peoples. In Ethiopia's Rift Valley, African
farmers and foreign investing companies have reached a compromise:
farmers grow green beans for the Dutch market during the European winter
months, but cultivate corn and other crops for local consumption during
the remaining months.
12. Charting a New Path to Eliminating Hunger.
Reactive measures to famines and natural disasters, including sending
shipments of vitamin-fortified, pre-packaged food, too often replace
preventative measures like investing in sustainable agricultural systems
or building infrastructure to transport food to remote communities in
developing countries. The UN World Food Programme has developed the
Purchase for Progress program, which buys fresh produce directly from
local farmers and distributes it as food aid both within the farmers'
country and abroad.
13. Improving Food Production from Livestock. The
FAO estimates that 21 percent of the world's livestock breeds are at
risk of extinction. But in India, farmers in the state of Andhra Pradesh
are improving the quality of their feed by using grass, sorghum,
stover, and brans to produce more milk from fewer animals, demonstrating
that animal husbandry can provide an income without harming the
environment.
14. Going beyond Production.
Although scarcity and famine dominate the discussion of food security
in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, many
countries are unequipped to deal with the crop surpluses that lead to
low commodity prices and food waste. In Uganda, the organization
TechnoServe has helped to improve market conditions for banana farmers
by forming business groups through which they can buy inputs, receive
technical advice, and sell their crops collectively.
15. Moving Ecoagriculture into the Mainstream. Agricultural
practices that emphasize increased production have contributed to the
degradation of land, soil, wildlife, and local ecosystems, and
ultimately hurt the livelihoods of the farmers who depend on these
natural resources. Ranchers and farmers in Dimbangombe, in western
Zimbabwe, have committed 20,000 acres of degraded grassland to be
communally owned, grazed, and maintained, with the aim of restoring the
area's plants and wildlife while sustainably raising livestock on the
land.
These and other efforts to make agriculture a healthy and stable
source of income and nourishment will need to continue to be scaled up
in the coming years and be passed on to the next generation to ensure
that the march toward sustainability continues. 
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