A new UN report states that agroecological approaches are the way of addressing food needs in critical regions and can double food production in 10 years. The report by Olivier De Schutter, UN special Rapporteur on the right to food was based on an extensive review of recent scientific literature and concludes that by applying agroecological principles to the design of agricultural systems we can help to put an end to food crises and address climate-change and poverty challenges.
The report focuses on critical regions such as Africa and South East Asia and shows an average crop yield increase of 80% in 57 developing countries, with an average increase of 116% for all African projects. Recent projects conducted in 20 African countries demonstrated a doubling of crop yields over a period of 3-10 years. These approaches are now gaining ground in developed countries too but De Schutter identifies insufficiently backing by ambitious public policies means that they hardly go beyond the experimental stage in these countries.
ORC is working hard to develop and disseminate agroecological approaches through our research and advisory programmes and welcome this report as a positive step forward.
The full report is available online here.
Further information can be found on the website http://www.srfood.org/.
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