We need to make the global economy green. Agriculture provides significant opportunities for growth, investment and jobs to help make this happen.
Everyone needs agriculture. Agriculture feeds our entire population and produces fibre for clothing, feed for livestock and bioenergy. Particularly in the developing world, agriculture contributes significantly to GDP growth, leads the way in poverty reduction and accounts for the lion's share of employment opportunities, especially for women. Agriculture also has one of the highest potentials for reducing carbon emissions and helping vulnerable people adapt to climate change.
Explore Farming First’s Infographic on the Green Economy
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How can we feed future generations?
As world population grows, crop production needs to keep up.
For China, aggregate growth originating in agriculture is estimated to have been 3.5 times more effective in reducing poverty than growth outside agriculture.
The 2008 food price spikes pushed about 100 million poor people into the ranks of the world's hungry while the level of obesity worldwide has doubled since the 1980s.
It has been estimated that as much as 30% of all food grown worldwide may be lost or wasted before and after it reaches the consumer. Some estimates have placed it as high as 50%.
Around 1.2 billion people, or almost one-fifth of the world's population, live in areas of physical scarcity, and 500 million people are approaching this situation.
There are three dimensions to sustainable development: social, economic, and environmental. Knowledge sharing is critical to supporting these dimensions, and extension and advisory services are a vital knowledge-sharing institution. Extension is key for linking scientific research, field-level innovations and innovators, markets, education, and other service providers.
For the Rio+20 meetings, The Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS), together with Farming First, FAO, IFPRI and WHO, has published a position paper entitled “Building Knowledge Systems in Agriculture” accompanied by a factsheet about extension services and a selection of case studies.
GREEN ECONOMY
