The past and present situations
The science- and technology-led synergism among enhanced genetic potential (improved seeds), irrigation and fertilizers, coupled with political will and policy support, ushered in the Green Revolution in the Asia-Pacific (A-P) Region in the late 1960s. It more than doubled the cereal production, halved the real price of major food grains, increased the per caput food consumption by about 30 percent, more than doubled per caput GDP, and halved the percentages of hungry and poor people.
Yet, the region is home to nearly 500 million undernourished - including 160 million children, and 800 million poor people - two-thirds of the world's hungry and poor. House-hold security and access to food thus continue as major main challenges, as do access to education and to primary health care. With a "business-as-usual" approach, the target of halving by 2015 the number of hungry and poor (as resolved by the World Food Summit and the Millenium Summit) will not be achieved.
Problems
The Green-Revolution intensification process was accompanied by degradations of land, water, biodiversity, and other environmental features. The Green-Revolution technologies generally bypassed the vast rainfed and other marginal areas where hunger, poverty, instability (of production) and resource fragility are concentrated. In the A-P Region (the home of three-fourths of the world's farmers), the per caput availability of land (less than one-fifth of that in the rest of the world) and of water is lower than in any other UN-System region, and is still declining.
Despite substantial yield gains during the Green Revolution, average yields of most commodities in most developing countries are low, and there are serious yield gaps. Moreover, total factor productivity (TFP) growth rates for major commodities have decelerated (and in some production systems may have shrunk); there is general and considerable scope for improving overall productivity and input-use efficiency.
Investment in agriculture and agricultural research and technology development is low and declining - despite a very high rate of return on investment in A-P agricultural research (48 percent during 1958-98). The Technology Achievement Index (TAI) of most developing countries in the region is low to modest. The technological and digital divides between developing A-P and the developed countries are wide.
Challenges
By 2030, the population in South and East Asia together will have increased by nearly one billion to 4.22 billion (then constituting 52 percent of the world population). Together with increase in incomes, this population surge will require 80 percent increase in total agricultural production, including an additional production of 380 million tons of cereals - an increase of 53 percent. Because there is negligible scope for expansion of cultivated area, 83 percent of the increase in grain production must accrue through yield increase, and 12 percent through increased cropping intensity. This intensification implies one ton additional grain per ha - analogous to the gains achieved during the Green Revolution era. But, this will have to be achieved from lesser land and water resources. Also, pre- and post-harvest losses in the region need to be reduced: they range from 15 to 30 percent, with losses particularly high in livestock, fish, fruits, vegetables and other perishables.
Increasing income and urbanization (in 2030, 53 percent of the Region's population will be urban, against the current level of 34 percent) have triggered greater demand for meat, milk and dairy products, eggs, vegetable oil, fruits, vegetables, processed food and other high-value products. To meet the demand, the Region has intensified livestock and aquaculture production, and is witnessing a revolution in this subsector - though often at high environmental cost. High growth rates during 2002-2015 (3 to 4 percent) in fruit, vegetables, and livestock production will be more than double that of the cereals. Peri-urban agriculture will increase. Fodder and feed demands will intensify - especially in East Asia, where 45 percent of the total cereal (mostly maize) consumption will be for animal feed. Demand for cereals and livestock will outstrip production - necessitating escalation of net imports, particularly in East Asia, of both cereals and livestock products.
The role of science and technology
Science and technology development must address five interdependent aspects for attaining the desired productivity and sustainability in order to break the unholy alliance of hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation:
Protecting the yield gains, bridging yield gaps, and enhancing yield and productivity levels, including quality upgrading, value addition and prevention of post-harvest losses: This should be achieved within the bounds of technological, social, economic, biological, cultural and environmental (soil, water, other inputs) constraints and potentials. Sustaining the TFP growth and raising competitiveness should be the primary goal. The dominant farming systems in South Asia are rice-wheat, rainfed mixed, rice, and highland mixed, and in East Asia lowland rice, upland-rice intensive mixed, temperate mixed, and tree-crops mixed. Those with highest potential for poverty reduction are rice-wheat in South Asia, and tree-crop mixed in East Asia. Livestock and horticulture are integral components of these systems. The yield gaps and potentials of each system need to be clearly identified, and suitable technology packages designed to bridge the gaps.
Biotechnology: Harnessing the gene revolution: Biotechnology interventions are already in use, and have the potential to enhance yield levels, increase input-use efficiency, reduce risk, increase resistance/tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, lessen pesticide use, lower production costs and food prices and improve nutrition; they can be positively pro-poor. However, there are genuine and perceived food biosafety, environmental, socio-economic, and ethical risks of biotechnology; these must be scientifically and transparently assessed, minimized, and managed.
Benefiting from information and communication technology revolution and promoting knowledge-based development: Current networking and knowledge-sharing opportunities must be captured to empower people (including farmers and fishermen) to harness technology to expand the choices in their daily lives. Knowledge must substitute monetary inputs, and help improve efficiency and competitiveness - a major and urgent necessity in today's liberalized world.
Managing natural resources - land, water and biodiversity: Science and technology must be harnessed to map and to match the potential of natural and other resources with production goals and to ensure conservation and sustained, efficient, and equitable use of those resources through an integrated and participatory approach. Science and technology must provide necessary tools and direction for implementation of various global treaties on land, water and biodiversity - such as the FAO Global Plan of Action under the International Treaty on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
Addressing environmental and climate-change concerns and minimizing adverse impacts of natural disasters: Based on decision-support systems, technology packages such as integrated pest management (IPM), integrated plant nutrient management (IPNM), and integrated soil-water management should be developed and widely adopted through participatory approaches, such as Farmer Field Schools. Using the driving force-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR), the environmental monitoring and technology response should be streamlined. Anticipatory multidisciplinary research for mitigating adverse effects of climate change and natural disasters should be strengthened. Capacities in GIS, weather forecasting, linkage to regional and global weather data and forecasts, are crucial for adequate preparedness.
Policies and strategies
Scientific discoveries and technological innovations proceed apace. Such innovations must be matched by genuine policy innovations and strategies - nationally and internationally - to meet development goals: food security, nutritional adequacy, poverty alleviation, and environmental sustainability. "Foresight studies" have been undertaken by many countries; they must be intensified to link science and technology policy more coherently to socio-economic and environmental needs.
Many A-P developing countries lack adequate research and technology development capacity. This lack must be remedied on a long-term basis, since access to technologies is declining, and it is unlikely that the global market place shall supply the required technologies. Although research and development policies and programmes shall be country-specific, the following six component are likely to be common to each of them.
First: for almost all developing countries, comprehensive food security and poverty alleviation must be the foremost priority of the science and technology agenda. High attention should be directed - in all ecozones - to the small-holder and resource-poor farmers and consumers (and especially to the women among them); the rainfed and marginal ecozones must be expressly favoured in such agendas.
Second: the Green Revolution must be transformed into an Evergreen Revolution by generating and disseminating eco-technologies based on a systems, integrated, and interdisciplinary approach, with a participatory mechanism rooted in the principles of socio-economic uplift and equity, environmental sustainability, and employment security.
Thirdly: investment in agriculture, agricultural science, research, education, extension, and technology development must be strengthened to create, procure, assess, adapt and disseminate appropriate technologies that lead to enhanced productivity and sustainability. Notably - recognizing the wide technological and digital divide between developing and developed countries - the developing countries should increase their investment in agricultural research and technology development from the current 0.2-0.5 percent of agricultural domestic product (ADP) to at least 2 percent of ADP.
Fourthly: the centrality of technology to agricultural diversification must be emphasized. Research priorities and activities must be defined so as to develop and transfer technologies that promote diversification - as in livestock production (especially in mixed farming systems) and in crop-nutrition and disease management; priorities also for environment-friendly aquaculture development, and for promotion of horticultural, medicinal and specialty crops that are consistent (within a trade-globalization and liberalization regime) with socio-economic and environmental viability and acceptability.
Fifthly - and noting recent global undertakings and declarations on regulatory measures - countries should institute intellectual-property-rights-, breeders'-rights, and farmers'-rights legislations that ensure equitable sharing of technologies, technological products, and genetic resources, and that facilitate public-private linkages and private-sector investments in agricultural research - each in accordance with country-specific needsa and aspirations.
Sixthly, and based on national goals, values, culture, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and comparative advantages, countries should create and manage innovative partnerships for research and technology development, and for sharing the various tasks among government, private sectors, academia, non-governmental organizations, and civil society. There must correspondingly be strengthened efforts to ensure both empirical and integrated approaches to research, and to ensure transparency of information, decision-making processes, and research governance.
FAO's role in promoting agricultural science and technology
FAO shall have various roles in promoting agricultural science and technology.
It shall assist member nations in formulating and implementing policies, priorities, and programmes to harness science and technology - including new science such as biotechnology and informatics - and for alleviating hunger and poverty. It shall help strengthen national capacities to undertake international negotiations relating to agricultural science and technology.
It shall provide technical support to needy countries to strengthen their capacities (including their human-resource capacity) in agricultural research and technology procurement, and in technology assessment and transfer. It shall assist and encourage (through its Investment Centre and by other means) the World Bank, ADB, and other international and regional institutions and donors to help developing countries to invest in agricultural research and technology development - particularly in circumstances where the private sector is unlikely to invest.
Through its WAICENT programme, FAO will provide to member nations the latest information, databases, and analyses on agricultural research and technology development, and on production, trade, nutrition, poverty, and policy. It will also strengthen national agricultural information systems that link farmers, fisherfolk, and foresters with national and international information networks.
FAO will help increase developing countries' capacity to formulate and implement regulatory measures for the development and use of science and technology and of products derived from those technologies. FAO can advise on property rights (including plant breeders' and farmers' rights), and can facilitate access to proprietary technologies, and to procedures of food safety, biosafety, environmental and health safety, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and containment and eradication of animal diseases; it can help harmonize standards and guidelines and advise on their implementation.
As a Co-sponsor of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and as host to its Science Council and Secretariat (successors to the Technical Advisory Committee - TAC), FAO influences the agenda, activities, and inter-linkages of the International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs) - helping ensure their attention to hunger and poverty alleviation - and helps build bridges between IARCs, National Agricultural Research Systems (NARSs), and FAO to facilitate dissemination of validated IARC technologies. FAO can also foster the activities of regional networks and associations - such as the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) - and can assist in establishing new associations to improve regional capacity to capture the opportunities currently presented by the substantial progress in science, technology, communications, and globalization.
Conclusion
Science and technology are the engine for agriculture-led national progress. Recognizing that "technology can be not only a reward for successful development, but also a critical tool for achieving it", the partnership between technology and development must be nurtured, strengthened, and kept dynamic by increasing national capacities through adequate investment and appropriate institutional and policy support.
