The HLPE’s assessment of sustainable agriculture and the role of livestock should focus attention on identifying regionally appropriate integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) best practices that can restore and maintain soil nutrients and build soil structures needed for efficient water retention and use. With the growing significance of animal protein in global diets; HLPE should emphasize that sustainable, intensified cultivation of livestock fodder will require diversified crop rotations that provide biological nitrogen fixation and interrupt pest pressures; and optimal allocation of crop residues for livestock feed, as ground cover and as organic inputs for the beneficial soil biota that are essential for crop productivity and health.
The degree of sustainability that can be achieved will depend upon how effectively farmers leverage agro-ecological practices that replenish soil nutrients and harvest and hold fresh water resources. The recovery and use of livestock manures as organic fertilizer for farm lands will also be critically important for success. Given the value of manure as soil nutrient inputs, this assessment must consider the scale of livestock operations that are most conducive to high efficiency nutrient management cycles. The dichotomy between the impacts and complexity of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO’s) relative to smallholder crop and livestock farming requires particular attention. This assessment should also discuss how innovative farm-to-market value added food processes could improve the economic competitiveness of smallholder livestock operations.
In assessing integrated crop and livestock systems that are most appropriate for smallholder and intermediate scale farmers; HLPE should give special attention to the “Push-Pull” farming practices that are delivering multi-functional benefits of increased crop and fodder yields; biological nitrogen fixation for soil nutrient inputs; and unique pest and weed biological control benefits. Such agro-ecological methods are indicative of the potentials for harnessing powerful biological processes that can enable increased full farm productivity yields with significantly reduced or eliminated use of synthetic fertilizers and herbicide/pesticide inputs.
It is important for the HLPE to draw attention to the critical need for increased agricultural research efforts to understand and unlock the enormous potentials of agro-ecological farming techniques and technologies. The need for research and development is particularly critical in the area of identifying and producing biofertilizers that are sourced from beneficial soil biota that have substantial capabilities to enhance plant growth and resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses.
The assessment must also include recommendations on how to build the capacities of farmers at all scales and geographies to have access to the knowledge, technologies and financial resources needed to employ agricultural best practices. In considering the options and time frames for action in building sustainable farming capacities; it will be important to acknowledge the imminent ecological threats of climate change and the long term environmental damage of excessive and inefficient applications of chemical inputs that adversely impact agricultural landscapes and fresh water and marine fisheries.
Finally, in preparing a comprehensive assessment of our complex global food security challenge; the HLPE should strive to clearly articulate and concisely recommend specific strategies and actions that could be adopted by governmental policy leaders, private sector decision-makers and agricultural sector stakeholders. While there are many scientific and social-economic factors and disciplines involved in determining the ‘best ways forward,’ the HLPE assessment should provide a report that will catalyze decisive actions by nations, businesses and millions of farmers around the world. Thank you for the opportunity to provide my comments and recommendations to this critically important project.
With best regards,
Patrick Binns
Westbrook Associates LLC
Seattle, WA USA
Patrick Binns