U.N. Issues Dire Warnings about Global Food, Water Supplies

According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization the world's farmers must begin to move away from conventional intensive farming and begin the transition to what is known as conservation agriculture if they intend to produce enough food and cope with climate change. 

By the year 2030 agricultural production is expected to drop by 1.9 percent and an additional .09 percent by 2050; however we will need to double our food production if we hope to feed nine billion people by 2050. 

Conventional farming methods often result in environmental damage as a result of over-ploughing, over-fertilizing, over-irrigating, and extensive use of pesticides. These efforts, all in the name of increased production, effect the ecosystem and eventually result in lower production rates, conservation agriculture on the other-hand focuses on a minimal amount of soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotations. This method can support profitable farming and addresses environmental concerns and sustainability. Conservation agriculture has been tested and proven to work in a wide variety of agro-ecological zones and farming systems. 

At the Fourth World Congress on Conservation Agriculture in New Delhi, India, Shivaji Pandey, Director of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said, 

“The world has no alternative to pursuing sustainable crop production intensification to meet the growing food and feed demand, to alleviate poverty and to protect its natural resources, Conservation agriculture is an essential element of that intensification.”

The U.N. is also predicting that as many as 1.8 billion people could be facing a water shortage by 2025 and an estimated two-thirds of the global population could be facing some form of water stress in less than 20 years if current trends in population growth, climate change and consumption continue. 

The United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told a high-level symposium on water security at UN Headquarters that

“More than 1.4 billion people live in river basins where their use of water exceeds minimum recharge levels, leading to desiccation of rivers and the depletion of groundwater." She went on to say that insuring water security would require effective water management, “It means ensuring the integrity of ecosystems, and it means promoting peaceful collaboration in the sharing of water resources, particularly in the case of boundary and transboundary water resources.”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling on the United States, China, India and the European Union to show "global leadership" in combating climate change at a news conference in New York saying,

“We have no time to lose, The United States, China, India and the European Union – all must show the way. We must provide for those least able to adapt.”