Plants for the future's perspective on sustainable agriculture
Year: 2021
Type: report
Abstract: The EU Green Deal aims to transform Europe into a world leader in sustainability while ensuring economic competitiveness. In the agricultural sector, the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies provide ambitious goals to meet consumer needs for food, feed, and biobased raw materials, while respecting planetary boundaries and protecting soils, water, air, and biodiversity. The goals of the Green Deal can only be achieved if the necessary interventions operate in concert with highly complex socio-economic systems. This requires that basic economic principles regarding demand, return on investment and profitability are met and are applicable to all agricultural value chain actors throughout the transition period. The transformation of agricultural systems towards a sustainable One Health2 society will inevitably lead to business uncertainty for some of these actors. However, it will also generate new business opportunities and space for innovation, new jobs and new farm and business models. In agricultural systems, future supply and demand will need to support sustainable, healthy, and diverse diets.3 This will also require increased agricultural productivity based on production systems that minimise environmental impact and are resilient to the impacts of climate change. To deliver this, research and innovation (R&I) interventions that support short-, medium- and long-term goals will need to complement each other to achieve Farm to Fork and Biodiversity targets. The Plant ETP is of the opinion that future sustainable agricultural systems will be determined by three main drivers: (1) Innovative agricultural produce, meeting the demand for new, diverse, and sustainable food, feed, and biobased raw materials, and enabling the creation of new business models, industry structures and value chains. (2) Resilient production (eco)systems, to optimise productivity under a changing climate while minimising environmental impact by leveraging knowledge on crop performance, cropping systems and the environment, delivered through management tools and solutions. (3) A common agricultural data platform, Agri-Data, that supports innovative agricultural produce and resilient production (eco)systems through leveraging big data and artificial intelligence, and by matching supply with demand and enabling sustainable agricultural production through tailored advice. The three interdependent drivers of change have been identified by expert knowledge as imperatives to deliver an effective and resilient transformation of EU agricultural systems. This report focuses on the plant sector with a long-term vision and identifies areas of R&I that are considered essential to foster the co-development of innovative agricultural produce, resilient production (eco)systems and Agri-Data.
Authors: Pozzebon, Alberto, Nanda, Amrit, Schubert, Andrea, Leyva, Antonio, Miles, Branwen, Gonzalez, Cesar, Grondal, Christoph, Azevedo, Daniel, Marushchak, Denys, Maggioni, Filippo, Nelissen, Hilde, Riechmann, José Luis, Vogelezang, José, Van De Velde, Karel, Ivarsson, Kjell, Bruynseels, Koen, Cornelissen, Marc, Agena, Marcel, Aguilar, Maria Boluda, Des Roseaux, Marion, Bodin, Paulin, Vamerali, Teofilo, Tilvikienė, Vita, Neilson, Roy
Institutions: University of Padua, University of Turin, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Eurofins (France), Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie, Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics, TKI Tuinbouw & Uitgangsmaterialen, KWS Saat (Germany), Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, James Hutton Institute
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4286845979