What can be done to ensure that agricultural practices are sustainable in the future?

Until the 1990s, villagers in the small Nigerian town of Doro Gowon thrived on the mineral rich waters of Lake Chad. The lake, combined with the extensive river system that makes up the Lake Chad basin, provided a water source for over 20 million people across four different countries - Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Since then, overirrigation has caused a 90% reduction in water supplies, leading to an attempt to divert water from the Congo river system over 2,000km away. This would not be necessary if individual farmers around the basin adopted more sustainable agricultural practices.

Over irrigation is not the only example of an unsustainable agricultural practice. Both overgrazing and deforestation can also pose a threat to food supply. There are two key ways to achieve sustainable agricultural practices within any given food industry. Technological advancements in food production, a consequence of greater access to global food markets and increased foreign direct investment (FDI) from agriculture firms, has enabled developing countries such as India to make their agricultural practices more sustainable. However, in more remote environments such as the Steppe in China, or perhaps more hostile growing environments such as the Sahel region in central Africa, technological advancements and FDI may not be an option. In these areas, local governments must make assessments of unsustainable practices and invest to improve such practices.

Water supply in Lake Chad has significantly decreased

What can we learn from India’s success in developing sustainable agricultural practices? Prior to key innovations in food production, India faced significant water management issues. By the early 2000s, 80% of groundwater sources had been depleted and water scarcity was of significant concern. A variety of factors added to the problem, such as periodic droughts across India, as well as the fact that over 70% of agricultural production in concentrated in less than 3% of the total land area.

However, India has benefitted from a greater access to global markets than many other developing countries and consequently more FDI - providing resources to develop more sustainable and reliable agricultural practices. The 1960s Green Revolution led to developments in crop yields through the introduction of High Yield Varieties, as well as improved reliability from genetically modified crops. The introduction of Hydroponics (where plants require no soil and water is recycled) has helped lessen the extent of water table decline as a result of traditional farming techniques. Such an approach could be effectively implemented elsewhere - farmers nearby Lake Chad would benefit from technological advancements such as hydroponics and HYVs. Governments of the countries surrounding the basin could look to cooperate with foreign agribusinesses with the know-how to implement such agricultural practices, thus achieving a more sustainable situation.

Hydroponics offers a novel approach to growing food - one without soil

Yet some regions may not be in a position to benefit from technology advancements and FDI. The Sahel is a desert like region spanning central Africa. In an area where NPP is naturally low (Sahel is mainly dryland), sustainable agricultural practices are required - profiting off the land as well as protecting the land for the future. Despite the necessity for sustainable agricultural practices, deforestation and overgrazing is common - reducing net primary productivity (NPP) in particular areas and limiting growth. As a result, falls in agricultural production can be significant. Further detrimental effects include a loss of biodiversity, which reduces the variety of crops that can be grown on deforested land in the future.

Unlike India, the approaches to deal with unsustainable agricultural practices in the Sahel remain less clear. The underlying farming issues in the Sahel reflects an inefficiency in innovation, something India has been able to achieve with access to global food markets and FDI. Hostile growing environments could be one reason for the lack of innovation, as they limit the incentives for FDI. As a consequence, countries in the Sahel need a more cooperative approach within their agricultural sectors. This should involve regulation and investment from local governments, putting an emphasis on connecting policymakers to farmers to ensure that policy targets are met.

Approaches to deal with unsustainable agricultural practices in the Sahel remain less clear

However, a cooperative approach may create a situation where farmers engaging in unsustainable production methods face major costs in developing more sustainable techniques. The Eastern Steppe in China exemplifies such a situation. The area has been significantly impacted by overgrazing and land degradation in the past 50 years and is unlikely to receive foreign investment given its remote location, thus requiring government intervention to prevent further unsustainable practices. Over 4 million hectares of land is degraded each year, and falls in the production of wheat, maize and rice is estimated to cost $12bn annually. A study carried out in 2007 found that in total, land degradation cost the Chinese economy 1% of GDP, despite agriculture only accounting for 10% of GDP at the time.

Local governments will be required to make assessments of farming practices, as well as identifying which areas are more susceptible to degradation. Farmers will then be forced to alter their food production methods to be more sustainable. Hence, implementing such an approach in the Sahel and the Steppe could be costly, not just in terms of revenues but also livelihoods. However, preliminary research at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources in Beijing found that the cost of acting against land degradation in the Steppe would be lower than the cost of inaction, suggesting that the cooperative approach could be effective. The same is likely to apply in the Sahel, although variations in how the local governments approach the restructuring could lead to discrepancies.

The Eastern Steppe is a difficult environment to grow food - even more so now that land degradation is prevalent

A failure to act in areas such as the Steppe and the Sahel could lead to food supply shocks and losses in revenues for farming communities. It is therefore vital that unsustainable agricultural practices are addressed. As has been proven, the FDI and innovation approach that has provided India with more sustainable agricultural practices is not applicable to every region. Local governments in the Sahel and the Steppe will start to see progress with a more cooperative approach in their own attempts to create sustainable food industries. For an area such as the Lake Chad basin, which is yet to find the right method, much can be learnt from regions where success has been achieved. Only then can they develop agricultural practices that are sustainable in the future.