IIMA joins multi-nation consortium to work on food security

The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) has joined a multi-nation body to undertake research on how to meet the food demand targets by 2050 and have sustainable land use, an official said.

As part of the Food, Agriculture, Bio-diversity, Land and Energy (FABLE) consortium, comprising 18 countries including India and USA, the aim is to develop integrated policies for participant nations to meet the food demand targets in a sustainable way, he said.

The consortium has in its first report expressed confidence that sustainable land use and food security are possible and suggested pathways to achieve it, Prof Ranjan Kumar Ghosh of the IIMA's Centre for Management in Agriculture told PTI.

"Considering the fact that present land use and food systems are unsustainable, the International Institute for Applied System Analysis, Sustainable Development Solutions Network and The Food and Land Use Coalition formed the FABLE consortium around 18 months back," he said.

The IIMA was invited to represent India, he said, adding the consortium includes USA, countries of the European Union and major G-20 nations.

The expansion of agriculture to meet the food demand causes severe stress on land, water, forests and other natural resources, the official pointed out.

"Given the high population growth projected for India by 2050 and the ever increasing food demand, can we produce enough to feed the population and yet secure our land and other natural resources for future generations?" he wondered.

In this context, Prof Ghosh and IIMA's research fellow Chandan Kumar Jha are working with teams from other countries as part of the FABLE consortium to develop core modelling skills required to answer a series of questions pertaining to sustainability of food and land use systems across the world.

"Certain decisions can have cross-sectoral and even cross-country effects," Jha said, noting that large import of palm oil in India has led to deforestation in Indonesia.

The government's policy to promote bio-fuel production through crop residues can only be fulfilled through increased land availability, that in turn comes from deforestation or pasture land reduction, Ghosh said.

"Recent fires in Amazon forests raised concerns across the world. It cannot be ruled out that deforestation is taking place to boost agriculture production in Brazil," he said.

The increased dependence on animal-based protein could lead to livestock expansion, which may lead to severe effects on land use changes, he opined.

Ghosh said the findings of the first report of FABLE consortium are based on three pillars - efficient and resilient agricultural systems, restoration of biodiversity and food security, and healthy diets.

The pathways suggested in the report include investing in technology for large gains in agriculture productivity, shifts in diets towards less meat consumption, slow down in population growth and reduced food loss.

"In India, we currently lack an integrated policy framework that can inform decisions-makers about such cross- cutting dynamics. This research programme aims to develop a platform which can provide scientific projections of individual, collective as well as policy actions," Ghosh said.

"The report, however, is a work in progress," he said, indicating that more findings will come out which the countries can present to their respective leaderships.