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Agricultural Innovation for Societal Change
Towards Sustainability
Hardback
November 2024
9781800627789
More details
- Publisher
CABI - ISBN 9781800627789
- Language English
- Pages 168 pp.
- Size 6" x 9"
$140.00
Over the centuries, agriculture has developed through technological steps illustrated by various agricultural revolutions. This book describes and analyzes significant agricultural changes since the mid-1960s in the context of development, innovation and adoption by revisiting resource-poor farmers in Ethiopia, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago, and considering overall development changes up to the early 2020s. It is a platform for discussing current issues for future global food security in the context of globalization and free global trade which have influenced economic growth in many countries but also created environmental concerns and a rapid increase in the number of transnational corporations (TNCs). Sustainable food production is now a global priority and, therefore, ecological footprints must be reduced. This book provides examples of possible technical changes required to achieve this. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions alone is insufficient: political attention must be paid to declining biodiversity, the increasing global exploration of natural resources, demography, increased consumption, waste mountains, expanding migration, and antibiotic resistance. Agribusiness TNCs will challenge national governments and international donors in both research and development, increasing competition for leadership. A gradual societal change, incorporating an understanding of biological fundamentals, is necessary for achieving sustainability and for leading us towards the next agricultural revolution.
Bo Malte Ingvar Bengtsson
Emeritus Professor Bo Malte Ingvar Bengtsson has been engaged in international agricultural research and development activities since graduation in the mid-1960s. Then, he acquired a Diploma in Tropical Agriculture at the University of the West Indies, worked in a rural development project in Ethiopia followed by other development assistance activities. After his PhD he served more than fifteen years as a Research Officer and Director General of an independent Swedish agency for granting science aid to developing countries. He has been a member of several Swedish government committees and boards and attended all major international agricultural conferences. From 1992 he was Professor in international cropping systems at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, continuing with internationally oriented activities, for example, serving as Chairman of new CGIAR Board to establish an international center for forestry research: CIFOR. He has led the Swedish delegations to the CGIAR, been a member of the CGIAR System Review secretariat and been a member of a Review Panel on CGIAR Board Performance. He has participated in other international panels and served as member and Chairman of international boards (ISNAR, ICRAF, ICIPE, CATIE, AERC, the Keystone Centre, CIFOR, ICRISAT and BIO-EARN). He has served on FAO committees and as advisor to FAO's Director General on strategy and response to the Millennium Development Goals. He was a member of the United Nation Task Force on Hunger and the FAO High-Level External Committee on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Sustainability; food; food security; food sovereignty; globalization; trade, transnational corporations; agribusiness, agricultural research; agricultural innovation; technology adoption; agricultural revolutions; climate change; greenhouse gases; biodiversity; natural resources; CGIAR; global leadership in agriculture; agricultural universities; urbanization