The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has decide to undertake research on how to meet the food demand targets by 2050 and have sustainable land use by joining a multi-nation body.
Under the FABLE (Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land and Energy), which comprises of 18 countries including India and USA and aims to develop integrated policies for participant nations to meet the food demand targets in a sustainable way.
Prof Ranjan Kumar Ghosh of the IIMA’s Centre for Management in Agriculture said:
“IIMA joins a multi-nation consortium to work on two major problems. The consortium has in its first report expressed confidence that sustainable land use and food security are possible and suggested pathways to achieve it.”
“The IIMA was invited to represent India in the consortium includes USA, countries of the European Union and major G-20 nations.”
“The government’s policy to promote biofuel production through crop residues can only be fulfilled through increased land availability, that in turn comes from deforestation or pasture land reduction.”
Prof Ghosh with 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.
Chandan Kumar Jha said:
“Certain decisions can have cross-sectoral and even cross-country effects, noting that large import of palm oil in India has led to deforestation in Indonesia.”
“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.”
The increased dependence on animal-based protein could lead to livestock expansion, which may lead to severe effects on land-use changes.
What’s in FABLE:
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,
- 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.