Agricultural Ecosystems: Facts & Trends

Agriculture is suffering from a growing dilemma: it needs to feed a fast growing world population, and conserve biodiversity and manage natural resources of an increasingly depleted planet. How to understand this crisis, and the rapid increase in food prices in many countries, is the purpose of Agricultural Ecosystems: Facts & Trends ( 1 MB), a report by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The publication presents well-documented facts and figures to help governments, farmers, consumers and industry better understand the challenges facing the sustainable management of agricultural ecosystems.

Key facts and figures:

• Meat consumption in China has more than doubled in the last 20 years and it is projected to double again by 2030.
• Producing meat, milk, sugar, oils and vegetables typically requires more water than producing cereals.
• Food production to satisfy a person's daily dietary needs takes about 3,000 liters of water – a little more than one liter per calorie.
• Agriculture was responsible for 14% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2000.
• The soils of the world contain more carbon than the combined total amounts occurring in vegetation and the atmosphere.
• Agriculture uses 70% of total global “blue water” withdrawals (from rivers, lakes and groundwater aquifers), most of which is for irrigation.
• Only 17% of all cropland is irrigated, but this land provides 30-40% of the world's food production.
• Over 60% of the world's irrigated area is in Asia , most of which is devoted to the production of rice.
• In the last 40 years, the area of global agricultural land has grown by 10%, but in per capita terms agricultural land area has been in decline. This trend is expected to continue as land is increasingly limited and the population grows.

Download

• Agricultural Ecosystems: Facts & Trends ( 1 MB)
• Agricultural Ecosystems: Facts & Trends PowerPoint presentation ( 1 MB)

Author WBCSD and IUCN Publication Date 22 Jul 2008 Document Type Publications Issue/Topic Ecosystems Source WBCSD and IUCN Include In RSS WBCSD Publications		1007 kb Click here to order