Food and Nutrition Security: Role of Temperate Fruit Crops

Keynote Presentation at the

9th International Symposium on Temperate Zone Fruits in the Tropics and Subtropics

26-28 March 2013, Chiang Mai, Thailand

by

Hiroyuki Konuma

FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific

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Structure of the paper

1. Global Situation of Food and Nutrition Security and Future Outlook

2. Challenges Ahead and UN Zero Hunger Initiative

3. Role of Fruits in Ensuring Food and Nutrition Security

4. Way Forward “Save and Grow” Approach

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Trends in hunger

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Other Challenges that Threaten Nutrition and Well-Being

• Micronutrient malnutrition is affecting additional two billion people, particularly children.

• One in three developing country’s children (171 million) under age 5 are stunted due to chronic undernutrition.

• More than one billion people are obese, suffering from diabetes and non-communicable diseases, and they co-exist with nearly one billion chronic hunger on the same planet

• New factor influencing hunger: Food price hike and volatility affected poor consumers who spend a large portion (as much as 70%) of income on food

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Future Outlook Towards Year 2050

Can we produce sufficient food to meet the demand of the growing

future population which would reach 9.2 billion by 2050?

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World Population Trends

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developed Sub-Saharan Africa

NothAfrica and the Middle East Latin America and Caribb

South Asia Eastern Asia

percentage annual growth rate (right scale)

millions

Urbanization

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Rural Urban

billions

Food consumption trends

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1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

1969/71 1979/81 1990/92 2005-07 2030 2050

Industrial countries Sub-Saharan Africa

Near East-North Africa Latin America & Caribbean

South Asia East Asia

Pas Past and Projected Increases in Global Production

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56

317

170

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77

60

0 100 200 300 400

developed countries

developing countries

world

percent

2005/07-

2050 (projected)

1961-2005/07 (observed)

Targeted Increases in Food Production Must be Met under Existing

Constraints • Stagnation of expansion of arable land

• Increasing scarcity of water resources

• Decline of productivity growth affected by lack of investment in agriculture in recent decades

• Various uncertainties such as future crude oil prices, food price hike and volatilities, negative impact of climate changes and natural disasters, and bio-fuel development.

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Sources of Production Growth (91% is expected to come from yield increase)

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-20.0

0.0

20.0

40.0

60.0

80.0

100.0

120.0

world developing developed

(percent)

Yields increases between 2005/07 and 2050

Crop intensity increases between 2005/07 and 2050

Area increase between 2005/07 and 2050

The UN Secretary-General’s “Zero Hunger Challenge” joined by FAO,WFP, IFAD, UNICEF, etc. at Rio+20 encourages all partners to scale up

their efforts and turn the vision of an end to hunger into a reality. What does this mean?

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100% access to adequate food all year round

• Enabling all people to access the food they need at all times through nutrition-sensitive agriculture and food systems, marketing, decent and productive employment, a social protection floor, targeted safety nets and food assistance; boosting food supply from local producers; through open, fair and well-functioning markets and trade policies at local, regional and international level, preventing excessive food price volatility.

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Zero stunted children less than 2 years

• Ensuring universal access to nutritious food in the 1000-day window of opportunity between the start of pregnancy and a child’s second birthday, supported by nutrition-sensitive health care, water, sanitation, education and specific nutrition interventions, coupled with initiatives that enable empowerment of women, as encouraged within the Movement for Scaling Up Nutrition.

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All food systems are sustainable

• Ensuring that all farmers, agribusinesses, cooperatives, governments, unions and civil society establish standards for sustainability; verifying their observance and being accountable for them; encouraging and rewarding universal adoption of sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture practices; pursuing cross-sectoral policy coherence (encompassing energy, land use, water and climate); implementing responsible governance of land, fisheries and forests.

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100% increase in smallholder productivity and income

• Reducing rural poverty and improving wellbeing through encouraging decent work, and increasing smallholders’ income; empowering women, small farmers, fishers, pastoralists, young people, farmer organizations, indigenous people and their communities; supporting agricultural research and innovation; improving land tenure, access to assets and to natural resources, making sure that all investments in agriculture and value chains are responsible and accountable; developing multidimensional indicators for people’s resilience and wellbeing.

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Zero loss or waste of food

• Minimizing food losses during storage and transport, and waste of food by retailers and consumers; empowering consumer choice through appropriate labeling; commitments by producers, retailers and consumers within all nations; achieving progress through financial incentives, collective pledges, locally-relevant technologies and changed behavior.

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• Fruits production is recognized as one of the important sub-sectors of food and nutrition security

• Fruits play a significant roles not only in food security but also nutrition security

• In many countries fruits rank third after cereals and vegetables.

• In addition to nutritional status it also contributes in increasing income and employment creation

• Local demand is on rise due to raises in the incomes, population growth and rapid urbanization

• Planting of fruits trees is an acceptable practice in afforestation and conservation programmes, thus rendering improvement to the environment

• Demand for fruits is also growing at a faster rate due to the awareness of balanced diet and changing dietary habit of the people.

• Intercropping is practiced during early growth stage of fruit trees (where suitable)

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Role of fruits in food and nutrition security

Role of Temperate fruits in Asian Fruit Industry

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-Temperate fruits contribute to the horticulture industry by

providing an alternative to the tropical and subtropical fruits

normally grown in Asian countries

-Temperate fruits are perennial and so can help conserve soils and

water and counter erosion in the highland conditions

-High demand in the local markets

-Country has to spend huge foreign money to meet the domestic

demand of temperate fruits

-Temperate fruits in subtropical regions ripen earlier

-Low chill zones will increase future due to availability new

varieties/planting materials

Future production and demand

Component 2005/07 2030 2050

World Dev. Asia World Dev. Asia World Dev. Asia

Production 433 326 216 605 478 317 701 562 362

Demand 442 310 212 605 457 312 708 540 357

Source: ESA, FAO

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Growth rate (%) of fruits in production,

acreage and yield during 2001-2010

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Sub region production acreage yield

Central Asia 6.83 2.98 2.81

Eastern Asia 6.77 2.52 3.40

Southern Asia 6.66 5.50 0.75

Southeastern Asia 3.27 0.36 2.76

Western Asia 1.88 0.42 1.39

Asia Source: FAOSTAT, 2012

5.58 2.80 2.18

Production of Apples

Country Production in 2010 (million tons)

Percent

World total 70 100

China 33 48

USA 4 6

Turkey 3 4

Italy 2 3

India 2 3

Poland 2 3

France 2 3

Iran 2 2

Brazil 1 2

Chille 1 1 25

Production of Pears

Country Production in 2010 (million tons)

Percent

World total 23 100

China 15 67

Italy 0.74 3

USA 0.73 3

Argentina 0.70 3

Spain 0.47 2

India 0.38 2

Turkey 0.38 2

South Africa 0.37 2

South Korea 0.31 1

Japan 0.28 1 26

Constraints in promoting temperate fruits in subtropics and

tropics

• There is no reliable data base on area and production, market and trades of temperate fruit crops in tropics and sub-tropics

• Large number of old orchards are showing decline in terms of growth and fruit yield

• They are grown in marginal lands. The water and fertilizer use efficiency is generally low

• Not all produced fruits have good quality

• Climate and micro-climate play dominant roles

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Future need • More interaction between grower, the market place and

the needs of the consumers

• More emphasis on long-term research

• Transformation of existing traditional systems in favour of commercialized and more remunerative production systems

• Creating more genetic diversity for breeding of selected traits

• Adopt SCPI approach , which is based on an enhanced understanding of ecosystems

• More emphasis on micro-climate in determining site suitability, as they are less easily manipulated than soil properties

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Challenges

- Coping with changes in climate and weather will require additional resources and efforts

- Characterization and identification of suitable germplasms

- Use modern tools and techniques of molecular genetics in breeding programmes

- Strong technology transfer and capacity development programmes for extension personnel

- Produce quality fruits and reduce post-harvest losses

- Explore export markets

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Recommendation

FAO Initiative

Adopting sustainable crop production intensification (SCPI) which has been reflected

in recent FAO’s initiative

“SAVE and GROW”

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Operational Framework for SCPI

SCPI is based on the application of an ecosystem approach that seeks integrated management of land, water and living resources aimed at their conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way. Four principles underlie SCPI:

• Increasing agricultural productivity through improved use of resources (for example, soil, water, plant genetic resources) to achieve higher yields while promoting the sustainability of production and farming systems;

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Contd.

• Enhancing sustainable crop protection with a focus on pest and pesticide-related issues;

• Managing biodiversity and ecosystem services, including through identification and use of mechanisms for valuing agricultural biodiversity and ecosystem services, and sound agronomic and land management practices;

• Strengthening the livelihoods using the benefits of increased productivity and diversification within the value chain.

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Management of ecosystem services – Key to SCPI

• Practices that harness ecosystem services and contribute to sustainability of production systems include the following:

- Conservation agriculture

- Integrated pest management (IPM)

- Integrated plant nutrient management (IPNP)

- Agricultural water management

- -Crop-livestock faming systems

- Agro-forestry systems

- Integrated weed management (IWM)

- Pollinator management

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Conclusion

It is widely believed that there exists significant potential in untapped production opportunities as evident from large intra- and inter-country variation in productivity. But there cannot be a single-approach quick fix in exploiting untapped opportunities. The government policy to integrate horticultural crops emphasising on temperate fruit as part of production systems can make a difference in this sector. Expansion of areas in high productivity zones (if possible), increase in fertilizers and water use efficiency, reinforcement of package of technology will be possible options. Enhanced use of agro-bioinputs (biofertilizers, biopesticides, botanicals, etc.), IPM technology and use of hardy rootstocks are certain other options for greater ecological balance and

sustenance.

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Thanks!

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