Sustainability science and sustainable development of agriculture in developing countries in the context of multiple global challenges

The agriculture sector is increasingly being affected by multiple global changes in the world (Tilman et al., 2002). The risk of food insecurity is growing as the population size has been predicted to reach nine billion by 2050 in the world (FAO, 2014, Fischer et al., 2014). It has also been estimated that about ten percent of agricultural productive capacity in developing countries will be declined by 2080 due to global warming (Cline, 2007). In this situation, there is a great challenge of producing enough food to meet the food demand and secure the food for the insecure population. Over the past decades, different scientific approaches have been emerged and used to develop to improve the agriculture sector. For instance, ‘science push, market-driven, and ‘diffusion of innovation approaches’ of agricultural development (see.Arnold and Bell, 2001, World Bank, 2006). In these approaches, the role of both basic and applied sciences has been considered as the main way to solve the agricultural problem and improve the agriculture sector. These approaches have promoted the use of modern technologies such as chemical fertilizer, pesticides, and modern agricultural machines. In addition, they have had a great impact on agricultural production mainly in developing countries (Ikerd, 1993:152). However, the concern has only given to the economic profit generation through the more agricultural production and these approaches failed to address the several social and environmental issues of sustainability. Thus, it is important to address the issues of sustainability through the approaches of sustainability of science.

As a new field of science, over the last decade, the thought about the sustainability of science has emerged in the academic and non-academic arena. This approach mainly concerned about how sustainable development can be achieved both environmentally and socially. According to Clark and Dickson (2003) ‘sustainability science focuses on the dynamic interaction between nature and society’. This new field of science principally maintains the effective tradeoff between the natural system and the social system. Moreover, one of the core concepts of sustainability science is a collaboration among the theoretical and applied scientific disciplines in which attention has been given to establish a connection between theory, practice, and policy (Bettencourt and Kaur, 2011). This approach believes in ‘co-produced knowledge’ that has to be generated through the collaborative work between researchers and practitioners (Clark and Dickson, 2003)

Here my concern is about how sustainable agricultural development can be achieved through the approach of sustainability science in the context of global challenges in developing countries. According to a recent report of the World Economic Forum (2017), the most critical global challenges are social instability, climate change impact, large scale regional migration, etc. The impact of such kind of global challenges in the agriculture sector of the developing countries is higher than the developed world (Ibid). To address such issues, it is essential to make a collective effort of researchers, farmers and policymakers that generate sustainable agricultural knowledge and practices. Those knowledge and practices establish the dynamic interaction between nature and society (Clark and Dickson, 2003). It is obvious that agricultural practices are directly and indirectly associated with both social and environmental systems (Turner and Brush, 1987). For agricultural development the role of social actors i.e. institutions, farmers group, civil organization, research organization, etc. is significant. In this case, it has been suggested that sustainable development of agriculture can be achieved through the interactive process of individuals and organizations within a complex social, political, policy, economic and institutional context (see.World Bank, 2006 p.12). On the other side, agricultural production is dependent on natural resources and the production process is conditioned by resources i.e. land, water, climate (Aase et al., 2013).  For that reason, the actors of agriculture have to be aware while using such kind of resources.

The sustainability science believes in applied knowledge and commits to moving knowledge to the societal problem (Kates, 2011). In this research being a researcher of sustainability science, my role is to produce knowledge about sustainable agricultural practices through the transdisciplinary (community-based or participatory) approaches. The research process in these approaches includes the assemblage of available knowledge, values, and multiple view or opinions that are relevant to solve everyday problems(Lang et al., 2012). The involvement of scientists and non-scientists in the identification of problems and addressing such problems are the main tasks of transdisciplinary research (Hadorn et al., 2008). It is, therefore, through the transdisciplinary research process, knowledge, and understanding about sustainable agricultural development can be developed and applied to solve real-life agricultural problems.

References

AASE, H. T., CHAPAGAIN, P. S. & TIWARI, C. P. 2013. Innovation as an expression of adaptive capacity to change in Himalayan farming. (Report). Mountain Research and Development, 33, 4.
ARNOLD, E. & BELL, M. 2001. Some new ideas about research for development. Partnerships at the leading edge: A Danish vision for knowledge, research, and development, 279-319.
BETTENCOURT, L. M. & KAUR, J. 2011. Evolution and structure of sustainability science.        Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108, 19540-19545.
CLARK, W. C. & DICKSON, N. M. 2003. Sustainability science: the emerging research program. Proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 100, 8059-8061.
CLINE, W. 2007. Global warming and agriculture: Impact estimates by country, Columbia University Press.
FAO 2014. The State of Food and Agriculture: Innovation in Family Farming. Rome: Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nation.
FISCHER, R., BYERLEE, D. & EDMEADES, G. 2014. Crop yields and global food security. ACIAR: Canberra, ACT.
HADRON, G. H., BIBER-KLEMM, S., GROSSENBACHER-MANSUY, W., HOFFMANN-RIEM, H., JOYE, D., POHL, C., WIESMANN, U. & ZEMP, E. 2008. The emergence of transdisciplinarity as a form of research. Handbook of transdisciplinary research. Springer.
IKERD, J. E. 1993. The need for a system approach to sustainable agriculture. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 46, 147-160.
KATES, R. W. 2011. What kind of science is sustainability science? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108, 19449-19450.
LANG, D. J., WIEK, A., BERGMANN, M., STAUFFACHER, M., MARTENS, P., MOLL, P., SWILLING, M. & THOMAS, C. J. 2012. Transdisciplinary research in sustainability science: practice, principles, and challenges. Sustainability Science, 7, 25-43.
TILMAN, D., CASSMAN, K. G., MATSON, P. A., NAYLOR, R. & POLASKY, S. 2002. Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices. Nature, 418, 671-677.
TURNER, B. L. & BRUSH, S. B. 1987. Comparative Farming Systems, New York, Guilford Press.
WORLD BANK 2006. Enhancing Agricultural Innovation: How to Go Beyond the Strengthening of Research Systems, Herndon, VA, USA, World Bank Publications.
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM 2017. The Global Risk Report 2017. Insight Report. Cologny, Geneva Switzerland: World Economic Forum.


@Binod Adhikari
The University of Bergen, Norway