They are more than 30,000 million insects. An army of tireless workers that in recent months has occupied 25,000 of the more than 31,000 hectares dedicated to greenhouse horticultural crops in the Spanish provinces of Almeria and Granada. They are part of the biological pest control measures that have been applied for years by the agricultural industry in this Mediterranean area.
The first massive application of biological control in Almeria took place in 2007. Resistance of some diseases and pests to chemical pesticides had reduced production and triggered warnings about residues found in vegetables. Within a few years, the use of biological control systems was already dominant and, more importantly, production had recovered.
The application of these methods, analyzed by entomologist Jan van der Blom, head of agroecology at the Association of Fruit and Vegetable Producers' Organizations of Andalusia, in an article published in 2017, tells us a story of agriculture sustainable. One that speaks of environmental sustainability, but also social and, above all, economic.
Our world is, above all, an agricultural world. With a few exceptions, the societies that populate the planet are a direct consequence of the invention of agriculture. Without it, our history would have been very different. Today, food, textiles and paper cannot be understood without agriculture. In 2019, the total value of global agricultural production exceeded $3,250 trillion, according to World Bank data. This is 3.7% of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
In most rich Western countries, this percentage is lower. However, in major powers such as China or emerging countries such as Brazil, the weight of agriculture is much higher. In many emerging countries, agricultural production accounts for more than 30% or even 40% of their wealth. During 2018 alone, more than 2.7 billion tons of wheat, 780 million tons of rice or 370 million tons of potatoes were produced. These numbers have not stopped growing since the so-called green revolution in the middle of the last century.
Agriculture is an element of economic development and an axis of social articulation. However, as the FAO points out, this role does not come without costs. Agriculture and agricultural land use is responsible for more than 20% of greenhousegas emissions and 70% of water consumption worldwide. One third of all global agricultural production is wasted; and, despite steadily increasing crop yields, nearly 700 million people go hungry.
As long as the world population continues to grow (by mid-century it will exceed 9 billion inhabitants), agricultural production must continue to grow. "The current trajectory of production growth is unsustainable," according to FAO. For the UN organization, there are five challenges for the future sustainability of agriculture:
"To talk about sustainable agriculture, we have to talk about environmentally friendly agriculture, profitable agriculture and agriculture that generates social externalities in the territory, such as good working conditions. Just one is not enough," explains Eduardo Moyano, agronomist and researcher at the Institute for Advanced Social Studies of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
The three pillars of sustainable agriculture - economic, social and environmental - have become a priority. In March 2021, government officials in Argentina and Brazil ratified their alliance to articulate actions in pursuit of thissustainable development . In the first of these countries, the National Securities Commission has drawn up a guide for social, green and sustainable bonds (SVS), highlighting that the financing of sustainable agriculture may be the future of these bonds, which is evidence of the importance of this agricultural sector.
"The green revolution did not incorporate environmental or social sustainability. It only focused on economic sustainability despite high energy costs," Moyano continues. "The technological advancement of the last 50 years has incorporated the other two dimensions of sustainability. Today, innovation allows agriculture to be much more sustainable in ecological and economic terms, and also socially, if used in a way that improves working conditions."
When talking about sustainability, concepts such as organic and industrial production are often confronted. But sustainable agriculture goes beyond that. As its name suggests, it encompasses all those practices that enable the activity to be sustained over time. Environmental degradation and pollution influence this sustainability, but so do factors such as the genetic variety of species, the presence of diseases, energy efficiency and water use.
The definition of sustainable agriculture, in detail, is not immutable. According to the European Union's agricultural policies, the factors that influence crop sustainability are:
"Sustainable agriculture does not have to be environmentally friendly. But it does have to be efficient, making it possible to meet the demand for food and, at the same time, reduce the environmental impact and the costs associated with resource consumption. All this without driving up prices," adds Eduardo Moyano. "I believe that the process towards this technified, efficient and sustainable technology is unstoppable".
For example, in Spain, for those farmers who want to convert their conventional farms to organic, they have a BBVA loan adapted to the needs of producers during the conversion period, when they have special cash flow needs.
The green revolution brought industrial technologies into agriculture. Machines and chemicals in the service of efficiency for the sake of higher production and lower prices. Social and environmental sustainability suffered greatly. In the last 60 years, however, science has not stopped advancing and the possibilities for a truly sustainable agriculture are many.
Most of these lines of research converge at the Institute of Sustainable Agriculture (IAS-CSIC). Jesús Mercado, a microbiologist, works there and focuses his work on the protection of crop diseases from a very innovative point of view: the study of the hundreds of thousands of microscopic beings that live in equilibrium with plants and soil.
"Plants are accompanied by a huge microbial community that we are only now beginning to discover. Many of these microorganisms are fundamental to maintaining the health of an individual," Mercado explains. "It's about considering a lettuce, a corn plant or an olive tree as a whole, what we call a holobiont. If we are able to know all the beneficial components that coexist with the plant, we can come to understand why certain diseases occur at certain times."
The existence of organisms that live inside plants without harming them has been known for more than a century. However, their study has been ignored during all this time, mainly for methodological reasons. "Now we have powerful tools of massive sequencing, bioinformatics procedures to analyze large amounts of data that allow us to study microbiotas," Mercado adds. "That microbial world can offer novel biological control tools. It's not going to be a definitive solution, but it can help us reduce the use of chemicals and the environmental impact of agriculture."
For the researcher, this knowledge that is now science, in reality, has been around for many years. "Orchards have always been fertilized with manure, which is still an element full of microorganisms," he says. However, the widespread use of biological products in agriculture requires an adequate transfer of technology.
"The farmer can be reticent about new tools. The two questions they always ask are whether it works and how much it will cost," Mercado explains. "If it's proven to work, the farmer is receptive. In the end they are the ones who know the most about the crop, they are the ones who face the problems on a daily basis." As is the case with insects in the greenhouses of Almeria and Granada, where today it seems incredible that 15 years ago the industry survived without biological control methods.
"There are many essential elements for the sustainability of agriculture. The protection and health of the soil, the efficient use of water resources or the modeling of irrigation systems in order to adapt to the impacts of climate change," adds the researcher. "And genetic improvement to make crops more profitable, classically or with genetic engineering."
This is precisely one of the most controversial factors in the quest for agricultural sustainability. The use of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, generates reticence among consumers and is not always supported by regulators. In the European Union, for example, their cultivation and marketing are severely restricted.
However, at world level, some products, such as soybean or corn, come mostly from the cultivation of genetically modified varieties. The United States, Brazil and Argentina lead the figures for this type of production, as pointed out by the Rausser College of Natural Resources at the University of Berkeley. And, strictly speaking, genetic selection and hybridization have been commonplace in agriculture for hundreds of years.
According to FAO, genetic modification of agricultural varieties is not a panacea, but it can offer alternatives to mitigate hunger in the world and, at the same time, move towards a more sustainable agriculture. Among its advantages are greater resistance to external agents (whether pests, climatic conditions or chemicals) and higher productivity with fewer inputs. Arguments against it include the interaction of these species and their genes with the wild environment and the emergence of new resistant diseases that are more difficult to combat.
Finally, innovation in sustainability can also come from agricultural techniques. One example is conservation agriculture, which is becoming increasingly important. This type of agriculture seeks to alter soil composition and biodiversity as little as possible, imitating the structure of natural ecosystems as closely as possible, combining herbaceous species with trees, not removing stubble from previous harvests and with minimal tillage of the land.
After many years of decline, the number of hungry people in the world has been growing steadily again since 2014. The world population also continues to rise and with it food insecurity, as FAO admits. Sustainable agriculture is the tool to achievehumanity's two major goals for the first half of the 21st century: zero people going hungry and zero greenhouse gas emissions. For now, there is still a long way to go.
Finally, innovation in sustainability can also come from agricultural techniques. One example is conservation agriculture, which is becoming increasingly important. This type of agriculture seeks to alter soil composition and biodiversity as little as possible, imitating the structure of natural ecosystems as closely as possible, combining herbaceous species with trees, not removing stubble from previous harvests and with minimal tillage of the land.
After many years of decline, the number of hungry people in the world has been growing steadily again since 2014. The world population also continues to rise and with it food insecurity, as FAO admits. Sustainable agriculture is the tool to achievehumanity's two major goals for the first half of the 21st century: zero people going hungry and zero greenhouse gas emissions. For now, there is still a long way to go.
Finally, innovation in sustainability can also come from agricultural techniques. One example is conservation agriculture, which is becoming increasingly important. This type of agriculture seeks to alter soil composition and biodiversity as little as possible, imitating the structure of natural ecosystems as closely as possible, combining herbaceous species with trees, not removing stubble from previous harvests and with minimal tillage of the land.
After many years of decline, the number of hungry people in the world has been growing steadily again since 2014. The world population also continues to increase and with it food insecurity, as FAO admits. Sustainable agriculture is the tool to achievehumanity's two major goals for the first half of the 21st century: zero people going hungry and zero greenhouse gas emissions. For now, there is still a long way to go.
Finally, innovation in sustainability can also come from agricultural techniques. One example is conservation agriculture, which is becoming increasingly important. This type of agriculture seeks to alter soil composition and biodiversity as little as possible, imitating the structure of natural ecosystems as closely as possible, combining herbaceous species with trees, not removing stubble from previous harvests and with minimal tillage of the land.
After many years of decline, the number of hungry people in the world has been growing steadily again since 2014. The world population also continues to rise and with it food insecurity, as FAO admits. Sustainable agriculture is the tool to achievehumanity's two major goals for the first half of the 21st century: zero people going hungry and zero greenhouse gas emissions. For now, there is still a long way to go.
Finally, innovation in sustainability can also come from agricultural techniques. One example is conservation agriculture, which is becoming increasingly important. This type of agriculture seeks to alter soil composition and biodiversity as little as possible, imitating the structure of natural ecosystems as closely as possible, combining herbaceous species with trees, not removing stubble from previous harvests and with minimal tillage of the land.
After many years of decline, the number of hungry people in the world has been growing steadily again since 2014. The world population also continues to rise and with it food insecurity, as FAO admits. Sustainable agriculture is the tool to achievehumanity's two major goals for the first half of the 21st century: zero people going hungry and zero greenhouse gas emissions. For now, there is still a long way to go.
Finally, innovation in sustainability can also come from agricultural techniques. One example is conservation agriculture, which is becoming increasingly important. This type of agriculture seeks to alter soil composition and biodiversity as little as possible, imitating the structure of natural ecosystems as closely as possible, combining herbaceous species with trees, not removing stubble from previous harvests and with minimal tillage of the land.