Agriculture: Here are the questions...now what are the answers?

A multidisciplinary team of 55 agricultural and food experts from 23 countries have come together to identify the 100 "Questions of Importance" to the Future of world agriculture.

Dr. Colin Sage, from UCC's Department of Geography was the sole contibutor from Ireland.

"We need to build greater resilience and adaptability into the global food system and that is likely to involve giving more serious attention to encouraging shifts in patterns of consumption as well as to finding ways of producing more food more sustainably" said Dr. Sage.

The authors began with an initial list of 618 questions before reducing them to the top 100 over a year long period. Thirteen themes were identified as priority to global agriculture and food production.

These themes include "Climate, watersheds, water resources and aquatic ecosystems" as well as a theme on "Crop genetic improvement" and "Consumption patterns and health".

The report was published in the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability and is free to download here.