Chatham House Food Security 2012 Sustainable Intensification

10-11 December 2012. London, UK. This conference examined the potential of technologies – old, new and pipeline – to deliver sustainable intensification in agriculture.
Is a resilient global agricultural system achievable?

• Is technology crucial to delivering increased agriculture outputs in tandem with environmental objectives?
• Is the current regulation evidence-based or driven by the public’s perception of risk?

Business leaders, policy makers, opinion formers and civil society representatives teased out the implications of the technological approach to sustainable intensification of food production, including the need for regulatory systems to adopt evidence based policies on risks and benefits to ensure resilient production.

Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) President Jane Karuku called for a continued global push for increased smart investments in Africa's agriculture, both by governments and the private sector. After speaking at the Chatham House Food Security 2012 Sustainable Intensification: Miracle or Mirage conference, Nwanze and Karuku addressed a group of international media in London emphasizing that farming is a business and the private sector must fuel the development of Africa's agribusiness in upgrading smallholder agriculture to meet demand from foreign and emerging markets in developing countries.

Food Security: Priorities for Action - Catherine Woteki of USDA

BPDB: Bio-Pesticides DataBase

The University of Hertfordshire announced the launch of a new database on biopesticides which complements the existing Pesticide properties Database and the Veterinary Substance database. The new system currently holds around 450 records in biocontrol agents ranging from naturally derived substances to insect predators.

Biopesticides can be described as crop protection products that have been derived from natural sources. They include naturally occurring chemicals, pheromones, bacteria, fungi and insect predators. Whilst in many instances the environmental risks of these substances is considered to be less than that of the more traditional chemical pesticides this is not always the case. Data to support risk assessments is scarce and currently there is no single, reliable comprehensive data source.

The University of Hertfordshire’s is a respected source of data for both the more traditional agricultural pesticides (PPDB) and veterinary substances (VSDB). To compliment they now offer the BioPesticide DataBase (BPDB) which is a comprehensive relational database of data relating to pesticides derived from natural substances. Contact the database management team: aeru(a)herts.ac.uk