Virtually impossible to feed world and protect environemt - Coveney

The world is facing a "virtually impossible challenge" of increasing food production by 50 per cent in two decades while protecting the environment from the consequences of intensive production, Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney has said.

He pointed out that the world population was increasing by 80 million every year, while 150 million people were joining the middle classes annually. “And that is accelerating rather than flattening out,” he said. “When you look at all those demands and the challenges that are in the way of achieving them, it almost seems impossible.You’re talking about , in less than 20 years, increasing the volume of food we produce to meet current consumption patterns, of 50 per cent.”

He was speaking at a conference organised by IBM to look at how smart technology could help the agri-food sector to compete and win new markets. Mr Coveney said the consequences of intensifying food production could not be ignored as it would eventually destroy the planet.

“We have this virtually impossible challenge of producing 50 per cent more volume in less than two decades while at the same time doing more to protect the sustainability of our environment so that we can pass it on to a new generation,” he said. “We need to be smarter about how we produce food.”

IBM Ireland’s general manager Peter O’Neill said the emphasis tended to be on finding ways to increase food production capacity but it was just as important to look for ways of improving efficiency, particularly when up to 40 per cent of food produced did not make it to the table.

Mr Coveney said we had a moral obligation to find ways of producing food in other parts of the world “in a way that could avoid extraordinary conflict which in my view is inevitable if we don’t find ways of dealing with this”. Other countries, such as the UK, were only beginning to grasp the significance of the food challenge. “We are a global leader in this area, possibly along with New Zealand.”

The conference heard how IBM researchers were working on precision agriculture techniques that could maximise food production, minimise environmental impact and reduce cost.

Susan Davies of IBM Global Services said collecting real-time data on weather, soil and air quality and crop maturity could help farmers make smarter decisions. Sensors placed in fields could be used to measure temperature and humidity of the soil and surrounding air while robotic drones and satellite imagery could take pictures of fields show crop maturity. When combined with predictive weather modelling, a farmer could pinpoint conditions 48 hours in advance and plan crop planting and harvesting with confidence.