Agriculture

Content

1. Agriculture as the key to greater sustainability

2. Food security through competitive agriculture

3. The agricultural sector as a driver of innovation

4. Publications, events and media contributions on the topic

Agriculture as the key to greater sustainability

In recent years, the importance of climate and environmental protection has risen sharply in our society, as the scientific community has clearly shown us the impact of man-made climate change. The focus has been increasingly placed on agriculture, which is responsible for around 13 per cent of carbon dioxide, 44 per cent of methane and 81 per cent of nitrous oxide emissions worldwide. Moreover, biodiversity losses can be observed in agricultural landscapes, since there is a lack of food base as well as breeding and retreat opportunities for animal and plant species. At the same time, extreme weather events such as droughts and severe rain pose a threat to the existence of many farms.

Policy-makers have recognised the need for action, as manifested in the various initiatives of the “European Green Deal” and the recently reformed Common European Agricultural Policy (CAP). Agriculture is currently undergoing a transformation towards greater sustainability. The major challenge here is to reconcile greater climate, environmental and resource protection with competitive agriculture. The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung is constructively participating in this process of transformation by, for instance, conducting studies to identify the advantages of sustainable land use systems, such as agroforestry, and to promote dialogue between agriculture, science and environmental protection.

Food security through competitive agriculture

The Russian war of aggression against the Ukraine has disrupted important supply chains and intensified price fluctuations on the agricultural markets. Developing and emerging countries that are reliant on Russian and Ukrainian grain supplies, bear the main brunt of this. Despite there being a high degree of food self-sufficiency in Europe, the war has led to a paradigm shift: Food security – just like energy supply – is seen as a security policy challenge and that is why security of supply has come to the fore again as a core task for farmers.

A central component of a comprehensive security policy is to ensure high levels of self-sufficiency and to avoid one-sided import dependencies through a competitive and productive agriculture. Strengthening regional value chains should by no means be equated with protectionist measures and partitioning. Instead, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung is committed to free trade and its specialised publications and expert discussions highlight the fact that international agricultural trade is an important lever for closing fragile supply chains and opening up sales markets for its own products.

The agricultural sector as a driver of innovation

With the help of digitalisation, work processes can be optimised and the efficiency of agricultural operations can be enhanced. While innovative approaches that lead to greater animal welfare and reduce the use of fertilisers and pesticides make a valuable contribution to more sustainable agriculture and promote Germany as a location for innovation.

Genomic approaches also represent a promising biotechnological approach to plant breeding, which not only enable plants to better adapt to climate change and improve environmental protection, but also lead to increased yields, which is becoming ever more salient in light of a growing world population.

Innovations are only successful if they are accepted and used by society, however. That is why an integral part of our work is to identify positions of conflict, to foster constructive dialogue between different interest groups and to develop concrete recommendations for action.