Agricultural land transformations in Asia

Food production and productivity improvements have contributed to lifting millions of people out of poverty and reduced hunger and malnutrition, but are associated with patterns of land intensification that have degraded agricultural land and caused great environmental harm. Underlying drivers affecting land conversion to and from agriculture include population growth, economic growth and transformation, urbanization, and developments within agriculture such as increasing private sector investments and technological progress. Drivers for agricultural intensification in Asia include access to inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, and improved varieties, and food security priorities reflecting the need to produce more from the limited available land. For the short term, the strategy to achieve SDG goals such as zero hunger could mean sustaining the current food production levels while addressing the food loss and distributional issues so that a significant part of the current disparities in food security are addressed without further stressing the agricultural systems. Over the long term, more transformational changes in agricultural production systems and consumption patterns will be required.