Food systems are facing a triple challenge of ensuring food security, while supporting livelihoods and improving environmental sustainability. Sustainable productivity growth aims to reconcile these diverse objectives. This conference brought together policy makers and researchers to discuss the concept and measurement of sustainable agricultural productivity. It aimed to bridge the gap between academic and policy communities and translate and orient research efforts to pragmatic and policy relevant ways to measure agricultural performance for achieving sustainable productivity growth to address food systems challenges. The exchange among experts and policy makers focused on the current and evolving state of sustainable agricultural productivity performance and the state of the art on measurement and data, as well as on the main challenges to reconcile productivity and sustainability, focusing particularly on the environmental aspects of sustainability.
The conference explored the following questions:
- Why do we care about sustainable productivity? What are the trends on sustainable agricultural productivity growth and what are the implications?
- What is the state of the art on measuring sustainable agricultural productivity and what are the main challenges ahead?
- How can innovation and R&D contribute to sustainable agricultural productivity growth? Which practices support sustainable agricultural productivity growth and what are the trade-offs?
