World Food Day: Advancing towards a nature-positive food system, better life and better future

Today, October 16th is World Food Day. All nations will celebrate a world free from hunger under the theme of “food for a better life and a better future.”

It is also an opportune time when world leaders are convening in Cali, Colombia, on October 21 to advance the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). It has become explicit that how we produce and consume food might not guarantee a better future.

According to a recent publication by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the 2024 Living Planet Report, food production is the largest cause of global environmental change and is the main contributor to our rapidly deteriorating environment.

Our current food system is responsible for over 27% of greenhouse gas emissions, 70% of freshwater withdrawals, 86% of species extinction, and agriculture drives over 90% of deforestation. Food production has changed the face of our planet.

The diversity of what we produce has also decreased over the last hundred years. More than 90% of crop varieties have disappeared from farmers’ fields, and half of the breeds of many domestic animals have been lost.  Most fishing is concentrated in shallow and coastal zones, leading to increasing habitat degradation and risks to threatened species.

To continuously nourish the world and meet nature's goals, we need to adopt a nature-positive food production and consumption approach, one that ensures that food systems entail actions that mitigate the negative environmental impacts.

Nature-positive food production is characterized by a non-depleting, non-destructive and regenerative use of natural resources. It is based on stewardship of the environment and biodiversity as the foundation of critical ecosystem services, including soil, water, and climate regulation.

According to WWF, moving from nature-negative to nature-positive production must entail the protection of nature, restoration of degraded agroecosystems, and managing agriculture in ways that support biodiversity.

In Kenya, with its complex landscapes that have both conservation and food production areas, through nature-positive production we must make a clear distinction between land that is used to produce food and land that is not, which includes intact natural ecosystems and natural habitats.

With regards to land that is used to produce food, nature-positive production as an approach should aim at supporting farmers to restore (on-farm) biodiversity and ecosystem function, increase carbon sequestration, and increase resilience to climate shocks.

 With this year’s World Food Day theme that is focused on making food better for a better future, as WWF, we would like to call on the adoption of holistic approaches that address the challenge of degradation of key habitats and declining biodiversity in the continent.

Holistic approaches like agroecology, which have the added advantage of building synergies across the social and biological elements of production, should support nature-positive practices, ensuring that land that is meant for conservation is protected while degraded lands are also restored.

 We, therefore, have developed the below 6 pointers that can be used to make the Kenya food system better for the future by considering nature-positive production in the design of the countries food systems transformation agenda

 First, agriculture and food production interventions, especially around high biodiversity areas, need to be intentional in protecting and restoring off-farm biodiversity. Our agriculture and food policies and interventions must be clear on protecting biodiversity, this would include agrobiodiversity, wildlife, and habitats (water and forest ecosystems). We must consider securing wildlife corridors and dispersal areas when designing agricultural areas and interventions.

Second, Investments need to ensure increased support for agriculture that does not destroy natural resources. In landscapes that consist predominantly of intact natural ecosystems, the priority should be to protect the remaining natural habitats from conversion to agriculture.

Abandoned or degraded agricultural land and soils need to be restored to healthy natural habitats or rehabilitated to support sustainable food production. Retaining on-farm native vegetation and protecting natural areas, through reduced pressure for agricultural expansion are the most impactful ways of ensuring agriculture protects nature.

Third, we need to profile and scale up interventions with multiple benefits for people nature and climate

Good examples already exist at the smallholder level and can be rapidly scaled up. We also need good examples of large-scale production systems. Interventions must be climate-positive and aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions while building resilience for people and ecosystems.

Fourth, Interventions and programs on agriculture and food should enhance synergies and manage tradeoffs from farm to landscape level. Integrating nature-positive production into agroecological and regenerative agriculture approaches must ensure the promotion of locally-adapted actions that enable synergies from the field to landscape scales. This will promote healthier interactions between people, climate, and nature.

Fifth, actions must empower  smallholder farmers. Policies must be people-positive and should support incentives that empower producers to assume greater responsibility and overcome barriers to change. Innovations in land-tenure security, access to technologies, credit, markets, and payments for ecosystem services are needed to enable producers to profitably transition to nature-positive production. Empowering smallholders also supports and expands their role as agents of change, who are able to secure and access the above services.

Sixth, Integrate businesses and the private sector as critical agents in the transition toward nature-positive production. The nature-positive production approach must integrate the needs and aspirations of the private sector. There is a need to tap into the potential of businesses to transform corporate stewardship with new modes of working to restore nature and benefit communities.

Seventh, government agriculture and food accountability frameworks to integrate nature-positive indicators. Developing agricultural frameworks and investments with indicators that are targeted to reach net-positive impacts on biodiversity, people, and climate is vital if we are to put Africa's food systems on an ecological pathway.

Biodiversity indicators help to measure and monitor pressures or threats, such as trends in land and water use, habitat loss or invasive species, the state of species and ecosystems, and the conservation response, such as the protection of important water sources.

The integration of nature-positive production practices into regenerative agriculture approaches implies an added value in promoting greater resource use efficiency while helping to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services. In the longer term, they often generate higher total farm yields and nutritional value with increased ecosystem benefits.