Tel:01225 312084

WORLD AFFAIRS GROUP

RE-THINKING AGRICULTURE

Amir Kassam OBE
PROFESSOR OF TROPICAL AGRICULTURE AT READING UNIVERSITY

Monday 18 February 2008 at 7.30pm

World agriculture faces greater problems than at any time since the food crisis of the sixties and the seventies. Population growth combined with rising living standards; undervaluation of the role of agriculture and of agricultural education; large-scale deterioration in the quality of soils; water shortages exacerbated by climate change; competition between food production and bio-fuels; a disturbing slowdown in the development and dissemination of new technology to increase and sustain yields:  these are some of the challenges converging on the agricultural sector.  Professor Kassam will set forth his ideas on what changes might emerge and become prevalent in the future in response to the looming threats.