CGIAR Initiative: Nature-Positive Solutions for Shifting Agrifood Systems to More Resilient and Sustainable Pathways <p class="ql-align-justify">The&nbsp;eyes&nbsp;of the world are on&nbsp;<strong>Nature-Positive Solutions</strong>&nbsp;(NPS). In&nbsp;prioritizing&nbsp;the mass-scale production of cheap and&nbsp;plentiful&nbsp;food,&nbsp;<strong>industrial&nbsp;agriculture</strong>&nbsp;has&nbsp;inflicted&nbsp;a&nbsp;disastrous&nbsp;cost on&nbsp;both&nbsp;the&nbsp;environment&nbsp;and&nbsp;humans. In&nbsp;terms&nbsp;of&nbsp;its&nbsp;<strong>impact on nature</strong>, industrial&nbsp;agriculture&nbsp;drives 80% of&nbsp;deforestation,&nbsp;threatens&nbsp;86% of the&nbsp;<a href="https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">28,000</a>&nbsp;species&nbsp;currently&nbsp;at&nbsp;risk of&nbsp;extinction&nbsp;(through&nbsp;habitat&nbsp;conversion&nbsp;and&nbsp;pollution),&nbsp;<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">is&nbsp;responsible&nbsp;for&nbsp;significant&nbsp;loss&nbsp;of&nbsp;</span><a href="https://bit.ly/3ny0VcR" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">crop and genetic diversity</a>&nbsp;and up to 37% of global&nbsp;greenhouse&nbsp;gas&nbsp;emissions&nbsp;(GHGE),&nbsp;accelerates&nbsp;land&nbsp;degradation&nbsp;and&nbsp;land-use&nbsp;change, and&nbsp;uses&nbsp;70% of global water&nbsp;resources&nbsp;withdrawn. In&nbsp;terms&nbsp;of&nbsp;its&nbsp;<strong>impact on&nbsp;humans</strong>, the&nbsp;homogenization&nbsp;of&nbsp;our&nbsp;food sources and&nbsp;diets&nbsp;has&nbsp;resulted&nbsp;in&nbsp;dramatically&nbsp;reduced&nbsp;(a)&nbsp;nutrition&nbsp;outcomes&nbsp;for families,&nbsp;particularly&nbsp;for women and&nbsp;children, and (b) farming&nbsp;incomes&nbsp;due to&nbsp;impoverished&nbsp;soil&nbsp;and water health,&nbsp;reduced&nbsp;crop&nbsp;resistance&nbsp;to&nbsp;pests&nbsp;and&nbsp;diseases, and&nbsp;poor&nbsp;waste&nbsp;management,&nbsp;which&nbsp;have&nbsp;collectively&nbsp;reduced&nbsp;the&nbsp;resilience&nbsp;of&nbsp;smallholder&nbsp;farming systems (Figure 1).&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">The&nbsp;circularity&nbsp;of&nbsp;these&nbsp;problems&nbsp;is&nbsp;exacerbated&nbsp;by&nbsp;misaligned&nbsp;public policies and&nbsp;economic&nbsp;incentives&nbsp;that&nbsp;incentivize&nbsp;production of the&nbsp;cheapest&nbsp;food&nbsp;possible,&nbsp;at&nbsp;the (long-term) cost of&nbsp;both&nbsp;nature and&nbsp;humans. Not accounting for the&nbsp;true&nbsp;cost of food in AFS makes&nbsp;it&nbsp;challenging&nbsp;for public and private&nbsp;sector&nbsp;actors&nbsp;to design incentives and investments&nbsp;that&nbsp;encourage&nbsp;smallholder&nbsp;farmers to shift to NPS-based&nbsp;pathways on-farm, with the&nbsp;result&nbsp;that&nbsp;smallholders&nbsp;continue to be&nbsp;pushed&nbsp;towards&nbsp;adoption of&nbsp;agricultural&nbsp;practices&nbsp;more&nbsp;suited&nbsp;to industrial systems.&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">Recently,&nbsp;however,&nbsp;there&nbsp;has&nbsp;been&nbsp;a&nbsp;seismic&nbsp;shift in thinking on&nbsp;how&nbsp;to (re)organize&nbsp;our&nbsp;agricultural&nbsp;production systems,&nbsp;partly&nbsp;prompted&nbsp;by the&nbsp;structural&nbsp;fault lines and&nbsp;vulnerabilities&nbsp;of industrial&nbsp;agriculture&nbsp;laid&nbsp;bare by the COVID-19 pandemic, and&nbsp;partly&nbsp;by&nbsp;formal&nbsp;recognition&nbsp;by the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS)<strong>&nbsp;</strong>that&nbsp;nature-positive production (NPP)&nbsp;is&nbsp;<a href="https://bonndoc.ulb.uni-bonn.de/xmlui/handle/20.500.11811/9085" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">one of five critical pathways to sustainable food&nbsp;</a>systems.&nbsp;This&nbsp;momentum&nbsp;was&nbsp;sustained&nbsp;by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.leaderspledgefornature.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Leaders_Pledge_for_Nature_27.09.20-ENGLISH.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">92 governments</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://ukcop26.org/nations-and-businesses-commit-to-create-sustainable-agriculture-and-land-use/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">95 high-profile</a>&nbsp;corporations&nbsp;pledging&nbsp;urgent&nbsp;action and investment&nbsp;at&nbsp;UKCOP<span style="color: rgb(33, 37, 41);">26 to&nbsp;protect&nbsp;nature,&nbsp;pursue&nbsp;nature-positive pathways, and shift to more&nbsp;sustainable&nbsp;ways of farming.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p><p class="ql-align-justify">&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">While&nbsp;much&nbsp;of the business case for NPS&nbsp;is&nbsp;in place — the 2020 World&nbsp;Economic&nbsp;Forum’s&nbsp;“The Future of Nature and Business Report”&nbsp;suggests&nbsp;that&nbsp;NPS-focused&nbsp;stimulus&nbsp;packages&nbsp;could&nbsp;enable&nbsp;people to&nbsp;tap&nbsp;into&nbsp;an&nbsp;estimated&nbsp;<em>395&nbsp;million&nbsp;new</em>&nbsp;<em>NPS-driven</em>&nbsp;<em>jobs</em>&nbsp;by 2030 — the&nbsp;actionable&nbsp;science (evidence&nbsp;and tools)&nbsp;required&nbsp;to support NPS planning by the&nbsp;agricultural&nbsp;research&nbsp;for&nbsp;development&nbsp;(AR4D) community lags&nbsp;behind.&nbsp;Herein&nbsp;lies&nbsp;the challenge.&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">The CGIAR&nbsp;is&nbsp;uniquely&nbsp;well-placed&nbsp;to play a&nbsp;leading&nbsp;role&nbsp;in NPS&nbsp;development, thanks to&nbsp;its&nbsp;many&nbsp;decades&nbsp;of&nbsp;research&nbsp;and&nbsp;thought&nbsp;leadership in&nbsp;this&nbsp;very&nbsp;arena.&nbsp;However, gaps&nbsp;between&nbsp;research&nbsp;and impact&nbsp;at&nbsp;scale&nbsp;remain. The&nbsp;next&nbsp;three&nbsp;years&nbsp;represent&nbsp;a&nbsp;critical&nbsp;opportunity&nbsp;for CGIAR to&nbsp;expand&nbsp;its&nbsp;partnerships with&nbsp;conservation&nbsp;and&nbsp;other&nbsp;downstream AR4D partners and&nbsp;together&nbsp;take the lead on stress-testing, packaging, and scaling NPS best&nbsp;practices&nbsp;in&nbsp;forms&nbsp;(technologies,&nbsp;innovations, tools)&nbsp;that&nbsp;can help&nbsp;smallholder&nbsp;farming communities shift&nbsp;towards&nbsp;producing&nbsp;food in a nature-positive way. NATURE+&nbsp;will&nbsp;produce&nbsp;actionable&nbsp;science&nbsp;that&nbsp;enables&nbsp;the CGIAR and&nbsp;broader&nbsp;AR4D&nbsp;ecosystem&nbsp;to plan for nature-positive&nbsp;agricultural&nbsp;interventions&nbsp;that&nbsp;<strong>promote&nbsp;productivity&nbsp;in&nbsp;parallel&nbsp;with ZERO&nbsp;biodiversity&nbsp;loss, ZERO&nbsp;deforestation, ZERO&nbsp;land&nbsp;degradation, MINIMAL carbon and water footprint, ENHANCED water- and&nbsp;nutrient-cycle&nbsp;management, and ENHANCED equity&nbsp;outcomes.</strong>&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-justify">&nbsp;</p><p><br></p>