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Principles – Hunger and sustainable agriculture
Poverty, hunger and malnutrition are closely related. Some 75% of the world's absolute poor live in rural parts of
developing countries. The majority are women and children. By the year 2050, global demand for food will approximately
double, in the face of a limited supply of agricultural land, the prospect of decreasing water availability, declining
soil fertility and a major reduction in biodiversity and ecological stability.
Traditional practices can be improved and combined with alternative ecological forms of land use, resulting in
comprehensive systems for sustainable agriculture. A wealth of experience drawn from every continent confirms that
these approaches have great potential, which is still significantly under-exploited. But before these successful
approaches can be disseminated on a massive scale, numerous obstacles have to be overcome. Generally the potential
users of sustainable agriculture do not have enough access to the information they need. An equally common problem
is that political, social and economic structures in a country can inhibit the implementation of such approaches.
Under the auspices of its National Strategy for Sustainable Development, the German federal government supports
the SUSTAINET project, which aims to overcome these obstacles.
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