The report “Reaping the Benefits: Science and the sustainable intensification of global agriculture”, published today, is the result of four months work by a small group of British scientists specially convened by the Royal Society.  After the launch of the study, questions were raised by NGOs and others about the value of yet another review of agricultural science, following publication last year of the comprehensive IAASTD report, the result of four years work by hundreds of scientists.  In the event, the Royal Society has not really added anything to our understanding of the role of agricultural science in addressing the global food crisis.

Perhaps the only distinctive part of today’s report is the call for a £2bn challenge fund to support British scientific research into global food crop security.  This is unsurprising, coming from a group of British researchers at a time of squeezed budgets.  But if global food security is the primary concern, and the vast majority of the 1 billion people who are malnourished live in developing countries, we could be forgiven for asking whether British science is best placed to come up with answers. 

The recommendation seems to ignore concerns, expressed recently by Michel Pimbert of IIED, that agricultural research is increasingly serving a powerful, private sector minority rather than bringing benefits to wider society and the environment, and his proposal for a new way of working in which policy makers, scientists and local people set strategic research priorities together.

Though the Royal Society report recommends that all technological options should be available and that research is necessary on all aspects of agricultural production, not just plant breeding, it is research on GM that has been spun and captured media attention.  Felicity Lawrence warned us in The Guardian on Saturday (17 October), and it seems that it is a political purpose rather than a scientific one that the Royal Society report serves.  And that purpose is more about British science than the global food crisis.

The GM debate is a diversion of attention from the real causes of hunger – poverty and inequality.  Agricultural science and technology have an important role to play, but it is existing technologies and the activities of small-scale farmers themselves which will have most impact – if they are allowed to do so.

Every year World Food Day takes place October 16th. The aim of this day is to heighten awareness of food issues across the globe.

And with more than one billion people – a sixth of the world’s population – undernourished, it is not difficult to see the scale of the problem we currently.

Only a few days ago, the United Nations warned more international effort is needed to cut the number of hungry people across the world.

This year World Food Day is focusing on ‘food security at times of crisis’ and it is not difficult to see why. Devastating droughts are sweeping through Kenya, food prices are rocketing, world markets and climate change are all contributing to uncertainty about the future of food.

Our Food Security Policy Adviser, Patrick Mulvany, is gearing up to attend the World Summit on Food Security next month. This will look at how we can make sure there is enough food to feed a growing population – estimated to be 9 billion by 2050.

Yet while these important high level discussions are taking place, there are so many exciting projects on the ground, run by communities and providing real solutions to food production and hunger.

In Kenya, Practical Action is working with drought-stricken Maasai communities on adapting their livelihoods to ensure they survive the harsh conditions, currently sweeping through the country.

While pumpkin cultivation, floating gardens and ‘growing fish’ in Bangladesh are giving people not only food, but a livelihood and a more certain future.

We are also encouraging people in the UK to ‘do their bit’ with our new ‘Food for Good’ initiative. From formal dinner parties, informal coffee mornings, to barbeques and picnics, friends and family are asked to make a donation which can help us carry on our vital work.

Food security continues to hit the world’s poorest communities first – and more than 30 countries are already experiencing food emergencies. We will continue to work directly with people who are being hit the hardest, to come up with solutions which will offer long term and dignified solutions.

We have all seen the news headlines from Kenya; animal carcasses strewn across the landscape and ten million facing extreme food shortages.

This is one of the worst droughts in recent years; as well as little rain; maize production is down by almost 30 percent, compounding the problem further.

 Practical Action works with Maasai communities, both in the Rift Valley and Turkana.  We are working with communities, creating a nucleus herd of the healthiest animals, reconditioning and putting in more boreholes and working with people on alternative livelihoods.

Just three years ago the UNFCCC took place in Nairobi; Maasai communities – many travelling for three days – took to the streets of Nairobi asking for world leaders to take action.

One Maasai woman told world leaders: “Africa is sometimes called the forgotten continent. And it looks like you’ve forgotten us again…. I wonder if you are just like all the other tourists who come here to see some wild animals and some poor Africans; take some pictures and then go home and forget about us.”

I was lucky enough to talk to Maasai elder Julius Lekurra, both in Nairobi and also at his home, deep in the Rift Valley. In the three hours it took to get to Magadi from Nairobi, the landscape quickly changed. No longer was it a vibrant green, but sparse, dusty backdrop, while temperatures. He told me ‘how the clouds were changing and no longer came’.

Julius lost 80 per cent of his herd in 2005, and while he told me how Maasai people were used to hardship. “Thirty years ago we used to have enough grass but now the atmosphere has changed. We are no longer sure that the rains will come. There must be politics in heaven.”

This current drought is no less devastating. Catherine Senja, now relies on selling the famous Maasai red shukas to feed her family: “My husband and I had 500 goats and 490 cattle. The drying up of water points and wilting of the once green grass means I now only have 49 goats and 5 cows.”

Maasai communities are proud, independent people; eloquent and vibrant. The people I met did not want money or handouts, or to point the finger of blame. Yet they are being pushed to the edge and many will struggle to survive.

Without urgent action in Copenhagen fear for the future of the Maasai elder and his community I was lucky enough to spend time with. Many may not have known what the phrase climate change meant, but they knew changing weather patterns were having major impacts on their lives.

People from all over the world are taking part in Blog Action Day to talk about climate change – it’s not too late to have your say.

5th October is the World Habitat Day and for the first time in history more than half of the world’s population lives in cities. Most of this growth is in developing countries, with an estimated 1 billion people are living in slum areas, without access to basic services such as water, sanitation, waste collection and drainage. Most of them have no legal rights to land and access to decent health and education services. While the UN organisations estimate an investment cost of US $670 per person to overcome this situation, governments in developing countries and slum dwellers see no way out to this appalling situation. We believe that to overcome this deadlock, new thinking and fresh approaches are needed.

In the next 12 weeks, Practical Action is engaging in some key debates on urban development with more than 1,000 practitioners and policy makers. The issues under discussion, include participation, good governance, corruption, standards and technologies. Practical Action likes to influence the discussion, based on its experience of working in slum areas of Bangladesh, Nepal, Kenya and Zimbabwe, where we learnt that any development based on the capabilities and hard work of poor people makes a sustained impact.

This debate will then provide basis of global thinking and agreements in the forthcoming World Urban Forum in March, 2010. For details see forum.unhabitat.org

Read more about Practical Action’s work on urban poverty and shelter