Wise stewardship of land and water resources are at the heart of our ethos. The reason for that is simple; today 6.6 billion (6,500,000,000) people count on farms and farmers to produce the food that sustains them. Under current conditions approximately 1billion of those people live with food scarcity creating poverty and instability on every continent in the world. By the year 2067, 53 years from now, the number of people on Earth will double to over 13 billion (13,000,000,000). (geography.com) Many of the readers of this article will be alive to see it. What legacy will we leave our children? A legacy of plenty, peace and stability or a legacy of scarcity, conflict and uncertainty. Lets set an example for the next generation of agriculturalists that emphasizes cooperation, conservation and innovation leading to an abundance that empowers every segment of society.
The alternative is bleak. Large tracts of land, 1-2% of the worlds total irrigated area, are lost to salt loading every year. (ICARDA) If our generation the world over can't work together to reduce waste and enhance production - population growth and land productivity will conspire to create a future where a large segment of society grapples with hunger and where every one of us has to carry the weight of the cumulative effects of inflated food prices.
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