[Global-FFS-l] 100 most important questions for Agriculture

Dear FFSnet colleagues,

I have been asked by the UK project coordinators (see below) to request your assistance in conducting a simple exercise.

The project partners are interested in querying the extended community of experts in the field of agricultural to ask what, in your opinion, are the most important questions facing humanity in regard to agriculture. The exercise is being conducted world-wide and the "top 100 questions" will be compiled and published next year. This type of exercise has been conducted already for the domains of ecology and biodiversity with some very interesting outcomes (see bibliography below).

If you feel motivated to participate, kindly send your questions (1, 3, 5 or as many -- good questions -- as you feel like sending) to my address as follows:
william.settle@fao.org with the Subject heading: "100 most important questions"

Below, kindly find some guidance as to the level of specificity of the questions requested. Thank you for those of you who wish to participate.

Deadline for receiving questions to me should be 7 December so I can get things compiled and forwarded by 15 December.

If you have any questions that are not answered below, feel free to contact me directly (same subject heading)

Kind regards, William Settle, FAO
william.settle@fao.org

Call for Submissions of Top 100 Global Agriculture and Food Questions

Guidance on Framing Questions

UK Government Foresight Future Food and Farming project and UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (Natural Resources Management and Environment Dept)

Project Leaders: Prof Jules Pretty, Prof William Sutherland and Dr Sarah Pilgrim

University of Essex and University of Cambridge


We have found these exercises have been influential in several ways. Researchers will look at the final list as part of the process of selecting and planning research topics. Funders of research have used question lists as part of their planning processes, and policy makers have been able to establish their major priorities as well as scan for novelty.

Types of questions

Past exercises of this sort have recognised a number of different types of question:
1. Questions of basic understanding (e.g. understanding system function and improving predictive power)
2. Questions about appropriate methodology (e.g. how do we measure x?)
3. Questions about impacts (e.g. usually impacts of human actions or technologies)
4. Questions about effectiveness of interventions (e.g. does a technology or policy action work?)
5. Questions about optimisation of interventions (e.g. how can an accepted intervention be more effective?)

Devising questions
1. The question must be answerable and capable of a realistic research design.
2. Questions should be capable of a factual answer and not depend on value judgements.

Not "should we ban pesticide X?" or "is pesticide X acceptable?", but "will a ban on the use of pesticide X result in an increase in costs for farmers or increased environmental harm?"

Or "will the use of legume x and grass z in cereal y reduce the use of insecticides and still provide adequate pest control?"

And not "what is the best way to feed the one billion hungry people?", but "how much do farmer field schools in crop x increase yields that result in reduced hunger in agroecosystem y?"

3. Questions should not already have been answered.
4. If the answer to the question is "it all depends", then this question needs to be made more precise.

For example: "are the pros and cons of GM crops geographically dependent?" The answer is "almost certainly." Thus question needs more precise targeting.

5. Questions on impact and interventions should have as ubject, an intervention and a measurable outcome. Thus the question immediately suggests the form of experiment that is needed to address it.

For example 'What are the direct (yield) and indirect (environmental services) impacts of agroforestry combined with rainwater harvesting in dryland systems of the Sahel?"

(Subject; dryland and rainfed agriculture, Intervention; agroforestry and water harvesting, Measurable Outcome; yields, environmental services)

6. Questions for which yes or no are likely answers are unlikely to be suitable.
7. Questions should be of the scale that in theory a team might have a reasonable effort at answering. We want to avoid questions that identifying an area rather than a question that can be converted into research. Our previous experience is that broad questions tend to attract more votes as everyone sees something of interest and that it is easy to merge questions. We should try and avoid this.

We wish to avoid the "what are the major agricultural issues and most effective solutions?" types of questions by making them more focussed. For example:

Not

What is the role of biodiversity in maintaining specific ecosystem functions for agriculture?

But

How much carbon can be sequestered in agricultural soils under practice x?

Not

How can we measure agriculture's impact on natural capital (renewable and non-renewable resources) and integrate such a measure into gross domestic product (GDP)?

But

How much does investment in effective extension systems return to national GDP?

Selected References to past work

W J Sutherland, M J Bailey, I P Bainbridge, Tom Brereton, J T A Dick, J Drewitt, N K Dulvy, N R Dusic, R P Freckleton, K J Gaston, P M Gilder, R E Green, A L Heathwaite, S M Johnson, D W Macdonald, R Mitchell, D Osborn, R P Owen, J Pretty, S V Prior, H Prosser, A S Pullin, P Rose, A Stott, T Tew, C D Thomas, D B A Thompson, J A Vickery, M Walker, C Walmsley, S Warrington, A R Watkinson, R J Williams, R Woodroffe, H J. Woodroof. 2008. Future novel threats and opportunities facing UK biodiversity identified by horizon scanning. Journal of Applied Ecology 45, (3) 821-833

Sutherland W J, S Armstrong-Brown, P R Armsworth, B Tom, J Brickland, C D Campbell, D E Chamberlain, A I Cooke, N K Dulvy, N R Dusic, M Fitton, R P Freckleton, H C J Godfray, N Grout, H J Harvey, C Hedley, J J Hopkins, N B Kift, J Kirby, W E Kunin, D W Macdonald, B Marker, M Naura, A R Neale, T Oliver, D Osborn, A S Pullin, M E A. Shardlow, D A Showler, P L Smith, R J Smithers, J-L Solandt, J Spencer, C J Spray, C D Thomas, J Thompson, S E Webb, D W Yalden, A R Watkinson. 2006. The identification of 100 ecological questions of high policy relevance in the UK. Journal of Applied Ecology 43 (4), 617-627

Sutherland W J, Adams W M, Aronson R B, Aveling R, Blackburn T M, Broad S, Ceballos G, Côté I M, Cowling R M, da Fonseca G A B, Dinerstein E, Ferraro P J, Fleishman E, Gascon C, Hunter Jr, M., Hutton J, Kareiva P, Kuria A, Macdonald D W, MacKinnon K, Madgwick F J, Mascia M B, McNeely J, Milner-Gulland E J, Moon S, Morley C G, Nelson S, Osborn D, Pai M, Parsons, E.C.M., Peck, L.S., Possingham, H., Prior, S.V., Pullin, A.S., Rands, M.R.W., Ranganathan J, Redford K H, Rodriguez J P, Seymour F, Sobel F, Sodhi N S, Stott A, Vance-Borland K & Watkinson A R. 2009. An assessment of the 100 questions of greatest importance to the conservation of global biological diversity. Conservation Biology. 23, 557-567