Meeting the food demand of a rapidly growing population in an environmentally sustainable manner is a pressing global challenge. This challenge is especially paramount in countries with high population densities and fast-growing economies, such as China. Available land and water resources are under pressure to meet both the rapidly increasing and changing demand for healthy and safe food from its growing urban population and the fast-growing demand from sectors outside the food economy.
Ensuring sustainable natural resources management in agricultural development requires an integrated ‘water, land and food nexus’ approach, which takes potential synergies and trade-offs into account. State-of-the art knowledge about the institutions, policies and markets governing environmental pollution, natural resource use and food supply chains, as well as the underlying processes contributing to changing land, water and food availability and quality, is crucial for the successful adoption of such a water, land and food nexus approach. However, to achieve sustainable agricultural development, there are still major hurdles in front of both the academic researchers, policymakers and other involved stakeholders.
Who are we
SuReFood is a leading Sino-Dutch collaboration in China and the Netherlands.