Challenges for agricultural research: Implications of global environmental trends

Globally, three clusters of environmental issues can be identified as being of crucial importance in the 21(st) century. These are chan ges in biogeochemical cycles, the use of Land and the use of water. Different regions of the world Face different forms and stages of these general issues. Forward-looking studies, such the Global Environment Outlook, show this pattern clearly, both globally and regionally. Agricultural activities play an important role in each of the clusters, both in terms of pressure and in terms of impacts of environmental change. In this paper, the situation with regard to the th ree important environmental issues will be discussed briefly. For each issue, some challenges arising in the context of agricultural research are indicated. In more general terms, the following challenges with regard to management are derived: 1) using clean technology and improving Land and water management, 2) identifying effective policy instruments and promoting the use of market-based instruments while removing perverse subsidies, 3) improving international co-operation such as technology transfer and better use of multilateral environmental agreements, 4) moving towards integrated environmental, economic and social policies and 5) improving information for decision-making.