Our competencies have never been more relevant
Objectives and ambitions for green and sustainable transformation of society and agriculture resonate like never before. If we are to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, it is essential that we are able to halve global emissions by 2030 compared to 2017.
The aim for Danish agriculture is to reduce climate emissions by 70%, the agricultural area is to be reduced by just over 500,000 hectares by 2030, a decline that will be compensated via increased productivity. At the same time, global food production must increase by a minimum of 60% from 2010 to 2050 in order to keep in pace with population growth. We must also meet the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals and ensure that people around the world can live a dignified and secure life.
Time is short and development will require societal changes of unprecedented scale and scope. If one is to see the positive in the situation, it is that the department's competencies have never been more relevant. We are absolutely central if the goals are to be realised?
The question is, how do we approach it? What should we be aware of? Are there really techniques we do not want to use?
There is no doubt that this can not only be done by phasing in new individual technologies, processes and systems. It is just as relevant how we phase out existing technologies in order to move forward and not become stuck in the past. Communication across agricultural research sectors is becoming essential, and interdisciplinary collaboration is becoming more important than ever. For example, is grain for feed just grain? Or can we utilise and develop the grain so that it has greater value as feed and provides less environmental impact? And can it be done by involving the entire chain from processing to growing, feeding and discharging undigested nutrients?
And we have to move fast. Historically, major restructuring processes take many decades or centuries. The processes were previously driven by the discovery of e.g. a new technology. Now the climate challenge is the driving force to drive the development of new technology. There are big gaps in our knowledge, and we need not least to develop new techniques for how we speed up this development.
I dare say that it will be an exciting time for our department.