What does CoSAI mean by “Sustainable Agriculture Intensification” (SAI)?
“Sustainable Agriculture Intensification” (SAI) is a term with many definitions and past controversies. CoSAI has a broad vision of the term SAI, that goes well beyond the narrow concept of ‘producing more food with less environmental damage’. For CoSAI, SAI refers to the transformative changes in agriculture and food systems that are urgently required to meet rapidly-increasing global needs for affordable, nutritious, safe and healthy food, while protecting and improving the natural environment and promoting resilient livelihoods and social equity.
CoSAI's own focus is on agricultural systems rather than the whole of food systems. SAI should promote, or at minimum not cause harm to, the following objectives, consistent with the UN Sustainable Development Goals:
- Increased availability and broad access to affordable, safe and nutritious food; [SDG2]
- Improved productivity and efficiency of resource use, with reduced pollution, loss and waste [SDG12]
- Improved natural environment, including climate action and promotion of One Health; [SDG15, SDG13, SDG3]
- Reduced poverty and increased resilience of livelihoods [SDG1, SDG8]
- Improved social equity, including reduced gender inequality and social exclusion [SDG10]
What does CoSAI mean by “innovation”?
CoSAI uses the FAO definition of agricultural innovation:
Agricultural innovation is the process whereby individuals or organizations bring new or existing products, processes or ways of organization into use for the first time in a specific context in order to increase effectiveness, competitiveness, resilience to shocks or environmental sustainability and thereby contribute to food security and nutrition, economic development or sustainable natural resource management
CoSAI will investigate and promote innovation for SAI in four main areas:
- Policy
- Social institutions
- Finance
- Science and technology
What does CoSAI mean by “agricultural system”?
Here, “agricultural system” is understood to include all stages of agricultural production or post-production, excluding consumer and retail, and is related to natural resource management (e.g. agroforestry). Aquaculture and fish-crop systems, though not capture fisheries, are included.