Many of the 17 goals adopted as part of the 2030 Agenda are related to agriculture, such as eliminating hunger (goal 2), responsible consumption and production (goal 12) or climate action (goal 13). Indirectly, however, agriculture is involved in 14, as the European Commission counts, and according to Dr. Hab. Julian Krzyżanowski, professor at the Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics – National Research Institute – even in 16 goals.
– The goals are very noble and countries are trying to achieve these goals. Nevertheless, about 600 million people in the world still suffer from food shortages. They are trying to increase production and perhaps with more financing, and there are some ideas for developing agriculture, with more aid, with more import, it will be possible to at least reduce the issue of hunger, if not eliminate it completely – says Prof. Julian Krzyżanowski to the Newseria Biznes news agency.
The role of agriculture in combating climate change is extremely important. The English drew attention to this many years ago, defining farmers as a kind of steward, or guardian of the environment. This applies both directly to agricultural production, the idea being not to use excessive chemicals and not to pollute water, not to pollute soil, and to animal production, not to increase, but even to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Nine years after the adoption of the program, the implementation of the set goals on a global scale is far from the adopted assumptions. According to the report "Sustainable Development Report 2024. The SDGs and the UN Summit of the Future", only 16% of the set sustainable development goals are to be achieved according to the plan. The remaining 84% show limited progress or even regression. Experts note that since 2020, stagnation has been noted in the implementation of goals related to the elimination of hunger (2), sustainable cities and communities (11), life under water (14) and on land (15).
Individual countries are coping with achieving the assumed standards to varying degrees. As the SDR ranking shows, developing countries have the greatest problem in this area, with Europeans faring best. Outside the Old Continent, Japan ranks highest – 18th, followed by Canada – 25th. In the global context, Poland does relatively well in terms of the level of implementation of individual goals – with an SDG Index Score of 81.69 points, we close the top ten of the ranking. The implementation of most of them (56% of goals) is not at risk, which means that Poland will most likely manage to achieve the set level of implementation by 2030. However, in the case of every fourth goal (27.6%), we have noted a deterioration, and in the case of almost 16% – moderate progress.
According to the May PIE report (the report “Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals in Polish Business”), compared to EU countries, we are doing best in areas related to reducing poverty and the quality of education. The goals related to these areas are being implemented in Poland to a greater extent than the EU average, and a good pace of their implementation is maintained. We are doing the worst in terms of reducing hunger, access to clean water and sanitary conditions, and protecting life under water. In these three goals, not only is our result below the EU average, but the pace of their implementation has also slowed down significantly.
– The Scandinavian countries are in the lead, but Poland is very high on the list, and here Polish agriculture plays a major role, taking care of the environment – says the professor at IERiGŻ–PIB.
Agriculture has an important role in combating climate change and should change itself. The way of cultivating the land should change, this cultivation should be more extensive, some crops should be excluded, strips should be used where plants are not grown, where there are trees, where birds can stay, make their nests. So it is very important in plant production, but also in animal production, to move away from large-scale industrial production in favor of more friendly production on a smaller scale.
As he emphasises, EU documents will play a key role in further changes aimed at improving climate conditions in Poland and Europe.
– That is, the so-called Green Deal and the “From Farm to Fork” strategy, which is also part of it – indicates Prof. Julian Krzyżanowski.
It seems that the actions taken so far are sufficient and there is no need to intensify further actions too much, because we should also remember about the income side of agriculture, that farmers work hard, provide food, have many different tasks, and at the same time should receive a decent income.
