Agricultural research needs to focus more on making farming sustainable, including looking at its effects on water use and the social and economic impacts on farmers lives, and not just on increasing food production, a report recommends.

The report from the National Academies’ National Research Council published yesterday says federal and state agricultural R&D programmes should “aggressively” fund research on sustainable farming practices, such as crop rotation and integrated livestock and crop production, to ensure future food demands are met.

The report applauds the improvements seen in farming efficiency. For example, in 2008 the output from US farms was 158 percent higher than it was in 1948, and farmers today are producing more food with less energy per unit output than 50 years ago, the report says. But adds research is needed to provide farmers with the toolkit necessary to adapt to today’s changing environment, social and market conditions.

“Although farming productivity has increased, nowadays farmers are being asked to do more than produce more food for a growing world population,” said Julia Kornegay, a horticultural scientist and chair of the committee that wrote the report.

“Many modern agricultural practices have unintended negative consequences, such as decreased water and air quality, and farmers have to consider these consequences while trying to increase production. If farmers are going to meet future demands, the U.S. agriculture system has to evolve to become sustainable and think broadly — past the bottom line of producing the most possible,” she says.