This article is brought to you by the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Program.
On the southeastern edges of Konya Province in central Turkey, an ancient relief looks out from a rockface, as it has done for almost 2,800 years.
It shows a king, hands clasped in prayer, and a god, holding something much less conspicuous – ears of wheat and a bunch of grapes.
“Wheat was always important here,” says Mesut Keser, Turkey’s country coordinator for the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). “Turkey is one of the centers of the origin of wheat.”
Today, wheat remains one of the country’s most important crops, with about 22 million tons produced annually, Keser adds.
That’s one of the main reasons why 65 international cereal experts gathered in Istanbul, Turkey, for the FOLUR Maize and Wheat Regional Dialogue, where they set out to tackle one of the most pressing issues facing cereal today: sustainability.
Held from 19–23 January 2025, the event brought together representatives from the World Bank FOLUR team, ICARDA, the Center for International Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Finance Corporation (IFC), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Mexico’s National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Maize and wheat account for about a third of the global diet, making them vital for food security across the world. They are also some of the most traded commodities globally.
“When we’re talking about cereals, we’re talking about staples: most people in the world are eating a cereal at some point every day,” says Christopher Brett, co-lead of the FOLUR Impact Program and agribusiness, finance and jobs lead at the World Bank.
“Cereals are important for food security, important for livelihoods and of course important for nutrition.”
However, maize and wheat production also contributes significantly to biodiversity loss, land degradation and the climate crisis, he adds.
With global food demand expected to rise by up to 56 percent in the coming decades, countries must find ways to reduce the impact of wheat and maize production while protecting food security.
The global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss, and maize and wheat are no exception.
Together, they cover more than 426 million hectares – an area of land bigger than France, Germany, Italy, Kenya and Vietnam combined.
These vast tracts were once thriving biomes, but unsustainable agricultural practices have turned forests, grasslands and other ecosystems into agricultural deserts.
“In general, the big problem is intensive agriculture,” says Dinara Akhmetova, co-lead of FOLUR and senior natural resources management specialist at the World Bank.
“When we expand areas for production, we take areas that were previously marshes or forests or natural areas, so that leads to biodiversity loss.”
Unsustainable practices in maize and wheat production also lead to land degradation – causing desertification in some cases.
“Soil is an ecosystem, and when we till intensively, when we apply chemicals in the areas under production, we disturb and destroy the soil ecosystem, and soil is a non-renewable resource,” says Akhmetova.
In Kazakhstan, for example, 75 percent of agricultural lands are affected by land degradation, according to Adambek Nurzhan, FOLUR project manager at UNDP Kazakhstan.
Land degradation negatively impacts biodiversity, environmental health and crop yield.
Degraded soils also require more inputs, such as fertilizers. These are already a significant challenge in cereal production, causing pollution from runoff and greenhouse gas emissions.
Almost half of the greenhouse gas emissions of a loaf of bread come from the fertilizer used to grow wheat, for example.
In fact, agriculture is the world’s fourth most emitting sector.
These greenhouse gas emissions contribute to the climate crisis, which in turn threatens the future of cereal production.
Greenhouse gas emissions in cereal production don’t only come from fertilizer. Many countries are plagued with air pollution, partly caused by burning crop residue after harvests.
This is especially prevalent in regions that have rice–wheat cropping systems, switching between the two very rapidly.
In India, for example, smallholder farmers only have about two weeks between harvesting one crop and planting the other.
This short turnaround makes them much more likely to clear fields by burning, says Konda Reddy Chavva, an assistant representative with FAO India.
Aside from serving as important staples for humans, wheat and maize are also vital to current livestock value chains.
Livestock comes with its own challenges, but in the context of sustainable cereals, its biggest problem is its emissions.
“Greenhouse gas emissions in corn are multiplied in livestock,” says Jason Clay, senior vice president of market transformation at WWF, who delivered a keynote presentation at the dialogue.
The production of a kilogram of beef can require 7 kg of corn in a feedlot, for example, which means greenhouse gas emissions are multiplied several times before other livestock emissions are even taken into account.
This is especially damaging as global meat consumption is on the rise.
However, while there are many challenges to sustainable wheat and maize production, innovative solutions are already being implemented around the world.
The Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Program is a seven-year program led by the World Bank and backed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
It works across 27 countries to transform the global food system into one that benefits landscapes and the environment by promoting sustainable, integrated landscapes and efficient commodity value chains in the production landscapes of eight commodities: cocoa, corn, coffee, livestock, palm oil, rice, soy and wheat.
Countries worldwide face challenges from climate variabilities, low productivity and other threats, including droughts, heat stress, flooding, erratic rainfall patterns, groundwater depletion, pests and disease.
Moreover, inefficient land management practices contribute to the loss of forests, habitats and other natural resources. In turn, the climate crisis threatens the future of crop production.
FOLUR aims to address these challenges by ensuring an efficient and sustainable food system and food value chains that can meet long-term demand, recognizing that this requires a transition to integrated landscape management systems.
This FOLUR Regional Dialogue Sustainable Maize and Wheat: Scaling Innovations for Resilience focused on building connections between country representatives from the six FOLUR maize and wheat projects.
It also brought together scientists, the private sector, and policymakers, including the Turkish government, which co-hosted the event through its Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, to engage in discussions about how to make wheat and maize value chains more sustainable.
“We’ve come to Turkey because we want to look at sustainable wheat and sustainable maize that is very strong in production within this region,” says Brett.
Delegates discussed how maize and wheat yields can be increased while conserving forests and biodiverse ecosystems and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Pathways include sustainable intensification, the use of conservation and climate-smart agriculture techniques and agroforestry systems.
In India, a machine called the ‘Shredder, Seeder, Spreader’ is being piloted.
It supports farmers with the direct seeding of wheat and addresses the issue of crop residue management. It also has the added benefit of creating soil cover, which improves water retention and soil health, Chavva says.
China has also deployed satellite monitoring to tackle the issue. These orbiting sensors can detect fires, track when fields are being burned and help target problem areas.
Other solutions are a bit more down to earth.
“We are taking concrete steps towards sustainable production, such as using regenerative agricultural methods such as crop diversification,” says Zhandaulet Zhanbyrbayev, Director of the Agriculture Department, Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Crop diversification, such as through pulses or legumes, can improve soil health by fixing nitrogen and reducing the amount of fertilizer and groundwater needed.
“What’s important is crop diversification,” says Aziz Nurbekov, FOLUR project coordinator at FAO Uzbekistan.
“If we only use wheat and maize, this is not a crop rotation system. Three crops have three different root systems, and we have an increase in the water-holding capacity of the soil.”
However, something that works in one place may not be appropriate in another. It’s vital to consider local factors when scaling these solutions.
“In India, one of the things that we found is that farmers know at which time the satellite is passing over a particular area, and so they plan their crop residue burnings keeping that in mind,” Chavva says.
One factor that cuts across all regions, however, is finance.
Significant subsidies are flowing into agriculture, but not towards sustainable practices.
“Every year, USD 800 billion goes into agricultural subsidies, and unfortunately, the majority of that goes to purposes that have no positive environmental or social impact,” says Holger Kray, practice manager for Europe and Central Asia at the World Bank.
What’s more, many farmers in the wheat and maize value chains are smallholders who may not be able to afford the technologies needed to green their supply chains.
One solution is blended finance. In Kazakhstan, FOLUR is using innovative mechanisms to offer concessional loans to farmers, which have increased production while boosting diversification and water saving, Zhanbyrbayev says.
In India, it’s exploring “cluster-based models” that allow smallholder farmers to hire machines they could not afford individually.
“We use a cluster hiring mechanism wherein a cluster of farmers can access a machine so that they can use it on their farms – so more like an Uber model,” says Chavva.
And while the subsidies aren’t currently going where they need to, they do show that the money is there.
“We have enough funding in principle, the technologies that we need are known, and every kilogram of wheat we produce will be absorbed by the market,” says Kray.
“Show me any other industry worldwide that can claim this success. It’s up to us to do this.”
Cereals were the first crops ever cultivated by people – around 12,000 years ago – and continue to be vital for food security around the world today.
The regions that provide these staples are already finding ways to reduce their impact while increasing their supply, whether it’s through innovative technology, new machines or nature-based solutions. Even the funding to implement these solutions exists in principle.
The major remaining step is to scale sustainably.
And those responsible for the land, farmers, must be included in these processes.
“In the end, it comes down to farmers managing the soil and so they really need to be empowered to make better decisions by having better knowledge,” says Sieglinde Snapp, director of the Sustainable Agrifood Systems program at CIMMYT.
“We can’t just transfer technologies – it’s like throwing a rope, right? You can’t push it on someone. They have to be part of the process to grab that rope and make it work.”
Another important issue is recognizing the role of women in agricultural systems.
“Women are the hidden farmers in many parts of the world,” says Snapp. “They may be producing the food, selling, doing the accounting. But in other parts of the world, they are actually driving the combines and making the decisions about seeds, so women are involved throughout the process of maize and wheat production.”
Experts at the dialogue emphasized providing support for agribusiness initiatives and leadership training to enhance the critical role of women in food security and nutritional outcomes.
For instance, CIMMYT agricultural economist Michael Euler presented gender-intentional seed selection in Ethiopia and India, demonstrating how women’s engagement in decision making can lead to better adoption of improved seeds and varieties.
Similarly, World Bank FOLUR gender specialist Patti Kristjanson described the value of initiatives such as the W+ Standard, which certifies projects that create increased social and economic benefits for women participating in environment, agriculture and economic development projects.
It’s only by working together across countries and sectors, like at this Regional Dialogue, that more sustainable wheat and maize value chains can be built.
“The global food system has done a good job of growing the global population, but at an environmental price and a social price,” says Kray.
“It’s on all of us to reduce this price.”
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