European Innovation Partnership 'Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability'
The European Innovation Partnership (EIP) "Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability" aims to provide a working interface between agriculture, bio-economy, science and others at EU, national and regional level.
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The European Innovation Partnership installs Service Point in Brussels
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On 29 February 2012 the European Commission launched a new European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Agricultural Sustainability and Productivity.
>> Read the Commission Communication 
[42 KB] 
>> For more details read the background memo
The challenge
Food security is one of the major challenges worldwide in the years ahead, with global food demand forecast to rise by 70% by 2050 (FAO), accompanied by a steep increase in the demand for feed, fibre, biomass, and biomaterial.
However, this challenge is accompanied by a slow down in productivity growth – in good part because of a reduction in investment in agricultural research – and increased pressure on the environment and our natural resources. For example, 45% of European soils face problems of soil quality. Around 40% of agricultural land is vulnerable to nitrate pollution and, over the last 20 years, farmland birds have declined by 20-25%.
In short, the key challenge for agriculture in future is not only to produce more, but also to do this in a sustainable manner. These challenges will not be resolved without a major push towards embracing research and innovation – and in particular in bringing researchers, farmers and other players closer together so that we can accelerate the speed of technological transfer from science to farming practice, and provide more systematic feedback about practice needs from farming to science.
The role of the EIP
The European Innovation Partnership (EIP) "Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability" aims to provide a working interface between agriculture, bio-economy, science and others at EU, national and regional level.
It will also serve as a catalyst to enhance the effectiveness of innovation-related actions supported by Rural Development Policy as well as the Union Research and Innovation.
Two headline targets have been identified for this EIP:
- promoting productivity and efficiency of the agricultural sector (reversing the recent trend of diminishing productivity gains by 2020);
- the sustainability of agriculture (securing soil functionality at a satisfactory level by 2020).