Feeding the world without destroying it

The International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) - set up to take stock of our knowledge, technology and policy, and help find a way to feed the world without destroying it - is due to report. Some interesting articles in 5 April's New Scientist about it including one from Janice Jiggins, who highlights quite a dilemma about 'transferred technologies' and those developed for particular contexts. The quote below is taken from that article, which can also be found here with the other articles.

"Scientists driven by the intellectual excitement of their work had difficulty grasping how a technology could be benign or harmful in different contexts....In general, however, there is a mismatch between the generalising nature of scientific and technological solutions that have to exploit market opportunities, and the obstinate specifics of farming. The assumption that external solutions can be effectively transferred to small farmers has often proved false. This has left too many farmers without access to science and technology, and a lot of technology irrelevant to farmers' real problems. Transferred technologies can even cause environmental or social harm. Conversely, knowledge and technologies originating from farmers themselves, or through civil society organisations working closely with them, are often so closely tailored to a particular context they cannot be applied generally."