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Through a combination of technological progress and economic policy convergence, globalization has markedly changed the setting for agriculture during the last decade. Through trade and international agreements, global changes increasingly affect development options for both industrialized and developing economies. At national level, continued population growth, expanding economies and urbanization have, especially in densely-populated areas, led to unprecedented competition for land and water resources between agriculture and other uses such as infrastructure, urban, industry and recreation/nature. This challenges the agricultural sector to produce sufficient, more diverse and safe food, fibre products and feedstocks for biofuel in a sustainable manner. This has to be achieved in an increasingly competitive and globalizing economy. Meeting these challenges requires significant changes in the way agriculture and the value chain are organized.

Agricultural development during the last 50 years has been shaped by three persistent forces of change: globalization, technology and people. is the force that is increasingly shifting the focus from domestic to international opportunities, as world markets become more accessible. Improved represent forces that are improving the ability to produce and deliver what consumers want and are exerting their influence, either directly as consumers, or indirectly as custodians of the environment in which food and fibre products are produced. These three forces do not act independently of course, but they interact. Moreover, the relative importance of the three forces has varied, both, in the course of time, and in different regions and/or countries. In this chapter, a broad overview is given of global agricultural and rural developments since World War II (WWII), the forces that shaped their dynamics and their interactions with society.

The ultimate aim of activities and interventions aimed at guaranteeing food security is to arrive at a healthy and well-nourished population that can take on, to the maximum of its capacities, the development of its own community, area or country. In these efforts, agriculture, in its role as food producer, plays a crucial role. (Sufficient quality) food should be available now, and in the long(-er) run. However, it is increasingly recognized that limited accessibility and unequal distribution of food, often linked to economic underdevelopment and poverty, frequently are more important causes of food insecurity and malnutrition than limited availability of food. Since the 1980s various definitions of food security have emerged, both in academic literature and in national and multi-lateral policy documents. Also field programmes on food security have greatly contributed to a more comprehensive view on the issue. This has led to a definition of food security, accepted in the late 1980s, and reconfirmed at the World Food Summit (WFS) in 1996: Food security represents “a state when all people at all times have physical and economic access to safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (World Food Summit 1996). In a food-secure region the land would have the biophysical capability to produce food of the quality and quantity required by the people, its farmers would have access to capital, credit, and technology, and consumers would have enough purchasing power to acquire food (Aggarwal et al. 2001; ACC/SCN, 2004; Heidhues et al. 2004; Falcon and Naylor 2005).

Food insecurity or malnutrition, caused by a combination of insufficient food intake (quantity and quality) and lack of good care practices, health services and sanitary conditions, may be acute, chronic or hidden. Acute food insecurity is commonly associated with acute hunger and starvation occurring during famines and disasters. This type of hunger accounts for roughly 10% of the global prevalence of food insecurity, while 90% of the world’s hungry are chronically undernourished, due to recurrent lack of availability of or access to food of sufficient quality. Consequences of chronic hunger and malnutrition are, among others, underweight, stunted growth and poor health, resulting in high morbidity and mortality for children. Child malnutrition at a young age is irreversible and translates into poor health (both physical and mental) and reduced labour productivity at the adult stage. The third form of hunger and malnutrition, known as ‘hidden hunger’, affecting more than two billion people (Von Braun et al. 2005), is associated with micronutrient (minerals, vitamins) deficiencies.

Of the global land area, about 38% is agricultural land of which some 30% is arable land (faostat.fao.org). The relations between agriculture and the natural environment are complex. Agriculture is of vital importance to many societies and is the sector with the most intensive interaction between man and environment. Agriculture has, by its very nature, a strong impact on the natural environment and the natural environment sets limits to agricultural production systems. Simply put, changes in agriculture affect the natural environment and vice versa (De Wit et al. 1987). In this chapter, we will examine some of the important interactions and challenges for low income countries.

Agriculture utilizes natural processes to produce the goods (food and non-food) that we need to support the demand of an ever-growing population. Agriculture also contributes to economic development in terms of income generation and employment. Paradoxically, however, economic growth and poverty reduction lead to declining relative importance of the agricultural sector (Dorward et al. 2004; Kuiper et al. 2007).

Agricultural land use has the potential to damage or destroy the natural resource base, thus undermining future development potentials. It often is the focus on shortterm economic gain and disregard of long-term impacts and needs that lead to environmental degradation. Clearly, part of the solution lies in a change in demands from society, e.g., via changes in diet and lifestyle, but also the agricultural sector has a responsibility to find ways to reduce the negative environmental impacts. Agriculture, rooted in the natural resource base and serving as a major contributor to development, is at the forefront of shaping the concept of sustainable development (WSSD 2002).

Despite ongoing urbanization, over 70% of the world’s poor are located in rural areas (IFAD 2001). Agriculture plays an important part in their livelihoods. Rural households play a central role in realizing policy objectives. Production decisions at farm household level determine the current availability of agricultural produce (food security objectives; Roetter and Van Keulen 2007), as well as future production potentials (sustainability objectives; Verhagen et al. 2007). The majority of the poor are furthermore located in the rural areas of developing countries. Rural households are, thus, also key to poverty reduction policies.

Farm households, however, do not live of farming alone. Parallel to the developments in agricultural science, the view on rural households has changed in the past decades. Analyses of single production systems have given way to a view on rural households as diversified enterprises. Rural household enterprises are not limited to the agricultural sector. Non-farm activities play an important role in income of these households all across the world, even in regions commonly thought of as subsistenceoriented, such as Sub-Saharan Africa. In a rare worldwide comparison of the importance of non-farm income in developing countries, Africa ranked first with 42% of total rural income, followed by Latin America (40%) and Asia (32%) (Reardon et al. 1998).

Rural areas play a prime role in two of the Millennium Development Goals: reducing poverty and hunger and ensuring environmental sustainability. The omnipresence of non-farm income in rural areas implies that any policy aimed at realizing these two Millennium Goals needs to look beyond households’ agricultural activities. Non-farm activities play a prime role, directly by contributing significantly to household income and indirectly by shaping agricultural activities with implications for sustainability. However, the effect can be positive or negative. Pressure on natural resources may be reduced when households have alternative sources of income (Bahamondes 2003). Non-farm income may also (partially) be invested in sustainable agricultural practices. Soil nutrient mining is a key issue in the African context (see Verhagen et al. 2007). Inorganic fertilizers are an important source of nutrients. These fertilizers require cash which may be generated by non-farm activities. Nonfarm activities would then contribute to sustainability. In the Asian context, excessive use of pesticides and herbicides is a prime concern (see Verhagen et al. 2007). Farm households that are engaged in non-farm activities could replace hand weeding by herbicides. In that situation, non-farm activities would threaten the sustainability of agricultural practices.

The research programme International Cooperation of the Agricultural Research Department (DLO-IC) of the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) was founded in 1998 with the aim to support agricultural and environmental research for development and strengthen North-South partnerships. The programme that embraced contributions from all five science groups of Wageningen University and Research centre (Wageningen UR) consisted of two phases (1998-2001 and 2002-2005). Within those eight years, about 70 multi-annual collaborative North-South projects were carried out under the umbrella of DLO-IC, of which about half were related to Rural Development and Sustainable Agriculture (RDSA). The remaining half was classified in the themes global food chains, agrobiodiversity, nature management, integrated water management and enabling policies (North-South Centre 2004).

The objective of this chapter is to summarize the results from the scientific, capacity-building and policy-oriented activities, draw major lessons and outline the way ahead on the basis of the experiences and new developments as outlined in previous chapters, and emerging opportunities. We will first reflect on ideas that shaped research approaches in agricultural and environmental sciences for development, then re-visit the objectives of the DLO-IC research programme between 1998 and 2005 (DLO 404) and, finally, provide a frame for assessing the programme’s accomplishments and future challenges in the field of sustainable agriculture and rural development.

Detailed summaries of selected DLO-IC projects and inventories of lessons for each project are presented in Chapter 7 of this volume (De Jager et al. 2007).

During 2002-2005, 15 multi-annual collaborative projects under the theme ‘Rural Development and Sustainable Agriculture’ (Theme 2 of DLO-IC) were supported (see Chapter 6 of this volume). Out of these projects, 12 participated in a comprehensive assessment (Table 1). Individual projects were evaluated on the basis of the completed questionnaires presented in this chapter, and other available project documents and outputs. The four major criteria considered in the evaluation were: (1) scientific innovation, (2) quality of partnership, (3) capacity building and (4) policy relevance. The structure of the questionnaire is presented in the Appendix to Chapter 6 of this volume.