Challenges of sustainable agri-food systems : implications for curriculum, research, extension and development

The further development of modern, multifunctional and 'globalized' agriculture, which must be set within a context of ecological sustainability and social responsibility, presents a much more complex challenge than that posed by the single function of national food security - vital though that remains. It is crucial that academic leaders in agriculture and related disc1phnes across the entire globe come to terms with the fact that they must learn how to operate in response to these profoundly systemic challenges that are even more intellectually, practically and politically demanding than those of the 'green revolution' of four decades or so ago. The current situation demands nothing less than a paradigmatic revolution in education, research and extension as well as the adoption of a very different strategic role for universities with respect to how they engage w1th the multi-stakeholders of entire agri-food systems. The question is 'What are the Indian universities doing and what should they be doing better in response to these systemic challenges'