1.1 TRENDS IN AGRICULTURE THE 2030 AGENDA FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Our planet has been facing multiple and complex challenges since the late 20th century. To them and transform our world for present and future generations, we need a global vision for people, for the planet and for long-term prosperity. The focus is now on building a sustainable world where environmental sustainability, social inclusion, and economic development are equally valued. The concept of sustainable development was first introduced in the Brundtland Report, released in 1987. Succeeding the Rio Earth Summit (1992), the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (2000) and the action plan of 2021 Agenda, the new 2030 Agenda was adopted by the 193-Member United Nations General Assembly on 25 September 2015. overcome 1 MORE The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are 8 goals that UN Member States had agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015, committing world leaders to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women. The MDGs were mainly aimed at developing countries with limited attention to sustainability. 1 Goals The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is an action programme that takes into account the need to: support universal peace and freedom; poverty; eradicate promote a sustainable transformation of society, economy and environment. It incorporates 17 aspirational objectives (SDGs), which are indivisible and universal. Each is subdivided into targets expected to be achieved between 2016 and 2030: they must consider the specific territorial realities and are potentially applicable everywhere, at global, national and local (regional and/or urban) level. Their aim is to end poverty and hunger, restore and sustainably manage natural resources while showing the unsustainability of the current growth model. Interconnection According to the three dimensions of sustainable development outlined in the Agenda – , and – the SDGs can be divided into three macro-groups relating to: economic social environmental ; biosphere ; society . economy We can no longer look at food, , and the management of natural resources separately, as agriculture has a major role to play in climate change. Economy cannot be healthy if society is not, and society cannot be healthy if the environment is not. A focus on rural development and investment in agriculture – crops, livestock, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture – are powerful tools to end poverty and hunger, achieving sustainable development. livelihoods tackling