This article will touch a sensitive topic for organizations working on food and agribusiness integrated production chains. I will present the "Efficiency-Driven Agribusiness (EDA) Model", built upon in depth discussions (two workshops) with global agribusiness leaders, CEO's of companies operating in several world food markets. It is conceptualized in a need of producing more food and bioenergy to a growing world facing scarce basic resources, as water, land, fertilizers and others needed for food production. It is designed for the era of "doing more with less".

The EDA model considers 8 major areas where efficiency should be pursued. After each area, several topics will appear as a working list or targets to be achieved by business people, public policies maker and mostly, by scientists.

Land use and management (1): we need to increase land productivity; shorten plant production cycles; increase efficiency in land operation and management; search for lower environmental impact technologies (recycle, synergies among food chains, energy savings technology); have more efficient and conservative soil operations; have localized and adapted solutions and use renewable energy sources (produced locally) for fueling agricultural activities.

Plant production (2): develop technologies to release more of the potential of the grains contents (energy, protein); precision plant nutrition avoiding losses in the process; plants more efficient to use and transform the resources into production (water, sun, nutrients) and plants much more resistant to adverse conditions (diseases, droughts and other damages).

Animal Production (3): research for better understanding of the nutritional requirements for all species; technologies to increase productivity of raw materials as feed; thinking in productivity per hectare (protein per hectare); alternative programs for disease control and the need to better understand microbial processes (pathogens, micro-bios) and the environmental and health consequences; added value via nutraceuticals, natural medicine and health joined with nutrition; search for alternative proteins like algae; identify cost-efficient alternatives to antibiotics; micro-encapsulation for controlled release of nutrition; animal welfare management and genetic development for sex selection (example: only female layer chicks would reduce cost and improve animal welfare), among others, are topics to be pursued at animal production.

Waste management (4): develop more tools to analyze food losses in all chain participants (at home/cooking, supermarkets and restaurants, industry, farm, storage, transport); effective portion sizes (avoiding waste); develop processes for re-cycling and utilization of by-products and manure, particularly by-products of growing biofuels production.

Risks (5): search for new solutions to manage the increasing risks of food chains; food safety; controlled conditions with accountability and measurement and develop risk management tools that are suitable and standardized and to manage risk in supply chain all the way from the input supplier to the final consumer (with traceability).

Government (6): search for innovation and efficiency in public management systems; harmonization of worldwide regulatory systems to improve efficiency and reduce transaction costs; the formalization of illegal and informal chains, that in some markets still represent 50% of market share; promote and facilitate financial flows and investments to agriculture; build innovative financial support systems for emerging nations and integration of regulatory groups with the private sector.

Diffusion and knowledge transfer (7): establish a global online network to generate new technology and development to reduce response time (including all chain participants); social media to market and communicate innovation (web transfer); better communication with consumers about biotechnology; improve the image of agriculture and food production; use retail outlets and other points of sales as points of communication about new trends; guide about products/markets/trends in overall production chain ("get closer to customer"); extend technologies to backward parts of the chain (farmers spread all over) with extension systems; build bridges with developed and emerging economies to spread technology transfer and develop suitable practices for different markets and levels of development, with localized solutions.

Storage and Movement (8): optimize logistics within the entire supply chain, more efficiency in emerging countries with poor infrastructure; better storage capacities and use renewable fuel sources for transport, reducing carbon footprint, among others.

Research and Innovation Architecture (9): build alliances with banks, universities…competitors for better use of assets; closer relationships with raw materials suppliers; public and private sector partnerships; cooperatives for innovation; working together with the regulators and the University; focus on solution driven management of research and development and the use of nanotechnology development.

This list is not exhaustive, since several other factors are important, but we discussed here several ideas from a perspective of producing more with less. I hope this list can be useful for China Daily readers as insights for research and development. Each of these points can be turned to questions for debate and projects derived from this debate.

The author is professor of strategic planning and food chains at the School of Economics and Business, University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) and international speaker. Has 25 books published in 7 countries. (favaneves@gmail.com)