Agriculture development, food security and nutrition A/RES/68/233 viable, while conserving land, water, plant and animal genetic resources, biodiversity and ecosystems and enhancing resilience to climate change and natural disasters, and further recognizes the need to maintain natural ecological processes that support food production systems; 17. Stresses the need to enhance sustainable livestock production systems, including through improving pasture land and irrigation schemes, in line with national policies, legislation, rules and regulations, enhanced sustainable water management systems and efforts to eradicate and prevent the spread of animal diseases, recognizing that the livelihoods of farmers, including pastoralists, and the health of livestock are intertwined; 18. Also stresses the crucial role of healthy marine ecosystems, sustainable fisheries and sustainable aquaculture for food security and nutrition and in providing for the livelihoods of millions of people; 19. Reaffirms the need to strive for a comprehensive twin-track approach to food security and nutrition that consists of direct action to immediately tackle hunger for the most vulnerable and medium- and long-term sustainable agriculture, food security and nutrition, and rural development programmes to eliminate the root causes of hunger and poverty, including through the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security; 20. Encourages efforts at all levels to establish and strengthen social protection measures and programmes, including national safety nets and protection programmes for the needy and vulnerable, such as food and cash-for-work, cash transfer and voucher programmes, school feeding programmes and mother-and-child nutrition programmes, and in this regard underlines the importance of increasing investment, capacity-building and systems development; 21. Reaffirms the need to promote a significant expansion of research on food, nutrition and agriculture, extension services, training and education, and of their funding, from all sources, to improve agricultural productivity and sustainability in order to strengthen agriculture as a key sector to promote development and to build up resilience to support better recovery from crisis and shock, including by strengthening the work of the reformed Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research so as to enhance its development impact, supporting national research systems, public universities and research institutions and promoting technology transfer on mutually agreed terms, the voluntary sharing of knowledge and practices and research to adapt to and mitigate climate change and improve equitable access to research results and technologies on mutually agreed terms at the national, regional and international levels, while giving due consideration to the preservation of genetic resources; 22. Calls for closing the gender gap in access to productive resources in agriculture, noting with concern that the gender gap persists for many assets, inputs and services, and stresses the need to invest in and strengthen efforts to empower women, in particular rural women, as well as to address their own food and nutritional needs and those of their families, and to promote adequate standards of living for them, as well as decent conditions for work and access to local, regional and global markets; 23. Invites Governments and international organizations, in collaboration with cooperatives and cooperative organizations, to promote, as appropriate, the growth of agricultural cooperatives and farmers’ networks by providing easy access to affordable finance, promoting the adoption of sustainable production techniques 7/10