Efforts toward Food Security for 9 Billion People by 2050
At the New York Climate Summit, many countries, companies and organizations committed to protect 500 million farmers from climate change while increasing agricultural productivity and reducing carbon emissions. More than 20 Governments, 30 organizations and companies representing millions of farmers, at least a quarter of the world cereal production, 43 million undernourished people and 16 per cent of total agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, announced they would join the newly launched Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture.
Aims of the “Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture”:
Sustainable and equitable increases in agricultural productivity and incomes;
Greater resilience of food systems and farming livelihoods;
Reduction and/or removal of greenhouse gas emissions associated with agriculture (including the relationship between agriculture and ecosystems), wherever possible.
To improve people’s food and nutrition security to adjust agricultural practices, food systems and social policies so they account for climate change and the efficient use of natural resources.
It will work with stakeholders, including governments, farmers, scientists, businesses, civil society and regional and international organizations.
“I am glad to see action that will increase agricultural productivity, build resilience for farmers and all our people, even in the face of climate change,” said Nkosana Dlamini-Zuma, Chair of the AU Commission.
Establishment of a North-American Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance is being planned to be launched in 2015 to help farmers, ranchers and foresters adapt to climate change, improve resiliency and ease the associated risks of the production process.
The following important announcements were made by some companies and organizations:
Walmart, McDonald’s and Kellogg Company committed to produce food with climate-smart approaches in their respective supply chains. This will be a great development in the use of sustainable agricultural practices and will help curb carbon emissions from agriculture.
By year 2018, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Bank would make 100 per cent of their agricultural investment portfolios (about $11 billion) climate-smart. IFAD also committed to enable an additional 7 million poor smallholder household members to become more resilient to climate change through climate-smart agriculture.
The World Food Programme expanded its R4 Rural Resilience Initiative for the empowerment of food insecure rural households in Malawi and Zambia.
The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) promised to allocate $10.2 billion over the next 10 years to climate-smart agriculture research.
The Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), the Global Research Alliance for Agriculture (GRA) on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases, the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC)/Virtual Fertilizer Research Center (VFRC), and several European organizations also committed to invest resources in research helping boost Climate-Smart Agriculture.
Farmers will prefer adopting climate-smart agriculture and food-systems with the increase in investments in research by more organizations and companies. The Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s Agriculture Initiative is prompting actions to reduce the levels of methane and black carbon (soot) emitted during livestock and manure management, paddy rice production, and open agricultural burning.
In a joint statement at the Summit, civil society organizations welcomed the new focus on climate change, food security and agriculture: “We commit to actions on the ground that protect the poorest and most vulnerable farmers from climate change while creating environmentally sound and socially just global food systems.”
Agriculture – the backbone of economic system of any country, if made sustainable, will ensure pollution free food production with least damage to eco-system. This Summit has coerced us to reconsider the fundamental importance of agriculture and change our attitude towards improvement of our approach to the production, processing and distribution of food.
For more information, please click on – http://www.un.org/climatechange/summit/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/AGRICULTURE-PR.pdf