December 2011

Agriculture is risky, and getting increasingly so with changing weather patterns and degrading soils. A transformation of how we view agriculture is needed in order to meet the challenge of feeding 9 billion people by 2050, where every idea counts. One powerful idea on how to reduce the risk involved in agriculture while at the same time adapting to the needs and conditions of smallholder farmers was presented recently by The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in the article Could thinking small be the next big thing in agricultural development? published in the Guardian. ICRISAT presented how the reduction in the fertilizer package sizes could make them not only more affordable but also reachable for smallholder farmers. Fertilizer use is limited in the developing world, where especially Africa stands out. There farmers are said to produce 20% of their potential. Read more »

Story by Christine Negra.

Following the release of The Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change report “Achieving Food Security in the Face of Climate Change: Summary for Policy Makers”, the Commissioners brought their recommendations to the climate change meetings in Durban.

On December 2, at a side event hosted by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) on “Climate-Smart Agriculture – a transformative approach to food security, adaptation and mitigation,” Ethiopian Commissioner Prof Tekalign Mamo, talked about the challenges farmers encounter in taking up agro-ecological approaches. Despite widespread recognition that these approaches are key to building climate resilience, practices such as soil-building through organic material residues can be hard to implement when these materials are needed also for fuel and fodder. As pointed out by the Commission, Prof Mamo emphasized that one-size-fits-all solutions are not the answer given the specific needs and lifestyles of farmers, households and communities. To achieve feasible, integrated solutions, the critical elements are knowledge sharing, institutional support, and gender-focused extension services that interact with empowered farmers organizations. On December 5, Prof Mamo again shared his experiences and the Commission’s findings as a panelist at a climate-smart agriculture side event at the Africa Pavilion, where African farmers, researchers and high-level politicians joined to share opportunities and challenges for Africa.

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Speech by Dr. Mary Robinson, President, The Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice

Thank you for inviting me to speak here today – over lunch I had the opportunity to hear about the discussions you had in the working sessions this morning and I look forward to learning more from you all this afternoon.

COP17 is a vital test of the international community’s willingness to tackle the issues that result from the impact of climate change, including the most fundamental issue of food security. We are having these discussions on the continent of Africa – where hunger and under nutrition are ever present threats. The Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that 925 million people in the world go hungry every day. And every year 3.5 million children die from under nutrition, while 11% of the total disease burden is attributable to maternal and child under nutrition.As we meet today, over 13 million people in the Horn of Africa continue to be in desperate need of assistance. The region has had eight of the hottest years ever in succession, resulting in devastating drought. Since the food price crisis of 2008, food security has again been high on the agenda of donors, NGOs and multilateral aid agencies as they recognised the central role that agriculture plays in helping people to escape from dire poverty and famine. The more recent scenes from the Horn of Africa brought home the terrible vulnerability of the people living there to weather and climate shocks. It reinforced the imperative of sustaining efforts and attention on food and nutrition security, and the urgency of tackling the problem. Read more »

Written by Nathan Russell, CIAT. This story reposted from the Agriculture Day blog.

Before the closing session of Agriculture and Rural Development Day in Durban, South Africa, a high-Level Panel of experts charted the way forward with climate-smart agriculture. Summarized below are their main conclusions from a discussion facilitated by Laurie Goering, editor of the Thomas Reuters Foundation’s AlertNet Climate, which acted as media sponsor for the day. Read more »