2nd Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change

Global leaders, practitioners, scientists, civil society and the private sector will demonstrate early action on climate-smart agriculture as a driver for green growth during a global conference will be held in September 2012, in Hanoi, Vietnam. The second Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change includes a High Level Meeting and will be co-organized by Vietnam and The Netherlands, in close collaboration with other partners, including the World Bank and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

How to feed 9 billion people in 2050 is one of the biggest challenges of our era. Global food production must rise by at least 70 percent in 2050, with two time less natural resources. Without strong adaptation and mitigation measures climate change will reduce food crop yields 16 percent worldwide and by 28 percent in Africa over the next fifty years. It is likely that price and yield volatility will continue to rise as extreme weather continues, further hurting livelihoods and putting food security at risk.

Aims and objectives

The second Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change, aims to

• Call on developed countries and other partners, to support the implementation and scaling-up of early action programmes, including best practice and technologies in climate-smart agriculture and food security, through regional, sub-regional and national programmes and institutions as a matter of priority
• Emphasis the importance of government-led partnerships with non-state agencies in designing strategies, policies and appropriate market based approaches to promote climate-smart agriculture
• Encourage countries to leverage private sector investments through public private partnerships in support of climate-smart agriculture
• Urge countries to invest in research, technology and information dissemination to facilitate the adaptation and application of climate-smart agriculture

Priority activities that will be highlighted during the conference in Vietnam, include also:

• Mainstreaming climate-smart agriculture into national and regional agriculture strategies and coupling with other initiatives;
• Identifying new financing opportunities and expanding research, training and extension
• Increase and prioritize private sector investments and involvement in implementation via public-private partnerships and
• Risk management and measurement methodologies.

The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) will be coordinating a side event during the main conference: Scenarios for Policy: Transforming Farming, Landscapes and Food Systems for the 21st Century

For more information about the event and how to register please visit the eventpage. You can also download the conference flyer below to learn more.

Read a report back from the conference on the World Bank blog:Lessons from Hanoi: The Imperative of Implementing Climate-Smart Agriculture

View an article from the conference:

Sustainable farming key to food security