Medios

Nov 18, 2013

Why Have Farmers Yet Again Been Forgotten at the UN Climate Talks? - Huffington Post


As I sit inside the negotiating chambers of the climate talks in Warsaw, I am watching yet again a huge potential solution to climate concerns being neglected.

CGIAR Climate's insight:
Groups such as the CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) are producing abundant examples of climate-smart agriculture in action. Their recent publication "Climate-smart agriculture success stories from farming communities around the world" explores 16 communities where action is already being taken to adapt to climate change and reduce emissions from agriculture. For example, improved agronomic practices for producing rice in India have reduced methane emissions by as much as 62 percent. Herbicide tolerant maize crops are reducing fuel consumption by up to 44 percent due to a lesser need for mechanised weed control. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has also carried out extensive research into the policies, practices and financing structure needed to promote climate-smart agriculture -- so to neglect this area at COP19 is simply baffling.

Articulating the complex relationship between climate change and agriculture can be a great challenge, but this has also been tackled successfully through a toolkit produced byFarming First, CCAFS and the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA). Brimming with facts, farmer voices and infographics, it illustrates the need for concerted action, now.