FAO Urges Farmers To Use Climate-Friendly Methods

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 10 – Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director General QU Dongyu during the EL-Sheikh COP27 summit said small-scale farmers urgently resilient, high-quality seeds adapted to increasingly challenging conditions with innovative techniques like space breeding of improved crop varieties and FAO is working to achieve brighter future for all.

QU Dongyu said, “The climate crisis knows no boundaries and how to respond to it will determine food security and the future.“ We must work together to ensure green and climate-resilient agricultural production. Leveraging science, technology and innovation is key.

“As part of the efforts to develop new crop varieties able to adapt to the changing climate. These new crops could help us adapt to climate change and feed the world’s population,” said FAO Secretary General.

More than 100 world leaders gathered to work towards the implementation of existing climate agreements. Global efforts and progress were done to identify high-potential approaches and develop strategies to transform food systems, and over 100 countries signed commitments to developing nations’ food systems transformation strategies.

Global food demand continues to grow as the world’s population is expected to hit the mark of 9.6 bn by 2050. Meanwhile, 820M people are suffering from hunger as of 20211 whereas climate change continues to have drastic impacts on agricultural lands and livestock productivity. IPCC estimates that agricultural land productivity has already decreased by 21%.

High temperatures and extreme rainfalls damaging soil health along with increased levels of CO2 reduce the nutritional quality of crops2 Additionally, a further 17% reduction in yields of coarse grains, oil seeds, wheat and rice is expected by 2050 for IPCC’s highest temperature increase scenario3

The UN’s 2021 Food Systems Summit. Pilots across Africa are exploring strategies to

reward farmers implementing HYRAP4 with Carbon Finance, around 90% of developing countries have included adaptation in their National Determination Contributions ( NDCs) with agriculture as one of the main aspects is Scaling up Climate Ambition on Land Use and Agriculture through National Adaptation Plans” (SCALA)  a 5-year program which was launched by FAO and UNDP aiming to transform the climate-sensitive agriculture sector5.

During the summit, Youth for Green and Climate-Resilient Agriculture Program  (YCRA) was launched by FAO and IAAS6 to support and promote youth-led projects in the agriculture sector.  Green Climate Fund “GCF” has invested more than $1.6 billion to support climate change.

Climate change impacts, both extreme weather and slow-onset events, have impacted Agriculture and food production.

Global food demand continues to grow as the world’s population is expected to hit the mark of 9.6 bn by 2050. Meanwhile, 820m people are suffering from hunger as of 20211 whereas climate change continues to have drastic impacts on agricultural lands and livestock productivity. IPCC estimates that agricultural land productivity has already decreased by 21%.