Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

Dear Florence, you are of the opinion that "priority should be given to crops which can limit GHG emissions". I agree in general but have also some comments:

1. Emissions from crops in developing countries are not very important, except insofar as they involve net deforestation. Emissions in modern mechanized agriculture are far more important, by way of the fuel used by agricultural machinery. Growing crops, in fact, sequesters carbon from the armosphere through photosynthesis. And on the whole, emissions from agriculture are a tiny fraction of all emissions, mostly originated in manufacturing, big cities, and some mining related activities such as the production of cement. In the poorest countries, reducing emissions is probably among lower priorities, after getting food, not being killed by violence, and other immediate threats to everyday life. Most of them live without electricity, and producing electricity for one or two billion people means burning a lot of fossil fuels and thus producing more emissions: not increasing emissions may condemn those billions of people to darkness for a very long time. Middle-income countries, chiefly in Asia like China, have also other priorities (getting developed) and will postpone serious reduction of their emissions till they are done. 

2. Some modern forms of tillage and farming are far less deleterious, or directly beneficial, in terms of emissions, but not always palatable for people preocuppied by the environment or endeavouring to promote subsistence farming.  

For instance, no-tillage or limited-tillage systems (like those widely practiced by modern extensive farmers in Brazil, Argentina and the US) greatly reduce the use of machinery and fuel, and also reduce soil erosion (because of less compactation of soils by heavy equipment). They reduce fossil fuel burning, and by planting the new crop on the bed created by the previous one, they keep the land under green cover most of the time, which reduces water and wind erosion.

For another and more controversial example: growing genetically modified crops reduces the use of fuel for herbicide application (one single pass is often enough, because the GM crop does not absorb the herbicide which in turn kills most of the weeds at once); besides, the most important GM crop, soybeans, is a legume, thus capturing and storing nitrogen (and not only carbon) in the soil, when the crop residues are remixed with topsoil in the no-tillage system. Now, those conservationist systems are all practiced by modern farming systems in places like the US or the Argentine plains, not in traditional peasant production systems in South Asia or Sub Saharan Africa (nor in Europe, where GM crops are a no-no). In fact, more emissions are customarily caused by small peasants clearing woodland by slash and burn than by modern farmers practicing no-tillage crops.

Warning: Food for thought may often be unpalatable, but it is always good for one's mind.

1)     What are the main issues for policy-makers to consider when linking climate change on the one hand and food security and nutrition on the other, in particular when designing, formulating and implementing policies and programmes?

1.1   Main issues for policy-makers while considering climate change: Environmental policies have sweeping implications for business, citizens and the environment. Building policy is a complex process and there are numerous opportunities for things to go well – or poorly. Societies have a long record of managing the impacts of weather- and climate-related events. Nevertheless, additional adaptation measures will be required to reduce the adverse impacts of projected climate change and variability, regardless of the scale of mitigation undertaken over the next two to three decades. Moreover, vulnerability to climate change can be exacerbated by other stresses. These arise from, for example, current climate hazards, poverty and unequal access to resources, food insecurity, trends in economic globalization, conflict and incidence of diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Further, some planned adaptation to climate change is already occurring on a limited basis. Adaptation can reduce vulnerability, especially when it is embedded within broader sectoral initiatives. There is high confidence that there are viable adaptation options that can be implemented in some sectors at low cost, and/or with high benefit-cost ratios. However, comprehensive estimates of global costs and benefits of adaptation are limited.

1.2   Main issues for policy-makers while considering food security and nutrition: Underlying the food and nutrition situation are multiple challenges in achieving sustainable food production. A rapidly growing population is increasing the demand for food. Climate change is adding to the challenge of achieving sustainable food production and meeting the demands of a growing population. Events related to climate change are likely to intensify in the coming years. There is no magic bullet that can eliminate hunger and under-nutrition, given the complex nature of these problems. There are many inter-related issues, some of which are related to poverty and lack of empowerment. These include gender issues, discrimination against ethnic groups, land use, rights and ownership, war, the HIV pandemic, and environmental issues. Food solutions need to be integrated and multifaceted. Efforts to realize the “right to adequate food” must go beyond improving the production and distribution of nutritious food. “Safety nets” should systematically include or be accompanied by measures to promote sustainable livelihoods for households with malnourished children. Adequate feeding and care should be an integral part of national strategies and programs to reduce hunger and under-nutrition. This includes promoting exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months and appropriate complementary feeding, basic requirements for nutritional well being.

2)     What are the key institutional and governance challenges to the delivery of cross-sectoral and comprehensive policies that protect and promote nutrition of the most vulnerable, and contribute to sustainable and resilient food systems? Production systems and the policies and institutions that underpin global food security are increasingly inadequate. Sustainable agriculture must nurture healthy ecosystems and support the sustainable management of land, water and natural resources, while ensuring world food security. In order to be sustainable, agriculture must meet the needs of present and future generations for its products and services, while ensuring profitability, environmental health and social and economic equity. The global transition to sustainable food and agriculture will require major improvements in the efficiency of resource use, in environmental protection and in systems resilience. Sustainable agriculture requires a system of global governance that promotes food security concerns in trade regimes and trade policies, and revisits agricultural policies to promote local and regional agricultural markets.

The current trajectory of growth in agricultural production is unsustainable because of its negative impacts on natural resources and the environment. The overarching challenges being faced are the growing scarcity and fast degradation of natural resources, at a time when the demand for food, feed, fibre and goods and services from agriculture (including crops, livestock, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture) is increasing rapidly. Some of the highest population growth is predicted in areas which are dependent on agriculture and already have high rates of food insecurity. Additional factors - many interrelated - complicate the situation:

§  Competition over natural resources will continue to intensify. This may come from urban expansion, competition among various agricultural sectors, expansion of agriculture at the expense of forests, industrial use of water, or recreational use of land. In many places this is leading to exclusion of traditional users from access to resources and markets;

§  While agriculture is a major contributor to climate change, it is also a victim of its effects. Climate change reduces the resilience of production systems and contributes to natural resource degradation. Temperature increases, modified precipitation regimes and extreme weather events are expected to become significantly more severe in the future;

§  Increasing movement of people and goods, environmental changes, and changes in production practices give rise to new threats from diseases (such as highly pathogenic avian influenza) or invasive species (such as tephritid fruit flies), which can affect food safety, human health and the effectiveness and sustainability of production systems. Threats are compounded by inadequate policies and technical capacities, which can put whole food chains at risk; and

§  The policy agenda and mechanisms for production and resource conservation are mostly disjointed. There is no clear integrated management of ecosystems and/or landscapes.

The challenges outlined above give rise to five key principles for guiding the strategic development of new approaches and the transition to sustainability:

o   Principle 1: Improving efficiency in the use of resources is crucial to sustainable agriculture;

o   Principle 2: Sustainability requires direct action to conserve, protect and enhance natural resources;

o   Principle 3: Agriculture that fails to protect and improve rural livelihoods and social well-being is unsustainable;

o   Principle 4: Sustainable agriculture must enhance the resilience of people, communities and ecosystems, especially to climate change and market volatility; and

o   Principle 5: Good governance is essential for the sustainability of both the natural and human systems.

In order to cope with the rapid pace of change and increased uncertainty, sustainability must be seen as a process, rather than a singularly defined end point to be achieved. This, in turn, requires the development of technical, policy, governance and financing frameworks that support agricultural producers and resource managers engaged in a dynamic process of innovation. In particular:

§  Policies and institutions are needed that provide incentives for the adoption of sustainable practices, to impose regulations and costs for actions that deplete or degrade natural resources, and to facilitate access to the knowledge and resources required;

§  Sustainable agricultural practices must make full use of technology, research and development, though with much greater integration of local knowledge than in the past. This will require new and more robust partnerships between technical and investment-oriented organizations;

§  Evidence-based planning and management of the agricultural sectors requires suitable statistics, geospatial information and maps, qualitative information and knowledge. Analysis should focus on both production systems and the underlying natural and socio-economic resources; and

§  The challenges relating to stocks and utilization rates of natural resources often transcend national boundaries. International governance mechanisms and processes must support sustainable growth (and the equitable sharing of benefits) in all agriculture sectors, protecting natural resources and discouraging collateral damage.

3)     In your experience, what are key best-practices and lessons-learned in fostering cross-sectoral linkages to protect and improve nutrition while preventing, adapting to climate change and reducing and removing greenhouse gas emissions in projects?

1.1   Key Best-Practices in Improving Nutrition and Climate Change Adaptation: The agricultural sector both affects and is affected by climate change. While it contributes to mitigating it, agriculture affects climate change through the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from croplands and animals. It is affected by loss of agricultural land, salt water intrusion, changes in temperature and rainfall regimes and increasingly severe weather hazards. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in partnership with Procasur Africa, CARE  (relief agency) in Kenya and the Cgiar Research Program on Climate Change & Food Security (CCAFS), organized a learning route titled “Natural Resource Management and Climate Change Adaptation best practices: The Experience in Kenya,” that took place between the 7th and the 13th of July 2014. Seventeen participants from various IFAD-supported projects, implementing partners and civil society organizations in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Lesotho and Kenya all met together on an 8-day journey across the districts and rural communities of Kenya.

A Learning Route is an experience that transforms its participants, leading them to become agents of change in their own organizations. It is a capacity-building procedure with a proven track record of successfully combining local knowledge and experiences. The Learning Route is based on the idea that successful solutions to existing problems are already present within rural areas, and that those solutions might be adapted and spread to other contexts. This journey gets participants to understand these changes through peer learning, discussing directly with rural communities who are the promoters of the identified best practices and successful innovations (http://ifad-un.blogspot.in/2014/08/local-solutions-and-best-practices-on_21.html, accessed on March 31, 2015).

1.2   Lessons-Learned in Improving Nutrition and Climate Change Adaptation: Only by implementing real changes across the global food system will we be able to achieve food security and a stable climate for the long term. This will require a break from business as usual and a significant shared commitment by policy makers, investors, agricultural producers, consumers, food companies and researchers. Followings are lessons learned in improving nutrition and climate change adaptation initiatives:

§  Integrate food security and sustainable agriculture into global and national policies:

o   Establish a work program on mitigation and adaptation in agriculture in accordance with the principles and provisions of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), based on Article 2, as a first step to inclusion of agriculture in the mainstream of international climate change policy.

o   Make sustainable, climate-friendly agriculture central to Green Growth44 and the Rio+20 Earth Summit.

o   Develop common platforms at global, regional and national levels for coherent dialogue and policy action related to climate change, agriculture, crisis response and food security, at global, regional and national levels. These include fostering country-level coalitions for food security and building resilience, particularly in countries most vulnerable to climate shocks.

§  Significantly raise the level of global investment in sustainable agriculture and food systems in the next decade:

o   Implement and strengthen the existing G8 L'Aquila programs and commitments to sustainable agriculture and food security, including long-term commitments for financial and technical assistance in food production and to empower smallholder farmers.

o   Adjust national research and development budgets, and build integrated scientific capacity, to reflect the significance of sustainable agriculture in economic growth, poverty reduction and long-term environmental sustainability, and focus on key food security issues (for example, developing nutritious non-grain crops and reducing post-harvest losses).

o   Increase knowledge of best practices and access to innovation by supporting revitalized extension services, technology transfer and communities of practice (for example, North-South, South-South, cross-commodity and farmer-to-farmer exchanges), with emphasis on low-to high-income countries and on women farmers.

§  Sustainably intensify agricultural production while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other negative environmental impacts of agriculture:

o   Develop, facilitate and reward multi-benefit farming systems that enable more productive and resilient livelihoods and ecosystems, with emphasis on closing yield gaps and improving nutrition.

o   Introduce strategies for minimizing ecosystem degradation and rehabilitating degraded environments, with emphasis on community-designed programs.

o   Empower marginalized food producers (particularly women) to increase productivity of a range of appropriate crops by strengthening land and water rights, increasing access to markets, finance and insurance, and enhancing local capacity (for example through farmer and community-based organizations).

o   Identify and modify subsidies (such as for water and electricity) that provide incentives for farmers to continue agricultural practices that deplete water supplies or destroy native ecosystems. Introduce compensation schemes that target the poor.

o   Couple economic incentives for sustainable intensification of agriculture with strengthening governance of land tenure and land zoning to prevent further loss of forests, wetlands and grasslands.

§  Develop specific programs and policies to assist populations and sectors that are most vulnerable to climate changes and food insecurity:

o   Develop funds that respond to climate shocks, such as 'index-linked funds ' that provide rapid relief when extreme weather events affect communities, through public-private partnerships based on agreed principles.

o   Moderate excessive food price fluctuations by sharing country information on production forecasts and stocks, strengthening market databases, promoting open and responsive trade systems, establishing early warning systems and allowing tax-free export and import for humanitarian assistance. This includes embedding safeguards related to import surges and trade distortions in trade agreements.

o   Create and support safety nets and other programs to help vulnerable populations in all countries become food secure (for example, cash and in-kind transfers, employment guarantee schemes, programs to build resilience, health and nutrition, delivery of education and seeds of quick growing foods in times of famine).

o   Establish robust emergency food reserves and financing capacity that can deliver rapid humanitarian responses to vulnerable populations threatened by food crises.

o   Create and support platforms for harmonizing and coordinating global donor programs, policies and activities, paying particular attention to systematically integrating climate change risk management, adaptation and mitigation co-benefits, and improved local nutritional outcomes.

§  Reshape food access and consumption patterns to ensure basic nutritional needs are met and to foster healthy and sustainable eating patterns worldwide:

o   Address chronic under-nutrition and hunger by harmonizing development policy and coordinating regional programs to improve livelihoods and access to services among food-insecure rural and urban communities.

o   Promote positive changes in the variety and quantity of diets through innovative education campaigns, which target young consumers especially, and through economic incentives that align the marketing practices of retailers and processors with public health and environmental goals.

o   Promote and support a coherent set of evidence-based sustainability metrics and standards to monitor and evaluate food security, nutrition and health, practices and technologies across supply chains, agricultural productivity and efficiency, resource use and environmental impacts, and food system costs and benefits. This should include providing consumers with clear labelling.

§  Reduce loss and waste in food systems, targeting infrastructure, farming practices, processing, distribution and household habits:

o   In all sustainable agriculture development programs, include research and investment components focusing on reducing waste, from production to consumption, by improving harvest and postharvest management and food storage and transport.

o   Develop integrated policies and programs that reduce waste in food supply chains, such as economic innovation to enable low-income producers to store food during periods of excess supply and obligations for distributors to separate and reduce food waste.

o   Promote dialogue and convene working partnerships across food supply chains to ensure that interventions to reduce waste are effective and efficient (for example, redirecting food waste to other purposes), and do not create perverse incentives.

§  Create comprehensive, shared, integrated information systems that encompass human and ecological dimensions:

o   Sustain and increase investment in regular monitoring, on the ground and by public domain remote sensing networks, to track changes in land use, food production, climate, the environment, human health and well-being worldwide.

o   Support improved transparency and access to information in global food markets and invest in interlinked information systems with common protocols that build on existing institutions.

o   Develop, validate and implement spatially explicit data and decision-support systems that integrate biophysical and socioeconomic information and that enable policy makers to navigate trade-offs among agricultural intensification, nutritional security and environmental consequences.

Hi, I hope to have a good discussion

Dear Florence and FSN Associates,

Climate change has several dimensions, all of which threaten global food security and health in fundamentally interconnected ways. Temperature increase, ocean acidity & circulation, ozone depletion, sub-arctic methane release all pose potentially catastrophic influences.

Most people are aware of "global warming." Fewer people seem to be as concerned with the increasing solar UV-B radiation reaching the planet's surface, what I refer to as "global broiling." 

Climate change mitigation and crop selection in the 21st Century must take into account both of these aspects of systemic climate imbalance. If we are to avoid irreversible systemic collapse, then must successfully adapt in the most time-efficient ways to navigate these changes.

First we must acknowledge the changes are happening at an accelerating and unpredictable, non-linear rate; then we must objectively reconsider our priorities. Specifically, society's views about what is "illegal" and what is essential must change. 

Cannabis agriculture, manufacture and trade offer fundamental solutions to many of the problems imposed by climate imbalance. Every growing season that passes without comprehensive, objective analysis of this unique and essential natural resource, is gone forever.

Consider that "hemp" is the only crop that produces complete nutrition and sustainable biofuels from the same harvest. In addition, the atmospheric benefits of Cannabis sequestration and monotwrpene production make hemp an essential crop.

Please feel invited to consider the rationale for resolving climate imbalance, presented in my recently published book,

"Cannabis vs. Climate Change: How hot does Earth have to get before all solutions are considered?"  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PCSRUF8

Thank you for the opportunity to present an achieveable biogenic solution in an atmosphere of timely objectivity.

Best wishes to all,

Paul 

Just to add some elements that go somewhat counter conventional wisdom in this matter, though not against scientific evidence, let me remark on some often disregarded points:

1. Food security is defined by access to food, and nutrition by access to food, safe water, sanitation and health care; they do not require that everyone produce food on their own plot. Access is chiefly determined by income level and distribution, not by self sufficiency: even subsistence smallholders can only produce a fraction of their food needs, mainly staple food, and most need extra income to purchase more food and other goods and services in the market. They usually procure that extra income through off farm activities, chiefly wage labour. In fact, subsistence producers are, and have been for decades, among the people more affected by food insecurity and malnutrition, especially when they lack complementary sources of income, Urban folk (even poor urban folk) customarily get more food and better nutrition indicators than peasants, in spite of (or due to?) not producing any food themselves. Other than producing food in everybody's plot, economic development brings more income, and also more trade (domestic and international) to bring more food from whatever point of production to whatever point of consumption. Livelihoods diversify, social labour is divided and specialized, and trade plays an ever greater role. This is already happening: Since 1961 to 2012 food production worldwide more than trebled (increasing 50% per capita), but international food trade increased by a factor of nearly nine times, confirming what the World Food Summit found: that "trade is a key element for achieving food security". Increased world output, increased income in developing countries, and increased world trade, will save more people from hunger than scrapping a few more grains or tubers from tiny subsistence plots. More peace and better governance will also help, by eliminating major causes of today's famines and food emergencies (war, refugee camps, internecine strife, corruption).

2. There is no shortage of land at the world level. The world has about 3 billion Ha of prime and good land (according to FAO agro-ecological zones and soils classification) and only about 1.5 bn Ha are actually used for crops. Ample reserves of good arable land exist especially in Africa, Latin America, North America and Eurasia. Moreover, existing projections of future requirements of extra land do not foresee a significant increase in arable land use (which is, moreover, rather stagnant since the mid 1980s). See for instance the FAO report by N. Alexandratos and J. Bruinsma, 2012. World agriculture towards 2030/2050: The 2012 Re¬vi-sion. Rome: FAO. http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/ap106e/ap106e.pdf. (This FAO land classification already accounts for land degradation occurred in the past).

3. Climate change has both beneficial and deleterious implications for agriculture. A warmer climate in temperate regions opens up new lands for cultivation, extends the growing period, and improves land productivity; warming also increases water evaporation and thus rainfall at global level, though changes in convection currents may cause more drought in some areas like Southern Africa and Northern Mexico. On the whole, world arable land is projected to increase. Increases in usable land area and land productivity, due to increased rainfall and milder winters, are already observable in several areas of the world (cf expansion of cultivation into formerly dry non-cultivable areas in the North and West of Argentina). Also, higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increase crop yields (especially for the C3 type crops like wheat, and also for the C4 type like maize when grown in dry conditions). More availability of atmospheric CO2 also reduces the water needs of C4 crops. Both effects countervail other negative impacts that climate change may have (for instance, maize in Mexico may suffer due to expected drier conditions there, but at the same time maize, a C4 plant, would require significantly less water under increased CO2, partly contributing to offset the former effect).

4. Agricultural productivity is on the rise almost everywhere. Yields, and output value per hectare, are growing faster than ever, including Africa, and also Asia and Latin America (it grows more slowly in Europe and North America). Even if no further technical development or discovery occurs in agriculture (hardly a likely prospect), simply by catching up with existing technology, growth of productivity can continue for decades, especially in developing countries where the technology gap is wider and productivity increase is faster.

5. All indicators of food security and nutrition are improving. The MDG of halving the prevalence of undernourishment is practically on the verge of being achieved globally (see FAO's SOFI reports). Anthropometric indicators of nutritional failure are also decreasing, as reported by the Nutrition division of WHO. Moreover, the rate of improving in both aspects seems to be accelerating. There is an increasing worldwide problem of obesity and overweight, affecting already more people than acute or chronic undernutrition, and this marks a significant nutritional transition never seen before in the history of mankind.

6. It is often mentioned that from 2000 to 2050 food production has to increase by 50-70%, and this is seen as an alarming prospect, but in fact it just requires a growth rate of 0.8-1.0% per year, whilst in the previous past century food output has been increasing at about 2.5% per year on average, and this rate has been accelerating in recent decades compared to previous ones. Note that this includes the period of most rapid climate change and intense emissions of greenhouse gases, especially noticeable since 1970.

7. Studies on the impact of climate change on future levels of food production and prevalence of undernourishment, even under quite pessimistic assumptions, indicate that progress would continue, covering future demand for food and other uses of agricultural products (including biofuels) and reducing undernourishment to non-significant proportions in all major regions by 2050 or thereabouts. See for instance the report of Dr Günther Fischer commissioned by FAO: World Food and Agriculture to 2030/50: How do climate change and bioenergy alter the long-term outlook for food, agriculture and resource availability? Included in FAO 2011, Looking ahead in World Food and Agriculture: Perspectives to 2050. Ed by Piero Conforti. http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/i2280e/i2280e00.htm.

I do not make these rather heretical comments to mean that there is no problem and nothing needs to be done. On the contrary, a lot remains to be done. For the 850 million hungry people existing today, it is little comfort to learn that things will be better by 2050: they need assistance today, every day, both in the form of agricultural development for family agriculture, help to transform their present livelihoods, and social protection to support them in their current predicament and bridge the difficult transition into a better way of life.

Food prices are decreasing since 2010, and the spikes of 2007 and 2010 fortunately did not trigger the dire effects once feared (no famine and very few food riots occurred worldwide in the wake of the price surge), but many people suffered from high food prices, and generating higher incomes to afford food and other necessities are of the very highest priority.

More energetic efforts should also be deployed internationally to stop the many local conflicts, State failures and collapse, and widespread corruption that affect the lives, food security and nutrition of millions in poor countries and cause the most dramatic food crises we see today.

In view of the ongoing migration and urbanization process in the developing world, helping people to enter in a better way into urban and international employment (through education, training, and better domestic and international migration and housing policies) is also a crucial ingredient to help people earn better incomes and improve the food security of themselves and their relatives, including those left in the old country and expecting to receive remittances.

Facts reflected in the above comments suggest some shifts in emphasis are needed: people are moving from subsistence production to into new livelihoods. Livelihood transformation and diversification may perhaps be more important than incremental (and often ineffectual) efforts to improve traditional livelihoods. To accelerate the current rate of progress in access to food and better nutrition a strong emphasis is needed on economic development; agricultural productivity; better supply of water, sanitation and health care; labour training and productivity; and food trade (including cheaper and steadier food supplies for regions in need, and better access of poor countries to world markets for agricultural products). Climate change may make things more difficult in some aspects and places, and may help in others. Humankind will undoubtedly deal with all these challenges (we have dealt with far worse ones in the past), but knowing them in advance surely helps.

I hope this may provide food for thought and make for a more spicy debate.

Dear all,

Populist policy makers don't care risks of climate change in developing countries like mine. Also they don't announce risks  of climate change to people.

So their daily politics, investments and sub construction are planning for get more vote.Governments promote urbanization. This is cheaper and easy than to promote farming. Nature is being destroyed for HES ,highways ,huge bridges and airports . Besides land grabbing and water grabbing  by big companies is getting more day by day.  Local people have to spend more times in demonstrations than their farm to keep their land. Shortly; there are more threats for nature friend food production .

Key institutional and governance challenge for policy makers is to change their understanding on "development" to provide sustainable and resilient food system. Review the development approach will be the most significant gains as lessons learned.

Best regards 

Ayşen Sema TEKİN

Climate change affects agricultural production and productivity which results food insecurity.

Food insecurity is one of the underline causes of malnutrition.On the other hand nutrition insecurity/malnutrition also affects agricultural production and productivity which leads to food insecurity, then people/ community utilize natural resources unwisely and aggressively that exacerbate climate change.

Therefore, to overcome food and nutrition insecurity, create resilient environment and to realize social and economic progress/development through the community, we have to work simultaneously on climate change, food security and nutrition effectively.

Dear all

I am T.J James , working as Advisor , to Peermade Development Society , NGO based in Kerala,  India

This is regarding the first query , I would like to share a successful attempt to revive and propagate local cow pea variety cultivated by the indigenous tribal groups

The basic objective of the project was to revive and propagate farmer developed/ indigenous varieties for food security and climate change mitigation and the project was supported by ITPGRFA (treaty nurtured by FAO) under its benefit sharing fund.  

We have documented four different varieties of cowpea ( Vigna sp -local name Njanda, Peenius , Karimpayaru, Thatathi  ). Though these varieties are known for its drought resistance, disease resistance, zero management and also for its nutritional qualities, majority of the farmers have abandon and shifted to other hybrid varieties.   We started searching farmers who cultivating these varieties. We found just only 4 women farmers are cultivating these varieties in entire tribal colony. There are more than 500 families are residing  in the colony.

The other farmers opined that, the availability of common pea (red colour ) in the market , which they get in subsidized and cheap rate is one of the major reason for abandon these varieties, For cultivation also they usually go for this variety , since they will get the seeds from market without difficulty.

We checked with other women farmers , their interest in cultivating these varieties. Most of them are very much interested, but enough seeds and planting materials are not available.

So we developed strategy for promoting these varieties. Initially we supported these four women farmers to expand cultivation for raising more seeds and we purchase these seeds from them and supplied to other farmers. In a span of two year, now more than 40 to 50 women farmers are actively cultivating these varieties and also demand for these varieties are increasing, especially among other non tribal farmers and we observed slowly increasing  market value  and demand for these crops. We also linked our micro finance programme for support the farmers for cultivating these varieties and response is very encouraging.

Here I would like to highlight two major issues

The importance of reviving indigenous varieties for climate change mitigation and nutritional security  and developing methodologies and strategies for promoting them

Developing market and market value for these indigenous crops.

Regards

James

There needs to be a better link and understanding between food losses and waste, resource scarcity, population growth and climate change - becasue these factors are interconnected and will affect the future of our food. There must be an understanding on political level as well as the public level.

Dear all, 

Thanks for your contributions which really set the scene. Thanks for those who provided documents and weblinks, they will be included in the report of the consultation.

Let me try and summarize where we are:

• many of you referred to governance issues.  Climate change constitutes an additional factor of uncertainty impacting on food security and nutrition.  Insufficient attention has been given to smallholders by national and international institutions so far. Strategies must be local-specific. The public sector has a key role to play since the private sector cannot be expected to assist smallholders in remote areas.  
• a set of comments refer to agricultural production systems: priority should be given to crops which can limit GHG emissions;  it is important to shift away from a commodity approach to promote diversity and agroforestry;  organic agriculture (for both health and environment) should be encouraged and made more affordable. Waste associated with international food trade should be addressed. 
• it is essential to protect natural resources (common lands, forests and water bodies), replant trees, and promote solar cooking
• it is urgent to bridge the gap between agriculture and climate change policies and funding

I realize that I cannot do justice to the wealth in your comments in a few paragraphs  and I have deliberately chosen issues to stimulate exchanges.   Did I get it right and did I forget anything major? 

It would really be nice to hear more about nutrition :-)

I hope many of you will join the webinar next Tuesday (31/3). 

So much for now.

Florence