Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

Dear sir/madam thank you very much (FSN) Coordinator body,  I am engaging long time in agriculture's media sector. Along with pepino farming system in Nepal, I want to contribute my country from the Pepino Melon fruit propogation in the agriculture sectors. 

I have prepared a combine types of FAO call for submission. 

How can FAO better support countries in addressing governance of agrifood systems transformation to make them more sustainable, inclusive and resilient?

I recognize the about the agriculture value how is important for people. I wish in terms of play role in agriculture sector from my side. 

thanks for FSN Coordination team'  and All of world FSN Members.

With best regards,

Dhanbahadur Magar

www.krishijournal.com.np; www.indigenoustelevision.com

Abstract :

Agriculture is still a main occupation for over 60 per cent of the total population in Nepal although the industrial and service sectors' share in national economy has grown over the years. The agro sector contributes around 24 per cent to the gross domestic product. These statistics justify the necessity to prioritize agriculture for attaining self-reliance and revitalize the rural areas. A good deal of investment and research in agriculture is vital for ending extreme poverty, hunger, and malnutrition and food insecurity. The country is unlikely to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) until the agriculture sector is modernize and commercial. It is imperative to attract youths towards agriculture. For this, the sector must be lucrative and reliable occupation for them. The adoption of advanced agriculture technology is necessary to reduce the country's dependency on imported food stuffs.
In order to increase agro products and productivity, the focus must be on research and development (R&D) on it. The developed countries, which have made strides in the scientific discoveries and technology, invested in the R&D to boost agro products and husbandry to feed the ever increasing population and increase national wealth. It is the research and development that provides innovative edge to the countries in increasing overall economic sector. Despite the policy support for the agro sector, its growth has been less than 3.0 per cent owing to inadequate access to the cross-cutting technologies, innovation, inputs, capital, incentives and the market. This shortcoming can be overcome by promoting and investing in R&D that enables to improve quality of soil and develop drought-resistant seeds, improved varieties of crops, effective pesticides and yield-sensing technologies, among others.

A)What types of shock are more relevant to food systems and which ones are more likely to affect food security and nutrition (FSN)? What type of shocks have been under-researched, especially regarding their impact on FSN and food systems?

Today, different regions are seeing different kinds of conflicts and geopolitical issues with parts of Asia, the Middle East and parts of Africa facing ongoing conflicts that has led to direct impacts on the food security situation not only for these regions but direct implications on the global food security situation resulting from destroyed infrastructure, displaced populations, and creating barriers to food distribution. These disruptions have led to acute food shortages and malnutrition with supply chains being severed and markets becoming inaccessible. Political instability also hinders implementation of effective food policies and aid distribution, exacerbating the food insecurity situation. Therefore, these results in shocks that have long-lasting impacts, that may span over several years.

The main types of vulnerabilities faced by farmers include climate and environmental stressors – e.g. droughts, floods, extreme weather events, water scarcity, soil erosion, pests, and diseases, as well as socio-economic challenges – e.g. trade and market disruption, unrests and conflicts, pandemics, labor shortages, and price fluctuations. The potential consequences for farmers include reduced agricultural productivity, financial losses, increased food insecurity, and long-term environmental degradation.

For farmers, RA creates long-term value by future-proofing farming operations and making them more climate-resilient. It opens new opportunities for farmers to meet future expectations at a time of uncertainty and change. For example, it lets farmers tap into new sources of revenue, such as receiving payments for carbon sequestered, and grow their business in compliance with stringent new climate regulations, such as policies under the EU Green Deal. In addition, a digitally-enabled, system-wide approach to RA enables traceability in the food chain, which helps connect what is happening on the farm to consumers who are demanding and buying food with new expectations.

From a farmers’ perspective, resilience encompasses their capacity to adapt to and withstand climate and environmental stressors (e.g. droughts, floods, extreme weather events, water scarcity, soil erosion, pests, diseases, etc.) as well as socio-economic challenges (e.g. trade and market disruption, unrests and conflicts, pandemics, labor shortages, price fluctuations, etc.) while ensuring the productivity and economic viability of their farming operations both in the short and long term, by preserving and enhancing key natural assets such as soil, water, and pollinators that are critical to achieving that in a sustained way.

B)How might different kinds of shocks (e.g. climatic, social, financial or political) affect different regions and different aspects of the food system (e.g. production, processing or distribution)?

Besides data and digital technologies, precision breeding and precision crop protection – which involves designing new seeds and traits and small molecules levering artificial intelligence and big data – can play a key role because they help adapt individual cropping systems to changing climatic and environmental conditions and offer the right solution for each farmer.

Broadly speaking, key innovations that have potential to shape the regenerative future of agriculture include, but are not limited to:

• Next generation breeding and biotechnology (e.g. gene editing) to develop improved crops that can better withstand biotic and abiotic stressors (e.g. short corn, hybrid wheat, improved orphan crops).
• Smart cropping systems (e.g. direct seeded rice, cover crops).
• Sustainable crop protection based on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) including biologicals and new chemical profiles based on small molecules.
• Nitrogen fixation.
• Innovations in carbon farming, data and digital solutions.

It’s worth stressing that there is not one single solution, but always a combination of these solutions, that deliver a regenerative agriculture system and its benefits.

C)How to balance preparing for short-term shocks (e.g. droughts and floods) versus the need to ensure food systems fit within planetary boundaries and long-term sustainability of systems?

Balancing preparation for short-term shocks should involve integrating adaptive and resilient strategies into agricultural practices and food policies. For instance, in the short term, investing in infrastructure such as irrigation systems and flood management can help mitigate the impacts of droughts and floods. Crop diversification and the use of drought-resistant and flood-tolerant crop varieties can increase resilience against climatic extremes, ensuring a more stable food supply. Developing early warning systems and emergency response plans can enhance preparedness and response to such shocks.

D)Are there ways of enhancing resilience to unknown and unforeseen shocks?

Enhancing resilience to unknown and unforeseen shocks to food security and nutrition (FSN) requires a comprehensive approach that builds adaptive capacity across the entire food system. The potential areas that could a key role are given below:

A)Diversification:

Crop and Livestock Diversification: Growing a variety of crops and raising different types of livestock can sometimes pose risk of disease spread. Therefore, diverse farming systems are encouraged that tends to withstand shocks because if one crop or livestock type fails, others may still thrive.

Economic Diversification: It is suggested that farmers and communities are being encouraged to diversify their income sources so that their dependency on agriculture is reduced while providing financial buffers during agricultural shocks.

B)Strengthening Supply Chains:

Local and Regional Food Systems: Develop local and regional food systems that would help reduce dependency on global supply chains which are more susceptible to disruptions. Local markets can provide more stable and accessible sources of food during global crises.

Redundant and Flexible Supply Chains: Encourage multiple suppliers for critical inputs so that existing supply chain is enhanced that can prevent disruptions. Flexibility in supply chains may allow quick adjustments to new sources or routes when required.

C)Building Adaptive Capacity:

Education and Training: Arrange capacity building initiatives for farmers and food system workers by training them to understand adaptive practices and technologies which can enable them to respond more effectively to unexpected changes.

Research and Development: Encourage investing in research to develop resilient crop varieties, innovative farming techniques and efficient resource management practices that can prepare existing food systems from a wide range of potential shocks.

D)Policy and Governance:

Robust Policy Frameworks: Establish policies that promote sustainability, resilience and equity in food systems that can help in coping with shocks. These should include land use policies, water management regulations and support for sustainable practices.

Social Safety Nets: One should also be encouraged to implement social safety nets such as food aid programs and insurance schemes to ensure protection to the most vulnerable groups from the impacts of unforeseen shocks.

E)Community Engagement and Collaboration:

Local Knowledge and Practices: Engage with local communities and incorporate traditional knowledge and practices to enhance resilience. Community-driven initiatives often provide innovative and context-specific solutions.

Collaboration and Partnerships: Foster collaboration among governments, NGOs, private sector entities and international organizations to create a coordinated and comprehensive approach to building resilience.

RA most be supported by a foundational set of metrics and harmonized methods so that farmers, governments, and all the other stakeholders involved in agriculture and along the food value chain can establish a baseline and track progress. Metrics should be based on the following principles and criteria:

–Metrics should be as simple as possible while maintain scientific rigor and robustness.

–Metrics should be easy to understand and feasible to measure.

–Metrics should be clearly linked to ultimate outcomes desired.

–Since certain outcomes are hard to measure (i.e., biodiversity impacts) metrics can be based on a combination of practice and outcomes measurements utilizing the best available science.

–Assessments should be risk-based, not hazard-based.

–Innovative technologies and practices leading to an environmental improvement should be taken into account by the metrics, meaning a metric should allow for progress to be demonstrated by levers that a farmer can use.

–Example: many crop protection-related metrics are not able to consider modern application technologies.

–Metrics sets should provide the ability to demonstrate both intensity-based improvements and absolute improvements. For instance:

–Need for food production will increase, so absolute reduction in GHG emissions will be a challenge in the near term, but should be the ultimate goal to align with the current state of science and the global carbon budget for agriculture

–Intensity based in the short term (kg CO2/kg; or m3/kg) with longer term strategy focused on absolute reductions and decouple of growth and emissions/impacts

–Thresholds or reference values that are rigid and do not allow for the local conditions to be respected should not be supported. Examples include: 

–Environmental Impact Reduction (EIR): Some food value chain companies define thresholds (e.g. McCain for EIQ). Thresholds should make agronomic sense and should not cause trade-offs such as yield loss or risk for resistance.

–Soil Health of arable land: a soil under arable land has different properties than a soil under natural vegetation. This does not mean that soils under arable land are unhealthy. Reference values for healthy soils should take site conditions into consideration as well as soil functionality;

–% natural/ semi-natural habitats: general thresholds like minimum of 20 % natural/ semi-natural habitat should not be used, because this is not realistic for many crop regions. Rather than demanding such a high threshold for RA, it is better to ensure that whatever % of natural or semi-natural habitat exits or is desired, it should be established with the support of local experts to make sure that desired species are attracted and that habitats are connected - without causing agronomic problems for farmers (e.g. increased weed/ disease pressure)

–Spatial scope (i.e., field, farm, corporate, project, etc.) of metric should be clearly articulated and metrics should ideally only be used for the scope intended.

Food and nutrition security has become a topic of concern for all of us as we see climate change, geopolitical tensions and economic volatility impacting food production, distribution and access. We have also seen significant food price inflation in some parts of the world further impacting affordability and availability of a healthy diet for millions of people. 

Agriculture is a core field to focus on. While farmers primarily run an operation, they all play an essential role for the greater good. Without farmers, there is no food security. 

Agricultural productivity continues to differ significantly between regions and countries, despite scientific breakthroughs, and we see the impact of changing and more extreme weather patterns on yield, commodity prices and more. Farmers today are under pressure to produce more nutritious food for more people with less environmental impact and less resources. It’s a Herculean task that is not fully or adequately recognized by society. 

F)What are the main types of vulnerabilities facing food supply chains and what are the potential consequences for food system actors (including input suppliers, food producers, traders, food system workers and consumers), considering different kinds of potential shocks?

Social vulnerabilities, such as political instability, conflicts, and pandemics, further complicate the situation by causing operational disruptions, forced displacements, labor shortages, and exploitation risks for food system workers. Infrastructural vulnerabilities, including failures in transportation networks, storage facilities, and energy supplies, exacerbate these challenges by increasing logistical costs and causing delays in food delivery. 

The final chapter of FAO’s SOFA 2021 report on resilient agrifood systems outlines potential ways to mitigate these impacts by diversifying supply sources, investing in resilient infrastructure, implementing adaptation practices, and strengthening social protection measures. 

G)What evidence bases are there to measure resilience and the effectiveness of interventions ?

Some solutions that are proving to help farmers be more resilient:

(low-input winter oilseed cover crop) + Short stature corn + Soybean + Digital tools

–Supports reduced/minimum till settings.

–Provides a living root in the ground to support soil biology.

–Carbon sequestration due to extensive root system.

–Utilizes residual N when following corn crop.

–Keeps the soil covered and protected from erosion. 

–Improves soil health, specifically building soil structure and improving nutrient cycling.

–Low carbon intensity biofuel vs. fossil fuel/electric grid.

–Adds diversity to typical corn: soy rotation.

–Support pollinators with early spring flowering.

–Suppresses winter annual and early spring weed pressure.

H)Are there trade-offs between increasing adaptation to one type of shock and creating other types of fragility ? 

Building resilience into a system may involve tradeoffs. Diversity in supply chains may mean that efficiency is not being maximized. If markets are very competitive it may be difficult to sustain that diversity since the least efficient suppliers may go out of business. 

I)What is the impact on resilience programming of different understandings of food security and nutrition (e.g. focus on nutrition, the four pillars, the six dimensions of food security, etc)?

• Table 5 Entry points to manage agri-food system risk and uncertainty (SOFA, 2021)

J)What is the role of states in building more resilient food systems, including with respect to providing infrastructure, regulatory measures, international policy coordination and policy coherence?

This is an item that is covered in some detail in the last chapter of FAO’s 2021 SOFA report.

K)What measures are necessary to incentivize private sector strategies and investments that promote supply chain resilience?

Public policies could focus, in some countries, on improving access to credit and financial services, particularly for small and medium agri-food enterprises (SMAEs). Facilitating access to financial services allows these businesses to invest in resilience-building measures such as diversification of supply sources and production redundancies.

That being said, including diversity & redundance in supply chains to increase resilience will lead in some cases to a trade-off in terms of overall efficiency. Addressing this trade-off will require creating an enabling environment that allows both shorter and longer supply chains to thrive, with a diverse mix of products sourced both locally and through international trade.