CAS 2021 Action Theme – Agriculture & Food Security
One of the Action Themes at the Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS) 2021 is Agriculture & Food Security.
Why is Agriculture & Food Security an Action Theme at CAS 2021?
Adaptation to climate change is paramount if we are to secure our food supply, especially with a world population that is still increasing.
Most farmers around the globe are smallholders and very vulnerable to climate shocks and other uncertainties, due to little margins for error. Risk-informed agriculture, besides access of smallholder farmers to food markets, is increasingly challenging.
A complicating factor is the fact that agriculture is responsible for 25% of global carbon emissions.
Increase in global heat waves will reduce the global yield growth for crops.
Concentrated rain bursts, heat waves, and droughts due to climate change increase periods of inadequate soil moisture, which will drive up food prices, reduce food availability, and reduce smallholder farmers’ income from food production.
The number of food-insecure and undernourished people increased to 800 million worldwide between 2014 and 2017.
There is a likely increase of 50% between 2010 and 2050 in world-wide food demand, especially in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the world’s most food-insecure regions. It will be extremely challenging to meet required standards for meat, dairy, and fish intake.
How is CAS 2021 going to make a difference for the world’s food supply?
At the CAS 2021 Anchoring Event on Agriculture & Food Security, stakeholders will share best practices, ensure conditions, and launch devices for coordinated action, to make our food supply systems more climate-resilient word-wide. This means we need to:
Boost funding for demand-driven research and development, to conquer such challenges as droughts and floods.
Improve distribution of seeds and protection of genetic crop diversity.
Improve digital technology, weather information, technical farmers’ assistance, and education.
Help diversify income, including off-farming activities if feasible.
Strengthen social security systems, helping to guarantee food security.
Stimulate development of weather-based agricultural insurance.
Improve access to finance for small-scale food producers, linking them to available funding by private investors.
Improve the rights and resources of women farmers (40% of global farmers workforce).
Secure transition funds for alternative farming systems (different crops, methods, technologies).
Assist pastoralists (especially in Africa), 268 million of whom already suffer from high rates of food insecurity.
Redirect public funds to facilitate climate-smart decisions.
Support synergies and avoid tension between mitigation and adaptation: the same food systems that emit too much carbon should also produce more food in the future: Focus on reducing food loss and waste.
Conserve land and water resources: Galvanise agro-ecological approaches.
