Governments, companies commit to climate-smart farming

AT THE United Nations Climate Summit held on 24 September, delegates pledged their commitment to increase productivity but reduce carbon emissions. From the assembly, 40 governments and 30 civil society organisations and companies said they would take part in the new Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture, whose target is to help 500 million farmers practice climate-smart agriculture. A number of those participating represent cereal production.  

Based on data, the food industry has to increase production in order to meet increasing demand, which by 2050 is expected to surge 60%.  But in boosting production comes the risk of increasing carbon emissions, and companies and civil society organisations said they would "protect the poorest and most vulnerable farmers from climate change. Farmers, fishers and foresters are still in need of investments and policy changes to manage risk.

The new alliance was launched by the African Union, and a similar programme will be launched in North-America by 2015 to help farmers adapt and improve resilience to climate change.

Despite what looks like a commendable move, not everyone, especially those from civil society organisations (CSO), is convinced of the commitment, saying that many of those that made the pledge are also the worse climate offenders, and therefore the alliance would undermine its objectives. The NGOs are wary that the alliance is “being structured to serve big business interests, not to address the climate crisis.”