Remarks by Jonathan Shrier, Acting Special Representative for Global Food Security, at the 3rd Global Conference on Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Security and Climate Change
The following is an excerpt from remarks by Feed the Future’s Deputy Coordinator for Diplomacy Jonathan Shrier at the third Global Conference on Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Security and Climate Change in Johannesburg, South Africa. Read his full remarks on the U.S. Department of State website.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates 842 million people suffer from chronic hunger. By 2050, global agricultural production will need to rise by at least 60% to meet the demands of a growing population with changing dietary requirements, all in the face of climate change and drastically increasing pressure on water and other natural resources.
We understand that climate change and environmental degradation can affect the sustainability of investments in agricultural development and food security, impede long-term economic growth, and adversely affect livelihoods and well-being. About 2.5 billion people’s livelihoods depend directly on climate-sensitive economic activities such as agriculture and fisheries.
And that’s why Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative, is taking a comprehensive approach to ending poverty and undernutrition . This includes addressing the root causes of poverty and hunger; building bilateral, multilateral, and strategic partnerships with private sector and civil society to leverage investments; and building resilience by incorporating climate-smart agriculture as a cross-cutting theme in its approach and by developing strategies and undertaking research to help small holder farmers reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change.
As numerous studies have outlined, including those by the World Bank and the FAO, climate-smart agriculture requires an integrated approach that is responsive to local conditions; and Feed the Future does just that. By bringing together many different U.S. government agencies to design programs that address the entire food value chain in sustainable ways that align with our partner countries’ own food security plans, we are already making a difference.
Through our Global Climate Change Initiative and Feed the Future, our integrative thinking on agricultural adaptation, fits well with the holistic climate smart agriculture approach. Adaptation isn’t a stand-alone concept. Through our support of national adaptation planning, for example, we seek to help developing countries to plan for food security in the medium- and long-term in the face of a changing climate and to develop and revise agriculture sector development plans that reflect the fact that agricultural development can’t be separated from adaptation. And under Feed the Future, agricultural programs seek not just to sustainably increase productivity but also to enhance ecosystem services.
For example, Zambia has approximately 50 million hectares of forest and a deforestation rate – officially estimated at 250,000 to 300,000 hectares per year – among the highest in the world. Feed the Future and the Global Climate Change Initiative are taking an integrated approach with partners in Zambia to improve rural livelihoods and food security, while offering smallholder farmers and other community members the tools to conserve the land they need to sustain their livelihoods over the long term. Feed the Future is training rural farmers in conservation agriculture techniques like composting, mulching, crop rotation and inter-cropping with agroforestry to increase yields while protecting the soil and trees on farms; while the Climate Change Initiative trains traditional charcoal producers -frequently the poorest members of rural communities- to teach them better harvesting techniques that won’t wipe out their communities’ forests.