Agriculture is one of the sectors most affected by extreme climate, but it is also a big carbon emitter, accounting for 24 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions. Now, the sector is looking to make itself climate smart.
To this end, the Food and Agriculture Organisation is pushing six co-operative initiatives that focus on four areas: Soils in agriculture, the livestock sector, food losses and waste, and sustainable production methods and resilience of farmers.
4/1000 Initiative: Soils for food security and climate
The aim of the project is to protect and increase carbon stocks in the soil, thereby reducing the greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere.
Life Beef Carbon
This initiative promotes innovative livestock farming and associated practices for sustainable beef farms, thus reducing the contribution of livestock production to climate change, by at least 15 per cent in the next 10 years. Participating countries are France, Ireland, Italy and Spain.
Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP)
Through this initiative, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and its partners have committed to investing in climate finance for smallholder farmers in developing countries. This project involves eight million smallholder farmers around the world. The total agriculture climate financing stands at $285 million.
Promotion of Agro-ecology Transition in West Africa
This is a regional initiative led by the Economic Community of West African States and funded by the European Union, the World Bank, and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development of the African Union. It aims is to get the 25 million smallholder farmer households in the Ecowas region to adopt agro-ecology by 2025.
The Blue Growth Initiative
This FAO-led initiative aims to promote climate resilience, food security, poverty reduction and sustainable management of living aquatic resources in coastal communities, especially in small island countries. It targets a 10 per cent reduction in carbon emissions in the fishery value chain in the next five years.
The Save Food Initiative
With at least one-third of the food produced every year being lost or wasted, this initiative brings together 500 global organisations and civil society to generate global debates that will lead to a reduction in food waste, across the agricultural value chain.