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Cambridge Global Food Security

An Interdisciplinary Research Centre at the University of Cambridge
 
State of Food and Agriculture 2016

FAO's latest flagship report urges adoption of climate smart practices

FAO has published its latest annual report on the State of Food and Agriculture 2016: Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security. The report calls for transformation of farming and food systems to cope with a warmer world. Climate change mitigation and adaptation are twin priorities: mitigation, because agriculture (including forestry, fisheries and livestock production) generate around a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions; and adaptation, because climate change impacts are already threatening yields and nutritional quality, and if not managed could lead to severe food shortages, hunger and malnutrition in the future.  Climate change not only threatens the productivity of crops, livestock and fisheries, but also exposes the urban and rural poor to higher and more volatile food prices, and can have negative repercussions for future investment in agriculture.

FAO’s flagship report shows why transforming food and agriculture systems will largely depend on urgently supporting smallholders in adapting to climate change. Developing countries are home to around half a billion smallholder farm families who produce food and other agricultural products in greatly varying agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions. Solutions have to be tailored to those conditions; there is no one-size-fits-all technological fix. The report provides a series of economically viable ways of helping smallholders adapt and making the livelihoods of rural populations more resilient through ‘climate-smart’ practices. It also emphasizes how the costs of investments in climate-smart practices pale in comparison to the eventual price of not making them. Sustainable agriculture is a lynchpin in making sure climate change does not undermine efforts to eradicate hunger and poverty and does not jeopardize future food security.

To access the full report, see: http://www.fao.org/publications/sofa/sofa2016/en/ and http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6030e.pdf

 

 

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