A new report issued in the run up to the next round of UN climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa, later this month, lays out key policy responses to the global challenge of feeding a world faced with climate change, rapid population growth, poverty, food price spikes and degraded ecosystems.
“Business as usual in our globally interconnected food system will not bring us food security and environmental sustainability,” says the report, Achieving food security in the face of climate change – a summary for policy makers from the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, an international group of experts convened by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.
The report’s recommendations include significant increases in global investment in sustainable agriculture and food systems over the next decade; sustainably intensifying agricultural production while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture; and reducing losses and waste in the food system.
No small challenge, according to Sir John Beddington, the UK’s chief scientific adviser and chair of the Commission:
“It’s about reorienting the whole global food system – not just agricultural production, and not just in developing countries. We need a socially equitable, global approach to produce the funding, policy, management and regional initiatives that will deliver nutrition, income and climate benefits for all.”
The Commission’s final report, upon which the recommendations are based, will be released early in 2012.
hunger and poverty are serious challenges facing mainly sub Saharan Africa due to lack of knowledge mainly by the food producers who are mainly subsistence farmers. they lack the right skills and are also not involved in decision making processes that affect their lives. thus their challenges are assumed and many policies made without their input. 3
governments and donors have also used short term goals to tackle hunger. an example is the issue of water harvesting which have received very little attention. water conservation and post harvest crop loss reduction is vital in ensuring an end to hunger and lessen the burden of poverty.