2^nd GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON AGRICULTURE,

FOOD SECURITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

“HUNGER FOR ACTION”

Hanoi, Viet Nam, 7-11 May 2012 

Global leaders, practitioners, scientists, civil society and the private sector will demonstrate early action on climate-smart agriculture as a driver for green growth during a global conference from 7-11 May 2012 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The 2^nd Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change includes a High Level Meeting and will be co-organized by Vietnam and The Netherlands, in close collaboration with other partners, including the World Bank and FAO.

Background

In November 2010, the first Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change in The Hague, The Netherlands brought together the agendas of agriculture, food security and climate change.

The themes of this first conference were:

1. Agriculture, food security and climate change: framing the issue and taking stock of innovations
2. Scaling up replicable models of climate change-smart agriculture: opportunities and challenges
3. Mobilizing investments from all sources for a transformational change to climate-smart agriculture
4. A road map for action

At this gathering a Roadmap for Action has been developed as a ‘living document’ to mobilize action for achieving climate-smart agriculture as a means to enhance sustainable productivity and incomes, resilience to climate change and carbon sequestration.

The Roadmap stressed the need for scaled-up action now and into the future and called-up partners to implement and further develop the roadmap, individually and collectively within a broad informal partnership between all stakeholders.

 The Global Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture (GCCSA) in Hanoi, Vietnam in May, 2012 will take stock of the implementation of the Roadmap for Action and set new and more concrete priorities for action while demonstrating early action on climate-smart agriculture as a driver for green growth.

 The Vietnam Conference will build on the outcomes of several conferences and events which have taken place since the first conference.

 a) The African Ministerial Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture

This conference was hosted by South Africa in September 2011.  Concrete actions have been appointed for implementation, especially for the African region.

At the meeting, African ministers and the FAO called for using climate-smart agriculture to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and build resilience to environmental pressures by helping farmers adapt to climate change while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The objectives of the conference were to share leadership perspectives, explore challenges, and grasp new opportunities for climate‐smart agriculture in Africa. Discussions focused on learning from country strategies, financing climate-smart agriculture, and agriculture within the UN climate negotiations.

b)  The Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture

This conference was hosted by Wageningen University and Research Centre, co-organized by The Netherlands, the World Bank and FAO in October 2011. The Wageningen Science conference focused on three themes:

• Sustainable intensification and climate-smart solutions – enhancing food production while reducing greenhouse gas emissions;
• Overcoming the barriers to climate-smart agriculture;
• Managing volatility and risks – technical and social-economic options for climate-smart risk management

In exchange of research are also two other important initiatives:

c) The Global Research Alliance

The Global Research Alliance, initiated by New Zealand has launched the margins of the climate negotiations in Copenhagen in late 2009. The Global Research Alliance (GRA) focuses on the exchange of research and coordinate research efforts in order to increase food production while reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural sector. Within this voluntary partnership between various countries, policy makers and researchers work together to this challenge and achieve the goal. The Global Research Alliance has grown into a global partnership among 36 official member countries, with a good balance between developing and developed countries. Only Africa is underrepresented. 
The Global Research Alliance can also be found as one of the initiatives of cooperating countries in the Roadmap for Action, which was prepared at the Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change, held in The Hague at the end of 2010.

There are opportunities to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase soil carbon sequestration while still helping meet food security objectives. For example, improving the efficiency and productivity of agricultural systems through better management practices and techniques can go a long way to reducing emissions. This can also help build the resilience of these systems to meet the increasing demand for food in a sustainable manner.

Many countries already have research underway to better understand, measure and manage agricultural greenhouse gases emissions. By linking up these efforts through the Alliance, we can achieve faster progress towards the solutions needed for improving agricultural productivity and reducing its contribution to climate change.

d) The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN).

This network supports decision-makers in designing and delivering climate compatible development. This will be established by combining research, advisory services and knowledge sharing in support of locally owned and managed policy processes. They work in partnership with decision-makers in the public, private and non-governmental sectors nationally, regionally and globally.

The Challenge

How to feed 9 billion people in 2050 is one of the biggest challenges of our era.   Global food production must rise by at least 70 percent in 2050, with two time less natural resources. Without strong adaptation and mitigation measures climate change will reduce food crop yields 16 percent worldwide and by 28 percent in Africa over the next fifty years. It is likely that price and yield volatility will continue to rise as extreme weather continues, further hurting livelihoods and putting food security at risk.

We can no longer look at food security, poverty and climate change separately.  Climate-Smart Agriculture is a driver for green growth. The world needs a form of growth that is socially and environmentally sustainable that takes resource limits and climate change into account. GDP growth in developing countries will still be necessary to enhance living standards, reduce poverty, and cope with growing populations. But we know that growth per se is not enough.

Green and inclusive growth policies in the agricultural sector need to be fully integrated into countries’ overall development strategies and assessed in terms of their contribution to development and well being. This means that climate and other environmental concerns are best placed in the center of government. In addition, the global conference in the Hague last year highlighted that these issues are not the exclusive concerns of government. Now, more than ever, the effort to shift growth paths requires the engagement and participation of all parts of society.

The role of the private sector in driving the green, inclusive growth agenda needs to be emphasized. Sound public policies and investments in the agricultural sector are central but are not enough. The private sector is the engine of innovative solutions and the main channel and, therefore, will be specifically targeted as a contributor to the Vietnam conference.

Climate-Smart Agriculture: A Driver for Green Growth

CSA is a core part of the broader green development agenda for agriculture, which is about meeting the needs of people for food, fuel, timber and fiber and contributing to economic development and poverty reduction and food security while maintaining and enhancing the productivity and resilience of natural ecosystem functions. Climate-smart agriculture includes proven practical techniques such as mulching, intercropping, zero tillage, agro forestry, improved grazing and water management, as well as innovative practices such as better weather forecasting, more resilient food crops and risk insurance.

Green and inclusive growth is climate-resilient, water-smart, land-saving, energy-efficient and reliant on diverse energy sources. It also generates decent jobs and improves livelihoods across a diverse set of productive and service sectors. It is underpinned by properly valued natural capital, the value of which is fully integrated into countries‟ systems of national accounts. Green and inclusive growth paths factor environmental considerations into government policies and business decisions, placing sustainable natural resource management – with its benefits flowing to people – at the heart of future development and growth.

The second Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change, Vietnam: Early Action Critical for Success

Increased collaboration will enable the international community to build on existing successes and address global challenges. It is critical to expand information and knowledge exchange, establish early action plans to identify and scale up best practice. 

Therefore during the 2^nd Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change, we have to make steps forward to

• Call on developed countries and other partners, to support the implementation and scaling-up of early action programmes, including best practice and technologies in climate-smart agriculture and food security, through regional, sub-regional and national programmes and institutions as a matter of priority
• Emphasis the importance of government-led partnerships with non-state agencies in designing strategies, policies and appropriate market based approaches to promote climate-smart agriculture
• Encourage countries to leverage private sector investments through public private partnerships in support of climate-smart agriculture
• Urge countries to invest in research, technology and information dissemination to facilitate the adaptation and application of climate-smart agriculture

Priority activities that will be highlighted during the conference in Vietnam, include also:

• mainstreaming climate-smart agriculture into national and regional agriculture strategies and coupling with other initiatives;
• identifying new financing opportunities and expanding research, training and extension
• increase and prioritize private sector investments and involvement in implementation via public-private partnerships and
• risk management and measurement methodologies.

A high level meeting will be part of this conference.

The outcome of the 2^nd Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change, in Hanoi will i.e. support and contribute to international processes, in particular to the Rio +20 process.