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Smallholder farmers sustain humanity every day of the year. The 600 million smallholder farmers around the world, who are working on less than two hectares of land, are estimated to be responsible for 28-31% of total crop production and contribute 30-34% of food supply on 24% of gross agricultural area. These smallholder farmers replenish their communities in ways that are typically nature-based, regenerative, and sustainable, and they do so because they respect their relationship and responsibility to the natural world.
As the WEF argues, we all are keenly reliant on smallholder farmers to feed our growing population. Yet the risk and responsibility these farmers face on a daily basis is not matched by the “financial, technical, and technological support they need to thrive.”
The 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) is taking place right now in Baku, Azerbaijan. A key focus of COP29 is on finance, as trillions of dollars are required for countries to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect lives and livelihoods from the worsening impacts of climate change.
At the Food & Agriculture Pavilion, two advocacy groups are hosting a platform for collaborative dialogue, knowledge sharing, and decision-making on the unique role of agriculture and food systems in the fight against climate change.
- CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) is a global research partnership for a food-secure future dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.
- FAO is the Food and Agriculture Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger.
These organizations are sharing information about efforts to drive adaptation and reduce emissions across food, land, and water systems. Through targeted adaptation strategies, they want to ensure food, nutrition, and water security for the most affected small-scale producers and food-insecure communities.
Every single person on the planet deserves food security. That goal, however, is anything but simple. Part of the dilemma rests with the degree to which food systems contribute to and are significantly affected by climate change. Food systems account for more than one-third of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Changing the way we produce and consume food could reduce global GHG emissions by at least 10.3 gigatons a year, which is equivalent to 20% of the reduction needed by 2050 to stay below 1.5°C (2.7°F), according to the Global Alliance for the Future of Food.
Achieving adequate levels of food stock supply and storage requires policymaking and interventions that look to the local knowledge of smallholder farmers worldwide. COP29 sessions are highlighting innovative strategies, including nature-based solutions and climate-smart agriculture, as well as finance mechanisms that promote emissions reduction while maintaining sufficient and nutritious food production.
Meaningful financial investments in smallholder and family farmers are the only way to build a future that nourishes people and the planet. Smallholders only receive about 0.3% of climate funding — less than a third of a single cent per dollar.
“We were expecting to see conference leaders unveil a flagship new climate fund that would direct at least $1 billion to mostly developing countries, from contributions by fossil-fuel-rich companies and countries,” Danielle Nierenberg, president of Food Tank, explained from COP29 in Baku. “That plan seems to have disappeared.” Food Tank is a global non-profit community working towards positive transformation in how the world produces and consumes food.
At the COP29 World Leaders Climate Action Summit, small successes are being celebrated. For example, the Agriculture Innovation Mechanism for Scale (AIM for Scale) unveiled its Innovation Package, aimed at providing weather information to help farmers adapt to the impacts of climate change. AIM for Scale’s Innovation Package, supported by global partnerships and banks, announced it’ll channel more than US$1 billion to weather support and adaptation services for farmers in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
The Package recognizes the transformative potential of AI-supported weather forecasting to help national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHS) produce high-quality, farmer-centered forecasts. Co-producing and disseminating these forecasts to millions of farmers can build resilience and support adaptation as climate change makes weather patterns less predictable. Future Innovation Packages will expand efforts to scale additional solutions addressing the interconnected challenges of climate change, food security, and agriculture.
Another way that global leaders can help is to support soil carbon sequestration. It could remove as much as 5.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year from the atmosphere, which is about 25% of the carbon reduction needed to avoid breaching the catastrophic 1.5°C global warming barrier. Of course, soil carbon sequestration must be treated with the right solutions and practices.
The restoration of depleted soil organic carbon is possible through various strategies, say researchers, such as converting marginal lands into restorative uses, promoting reduced or zero-tillage practices combined with cover or residue crops, and implementing nutrient cycling via composting, manure application, and other sustainable soil and water management techniques. By rejuvenating depleted soils, enhancing biomass production, purifying surface and groundwater, and offsetting CO2 emissions from fossil fuels, soil carbon sequestration can serve as a holistic and effective approach for mitigating current climatic changes.
Others are not so positive about soil carbon sequestration, as they worry such voluntary measures could make a polluting food and agriculture industry appear environmentally friendly while forestalling stronger climate action.
Final Thoughts about COP29
The impact of the fossil fuel industry on COP29 climate talks is taking its toll.
The United Nations’ COP climate talks are “no longer fit for purpose” and need an urgent overhaul, key experts including a former UN secretary general and former UN climate chief have argued. In a letter to the UN, senior figures say countries should not host the talks if they don’t support the phase out of fossil energy.
“Beyond the Paris goals, countries have now agreed to phase out fossil fuels, end inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies, stop deforestation by 2030, operationalize carbon trading globally, and most have joined the Global Methane Pledge… We need a shift from negotiation to implementation, enabling the COP to deliver on agreed commitments and ensure the urgent energy transition and phase-out of fossil energy.”
The activist coalition Kick Big Polluters Out said it counted at least 1,773 fossil fuel lobbyists present at COP29.
“The worst mistake you can do is to have a middleman who gets the resources while the farmers only get a little bit that trickles down to them,” Jose Mai, the Belize Minister of Agriculture, insisted during a fireside chat at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) Pavilion. A more substantive goal after COP29 is to give farmers hope, he said. “We can no longer take food for granted. We can no longer clear all the trees, cannot allow our soils to degrade, cannot fertilize without care.’”
Shout out to Food Tank’s Dispatch from the UN Climate Change Conference, which is a special newsletter series running daily during COP29.
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