IFAD President to address the Hague conference on food security, agriculture and climate change

Rome, 29 October 2010 – Kanayo F. Nwanze, the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), on his way to attend The Hague Conference on Food Security, Agriculture and Climate Change said: “Smallholder agriculture lies at the very heart of the climate and food security response of our next agricultural revolution.  While there are challenges, there are also opportunities. We must approach this ‘new revolution’ with the understanding that agriculture and the environment must be addressed as a package”.

Governments, international organizations, the private sector, NGOs, philanthropic foundations, local community producers and the scientific community are gathering in The Hague, Netherlandsfrom October 31 to November 5, to chart ways to achieve long-term poverty reduction objectives whilst simultaneously building environmental benefits, climate resilience and low carbon growth pathways. The conference will address issues confronting the agriculture sector including the degradation of ecosystems.

“The agriculture sector is uniquely endowed with investment opportunities that reduce poverty, increase food security and respond to climate change. Smallholders can be central to meeting the twin challenges of feeding the world and climate change – there are some 500 million smallholder farms worldwide feeding almost one-third of humanity, and they are stewards of a large share of the world’s natural environment – they farm 80 per cent of the farm land in Africa and Asia”, said Elwyn Grainger-Jones, IFAD Director of the Environment and Climate Division, who is also attending the conference.

Today the word faces one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century: how to feed 9 billion people by 2050. Seventy five per cent of the world’s poor are living in rural areas and most are involved in farming, comprising crop and livestock production, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, biomass, and agro-industries. Growth in the agriculture sector remains fundamental for poverty alleviation, economic growth and environmental sustainability. Agriculture is under threat from climate change, with increased incidence of floods and droughts, higher temperatures in many of the most vulnerable parts of the globe, different patterns in the occurrence of weeds, pests, and diseases, and increased vulnerability of organic carbon pools.

The IFAD President said: “For poor, vulnerable communities, climate change is creating perfect storms that are making it more difficult to feed themselves and earn enough money to meet their families’ needs”.

“Environmental threats such as climate change are inseparable from IFAD’s mission. Agriculture can be part of the solution. There are many examples of sustainable agricultural practices that can and must be scaled up. Farming is and can be a renewable process today, we must push for a second agricultural revolution that is both sustainable and inclusive”, Nwanze concluded.

Press release No.: IFAD/70/2010

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) works with poor rural people to enable them to grow and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine the direction of their own lives. Since 1978, IFAD has invested over US$12 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries, empowering more than 360 million people to break out of poverty. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency based in Rome – the UN’s food and agricultural hub. It is a unique partnership of 165 members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Notes to editors:

• The Hague conference is organized by The Government of the Netherlands, in close cooperation with the Governments of Ethiopia, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Viet Nam, the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization. It will be chaired by Mr. Bert Koenders, the Dutch Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.

• The conference aims to develop a roadmap with concrete actions linking agriculture-related investments, policies, and measures leading towards climate-smart growth. It will seek innovative financial mechanisms and facilitate leveraging of additional financial resources for agriculture, food security and climate change from the private and public sectors. In addition, the conference will assess key challenges and opportunities, and take stock of innovative approaches and emerging trends in the development of technologies, knowledge management and information on best practices, and methodologies for addressing climate-smart agriculture and related land and water management systems.