Agriculture Must be a Part of Any Climate Change Agreement – IFAP

IFAP is calling for the recognition of the food security challenges farmers are facing, whereby food production would need to be increased by 70% by 2050 when the world population will reach 9 billion.

16 Dec 2009 --- To achieve long term sustainable solutions to climate change, farmers, through the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP), urges government negotiators to provide strong political support for linking food security with climate change adaptation and mitigation in the shared vision of the Copenhagen final outcome document.

One out of three people on this planet work in agriculture, and as a consequence farmers are the largest ecosystem managers.

IFAP is calling for the recognition of the food security challenges farmers are facing, whereby food production would need to be increased by 70% by 2050 when the world population will reach 9 billion. At the same time, farmers are expected to contribute to poverty alleviation, environmentally friendly food and energy production systems. The challenges are enormous.

“It is critical for farmers that food security be integrated in the shared vision of the Long Term Cooperative Action (LCA) text, in order to open the door to adaptation and mitigation support for our sector as a whole,” said IFAP President Ajay Vashee (Zambia). “Food security underpins human life and consequently the role of agriculture in mitigating and adapting to climate change should be fully recognized.”

“We expect the full integration of agriculture in the climate change negotiations highlighting the specificities of agriculture as an affected sector, recognition of farmers’ organizations as partners on climate change and recognition and rewards for farmers for carbon sequestration practices in any carbon accounting system that is developed,” said Vashee.

“We often talk about the primary effects of climate change on the environment, but we seem to forget about the most important impacts of climate change, which are mostly social and economic. Adverse effects of climate change will put additional pressure on the food security of millions of farmers, leading to increased poverty in the world.”

The IFAP delegation at COP15 includes 72 farmer leaders from 25 countries.