To End Poverty, Act on Climate Our development investments will fail if farmers no longer get rain or if floods wipe out their village; if ocean acidification decimate the fisheries on which coastal communities rely for their food and livelihoods; and if rising temperatures cause malaria and other vector-borne diseases to increase and spread to new areas. Some argue that we need to address poverty first and worry about climate change later. This is just plain wrong. As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says, Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth -- these are one and the same fight. Rapid Climate Change Threatens Asias Rice Bowl Climate change endangers crop and livestock yields and the health of fisheries and forests at the very same time that surging populations worldwide are placing new demands on food production, said Bruce Campbell of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). These clashing trends challenge us to transform our agriculture systems so they can sustainably deliver the food required to meet our nutritional needs and support economic development, despite rapidly shifting growing conditions. In the fields, there is no debate whether climate change is happening or not, said Raj Paroda of the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI). Now, we must think about what the research community can provide governments to guide effective action. Given the regions current state of food insecurity, climate-smart agriculture has to become the central part of Asias adaptation strategy. South and Southeast Asia are home to more than one-third of the worlds population and half of the worlds poor and malnourished. Absent new approaches to food production, climate change in this region is expected to reduce agriculture productivity by as much as 50 percent in the next three decades. And with agriculture serving as the backbone of most economies in the region, such plunging yields would shake countries to the core. Also, farmers are being pressed to focus not just on coping with climate change but also on mitigating the impact of agriculture on greenhouse gas emissions. Farming, along with forestry and land use change, accounts for almost one third of greenhouse gas emissions globally.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 05:09:16 +0000
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