Rome, Italy
June 3, 2009
Agricultural mitigation in
developing countries can make farming more resilient to the
vagaries of climate change and can also reduce hunger and
poverty, FAO said in a policy
brief for climate change negotiators currently meeting in
Bonn/Germany.
"If agriculture in developing countries becomes more
sustainable, if it increases its productivity and becomes more
resilient against the impact of climate change, this should help
to reduce the number of currently around one billion hungry
people and offer better income and job opportunities," said
Alexander Mueller, FAO Assistant Director-General.
"Millions of poor farmers around the globe could help in
reducing greenhouse gas emissions," said Peter Holmgren, FAO
focal point for the UN climate change negotiations.
"But this requires massive investments and information — to
change unsustainable farming methods and to train farmers in
mitigation practices. A new global climate agreement, to be
adopted in Copenhagen in December, therefore needs to include
agriculture," Holmgren added.
Current global funding arrangements such as the Kyoto Protocol's
Clean Development Mechanism are not reaching farmers in poor
countries, Holmgren said.
New and more flexible financing mechanisms are needed that offer
incentives to farmers, including smallholders, so that they may
participate in greenhouse gas emission reductions and removals.
The scope of the Clean Development Mechanism, for example, could
be expanded in order to include reduction of emissions from
deforestation and forest degradation, wetlands, croplands and
grasslands, in order to realize the high potential for
sequestering carbon in soils and above ground biomass.
Funding for climate change activities in agriculture in
developing countries should be new and additional and should be
clearly separate from official development aid, while
opportunities to use funding from different sources in mutually
reinforcing ways should be fully exploited.
Agriculture — a source and a sink
Agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gasses accounting
for 14 percent of global emissions. Land use changes such as
deforestation account for an additional 17 percent.
Between 1990 and 2005, emissions by agriculture in developing
countries increased by around 30 percent and are expected to
rise further.
But sustainable farming practices offer important options to
mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and, at the sme time, to
increase agricultural productivity.
Soil carbon sequestration through reduced tillage, improved
grassland management and restoration of degraded lands, forms
the major part of mitigation potential from agriculture.
Other mitigation options include more efficient use of
fertilizer, improving water and rice management planting trees,
altering forage and sustainable use of animal genetic diversity. |
|
