Biofortification is the enrichment of staple food crops with essential micronutrients and has been heralded as ‘a uniquely sustainable solution to the problem of micronutrient deficiency’ (Brooks). Nearly 2 billion people around the world are affected by micronutrient deficiency and, according to the World Health Organisation, it is the leading cause of death through disease in developing countries.

Rice provides 20% of the world’s dietary energy supply. Improving rice’s nutrient level could help boost nutrition levels for the large proportion of the global population who rely on it as their predominant staple crop.

In this report, the author Sally Brooks examines the international rice biofortification efforts taking place around the world, investigating the history of bridging the fields of agriculture, nutrition and health.

Brooks, a research officer at the STEPS centre, argues that increasing concerns over food security are pushing policymakers towards taking top-down approaches to science and research policy, which risks missing out on important factors associated with the specifics of the location.  Such ‘bottom-up’ factors involve the interactions between people and their environment.  She questions whether biofortification offers a ‘illuminating lens’ through which to question whether the future of development may follow this ‘silver bullet’ formula of ‘global science, public goods’.  In her conclusions, Brooks draws recommendations that might allow more diverse and context-responsive alternatives to emerge.

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In just the few years since markets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions have been established, their combined value has increased to more than US$100 billion.

While agriculture accounts for an estimated 10 to 14 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, its role as a mitigating force is receiving increasing attention.

The report notes that whilst agriculture has a large potential in climate change mitigation, it has been largely excluded from both formal and informal carbon markets.

Reasons for this exclusion include the uncertainties regarding the amount of carbon that can be sequestered by agricultural soils, how long it can be stored for and the amount of reductions in emissions from agriculture. An additional concern is the transaction costs associated with monitoring, reporting and verifying changes in soil carbon and emissions.

The IFPRI paper describes the climate change mitigation potential of agriculture, noting the current regulatory and voluntary carbon markets under which agriculture mitigation could be rewarded and provides an overview of what options could be put in place for climate change mitigation strategies.

Many studies have noted the barriers that hinder farmers’ ability to take part in climate change mitigation and sustainable land management practices, notably a lack of knowledge, credit and access to functioning markets.  In carbon markets, barriers to smallholder participation include high transaction costs, uncertain revenue flows, a lack of clarity on ownership of carbon, as well as education and governance limitations.

The paper concludes by calling for the integration of smallholder farmers into carbon markets and for transformation of climate change policy into a pro-poor development strategy.

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Such were the discussions at a high-level panel discussion, ‘From summit resolutions to farmers’ fields: Climate change, food security and smallholder agriculture’, held in conjunction with the Governing Council of the International Fund of Agricultural Development (IFAD).

A group of expert panellists, including Farming First spokesperson Ajay Vashee from IFAP,  discussed how to form recent summit declarations into reality, by addressing various challenges, as follows. The proceedings of the panel session are summarised in the report.

How can better market conditions be created to promote private investment in smallholder agriculture?

Lack of access to reliable and stable markets, inputs, credits and agricultural tools and services, along with price volatilities, market uncertainties and unpredictable weather patterns were identified are the main challenges faced by smallholder farmers. Yet in several countries smallholders have benefitted from increased prices but only when policy and connectivity to markets have allowed farmers to sell at higher prices.

What specific role can governments play in creating better conditions for investment in smallholder agriculture and rural development, in particular through the provision of public goods and the implementation of supportive policies?

Investments in agricultural research and extension, rural roads, education, health care, irrigation, power supply facilities and other public goods are fundamental for agricultural development and must be supported by effective support to develop value chains that benefit farmers.

Public policies can make a difference by creating the necessary conditions for the development of smallholder farming, for example in Malawi, where the “smart” subsidy investment of about US$258 million in around 2 million farm households during 2005 to 2008 contributed to a incremental maize production and subsequently reduced the proportion of people living in poverty from 50% to 40%, in just two years.

Policies must be put into place to support smallholder farmers’ ability to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change, whilst using the knowledge and practices of indigenous and local communities.

What can be done to ensure that smallholder farmers are fairly positioned in a process where competition for scarce agricultural resources – particularly land and water – is on the increase? What role could farmers’ organizations play and how can they be effectively supported?

The establishment of independent farmer- and producer-managed cooperatives and associations is enabling millions of smallholder farmers not only to acquire better skills and technology and access to credit, but also to improve water management, quality control, storage, trading and marketing. These associations also facilitate the exchange of market information and increase the participation of smallholder farmers at different levels of the food and agricultural value chain.

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In a special series focusing on water and agriculture, the channel spoke with four Farming First spokespersons on the subject of food security.

Amy Sullivan is the leader of the Limpopo Basin Focal Project, which is led by FANRPAN and the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) of South Africa on behalf of CGIAR. In this podcast, she discusses the water issues faced by the people living within the Basin, where natural resource access and distribution are unequal. She raises concerns around the need for policy, targeting and priority setting, against a backdrop of international borders.

Charlotte Hebebrand is the Chief Executive of the International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council. In this video, she analyses the range of implications that climate change may have on food security and trade and insists on the need to focus on trade liberalisation within the Doha Round to ensure a sustainable food supply in the future. She also notes that whilst adaptation and agriculture are crucial to food security, sustained financing is also required.

Howard Minigh is the CEO of CropLife International. In this video, he explains the role that plant science can play in adaptation and mitigation efforts to climate change, helping to increase yield, productivity and reduce the amount of land used. He notes that agriculture is a cross-cutting issue, and needs to be integrated more fully into climate change negotiations.

Isabelle Coche, spokesperson for Farming First, speaks in this podcast about the Farming First recommendations to the negotiations around adopting a climate change Work Plan. In considering the future of agriculture within discussions at Cancún, she observes that one of the important elements is to clarify the measuring and methodology behind carbon capture.

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The new Google Earth climate change map shows how the world would be affected by a global average temperature increase of 4°C (7°F) in a bid to rebuild public trust in climate science.

This is a simulation of possible, plausible impacts that are consistent with the science involved. The map illustrates rising water levels and reduced crop yields around the world, and also offers some adaptation options to the impacts.

Agricultural productivity is assessed as one of the most complex sectors to be affected by climate change, with agricultural yields expected to decrease for all major cereal crops in major regions of production, once the global average temperature increases beyond 3°C. Especially in low latitudes, maize and wheat yields could reduce by up to 40%, and soybean yield could decrease in all regions of production, including North and South America, southern and eastern Asia. The map also shows a possible decrease in rice yield of up to 30% in China, India, Bangladesh and India.

Subsequently, there would be a 10-20% increase in the number of those at risk of hunger, accounting for some hundreds of millions of people, the majority of who live in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia and Central America. Estimates increase the number of malnourished children in 2050 by 24 million.

The UK’s Foreign Office (FCO) and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) launched the map to counter the sustained scepticism over scientific research into anthropogenic global warming, and for the public to understand the risks of allowing unmitigated climate change.

The online map is available, for people who have Google Earth installed, at: http://www.fco.gov.uk/google-earth-4degrees.kml

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We are quite happy with the outcome although more could have been achieved, though what is particularly pleasing is the fact that the leaders have been able to commit to an accountability framework.

This framework, the Muskoka Accountability Report, is the first of its sort and is a clear sign that leaders are opening up their negotiations to the outside world so that no longer are commitments made behind closed doors.

Whilst it was revealed at Muskoka that only US$6.5 billion of the US$22 billion pledged at L’Aquila last year has actually been dispersed to date, Dr. Sibanda said that it was encouraging that leaders had promised to ensure the full amount would be dispersed by 2012.

Dr. Sibanda noted that the majority of the US$6.5 billion that has been delivered has gone towards financing the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP).

Globally we now accept that Africa has a plan, Africa is committed to a plan it wants to implement and there is now coherence, slowly, in financing initiatives that are Africa-led.

The broadcast also addressed the growing crisis in the Sahel, in particularly in Chad and Niger.  To tackle this challenge, Dr Sibanda proposed starting with agricultural policy.

How do we get Africa to have and realise its own green revolution? How do we get Africa to improve productivity? Unless we realise the potential productivity by having good quality seed, by having the right fertilizer to improve productivity, by looking after our natural resources, making sure our soils are fertile enough to boost productivity, we will always be chasing the food that we cannot produce and grow on our own.

Listen to the interview here:

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Prior to the summit, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) released their report ‘Halving Hunger: Meeting the First Millennium Development Goal Through Business as Unusual’, which called on G8 and G20 leaders to keep up the political momentum towards achieving food security.

The report states that the “rather modest target” of halving hunger between 1990 and 2015 is still far off track and urges an approach of “business as unusual” is needed to reduce hunger: “smarter, more innovative, better focused, and cost-effective”. The five elements of this new approach are:

1. Invest in two core pillars: Agriculture and Social Protection, particularly in agricultural research and building infrastructure.
2. Bring in new players, including the private sector, philanthropic organisations and emerging economy donors.
3. Adopt a country-led, bottom-up approach, in which policies are adapted to the local context with local people acting as the driving force. However, issues like climate change, trade and control of disease must be addressed at a global level.
4. Design policies using evidence and experiments, to ensure only efficient and successful policy options are scaled up.
5. Walk the walk: Global, regional and national level policy makers need to see through their commitments to food security.

According to IFPRI, scaling up this “business as unusual” approach necessitates that global and national bodies both play crucial roles, but that work must be coordinated, combining their efforts to fight poverty and hunger.

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Agricultural Technologies for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Developing Countries: Policy Options for Innovation and Technology Diffusion

This report highlights the technological and institutional innovations required to meet the challenges of food security, agricultural development and climate change adaptation and mitigation. Whilst new traits and varieties of crops are noted as important innovations, the paper puts equal emphasis on the need for relevant practice and technologies such as water management, post-harvest technologies, information services and forecasting, and farmer insurance.

The paper also explores the constraints to the development of innovations and their transfer and dissemination to farmers, and suggests ways to overcome such constraints. Those most significant barriers are named as poorly functioning input or output markets, weak local institutions and infrastructure, inadequate extension systems, and absent credit and insurance markets.

The authors propose six policy principles to aid farmers’ access to new technologies, which prioritise a globally-connected yet locally-relevant approach to climate change mitigation strategies.

Climate Change and China’s Agricultural Sector: An Overview of Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation

This paper examines the challenges facing China: economic development, eliminating poverty, ensuring long-term food security, adapting to climate change and mitigating the effects of greenhouse gas emissions. The report notes that Chinese farmers have been making progress in implementing adaptation strategies, which include changing cropping patterns, increasing investment in irrigation infrastructure, using water saving technologies and planting new crop varieties that are resistant to the effects of climate change.

The Chinese government have also been investing in important mitigation activities. The paper reports on a new technology that the government is promoting, that regulates fertilizer dosage according to soil type, to combat an overuse of fertilizer by many farmers. Additionally, the government is urging farmers to practice conservation tillage as a means to create carbon sinks.

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The conference also established the first-ever African Technology Development and Transfer Network, which aims “to generate economic and social value from research and development outputs, by facilitating technology adaptation and the commercialization of outputs”.

At the conference, delegates focused on how African countries should prioritise science and innovation as a means for accelerating their development agendas.  The ASTIF fund was one of the major outcomes of the conference.  Acknowledging the lack of adequate financial resources as one of the biggest hindrances to research and development in Africa, participants created the fund, calling on African business communities to get involved. Through supporting individuals as well as research and development centres, the ASTIF fund aims to “bridge the existing gap between researchers and the private sector”, helping bring research outputs to market more efficiently.

The recommendations also prioritised investing in educating women and young people in science and technology, and highlighted the need for reducing the costs involved in registering and commercializing innovation outputs.

The conference has made a request to the Network of African Science Academies to prepare a report on Science and Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Africa by mid-July 2010.

The conference was organised by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) the African Union Commission (AUC), the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Nearly five hundred scientists, engineers, technologists, inventors, entrepreneurs and policy makers attended the conference to help contribute towards the recommendations.

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Last week saw the release of the annual OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook, offering projections for global agricultural markets and food security through 2019.

Though global food and commodity prices are expected to stabilize through 2010, the report emphasizes the need for governments to take steps to safeguard against the effects of future price volatility on the world’s poor. In a press conference on the report, the OECD secretary general, Angel Gurria called on developed countries to “avoid policy actions that could provoke a recurrence of the price spike of 2008 – rethinking some biofuels policies and strengthening disciplines on export restrictions would help in this direction.” The report’s authors also emphasize the importance of national stockholding schemes, assuring access to commodity exchanges, and eschewing price supports and trade restrictions in times of crisis. They call on states to coordinate policy measures to ensure unrestricted access to global supplies and improve confidence in market functioning.

Some of the report’s key statistics are summarized below:

- Post-recession, energy input costs and increasing demand from the developing world will continue to put upward pressure on prices. Estimates see average crop prices stay at 15-40% higher than historic averages.

-Biofuel markets will continue to depend heavily on government incentives and mandates. Continued expansion of biofuel production to meet mandated use will create additional demand for wheat, coarse grains, vegetable oils and sugar used as feedstocks.

-Global agriculture output will grow more slowly over the next decade than in the past 10 years but nevertheless remains on track with previous estimates to meet the 70% increase in world food production required to meet the market demand of estimated population levels in 2050.

-The bulk of growth in agricultural output will come from the developing world—with the fastest growth occurring in Brazil, where output is expected to rise by more than 40% by 2019.  China, India, Russia, and the Ukraine will see growth exceeding 20%.

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