The report, Drinking Water Equity, Safety and Sustainability, by the UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, says between 1990 and 2008, the proportion of the world’s population with access to improved drinking water sources increased from 77% to 87%. This represents an increase of almost 1.8 billion people worldwide and puts the world ever closer to reaching the MDG drinking water target of 89%.

However, despite good progress being made, at the current rate, 672 million people will still not have access to improved drinking water sources in 2015. We have seen the world’s population increase by almost 1.5 billion people since 1990 with 94% of this growth occurring in developing regions. Some countries are failing to increase access to improved drinking water sources in line with this population growth. For example, 12 countries, the majority of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa, have each seen an increase of more than 1 million people in the absolute number of people without access since 1990, despite making significant progress in providing drinking water to millions more people and seeing increases in proportional coverage between 1990 and 2008.

In addition to population growth, the process of rapid urbanization presents a further challenge to increasing access to improved drinking water. In 2008, 50% of the world’s population lived in urban areas – an increase of 7% since 1990. As a result we have seen the growth of informal settlements and poor environmental sanitation, which together hinder efforts to increase access to safe drinking water in urban areas. Climate change is also likely to lead to increased water stress as extreme weather events threaten water infrastructure.

The report found that the gap between the richest and poorest in the use of drinking water sources differs significantly by region and country. However, in all developing regions access to improved drinking water sources increases with wealth, and access to piped water on premises is much higher among the richest 20% of the population.  As well as social disparity, there is also gender disparity as for almost three-quarters of households without access to drinking water on premises; women and girls have the primary responsibility for collecting water. In some countries the proportion is more than 90%, creating a significant burden.

The report also says that even when there is access to water, it is often not safe for drinking. Water quality surveys show that many improved drinking water sources—such as piped supplies, boreholes and protected wells—do not conform to WHO guidelines. On average, half of all protected dug wells may be contaminated, along with one-third of protected springs and boreholes.

Read the report in full here.

Read about the Farming First principles to increase water efficiency.

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To coincide with CFS, Farming First organised a side-event on “Partnering for Sustainability”, in partnership with the International Agri Food Network. Guest speakers at the event gave presentations on public-private and private-private partnerships and the important role they play in building a more sustainable and stable food system.

Franklin Moore, USAID began the event with his opening remarks before Thomas Lyall, from Dow AgroSciences spoke about how sustainable beef production in Brazil is being achieved through multi-stakeholder collaboration. In Brazil, the Sustainable Livestock Initiative is working to increase the productivity and profitability of pasture whilst at the same time preventing deforestation. This is being achieved through the recovery of degraded areas and building the capacity of local producers and technicians through field visits, lectures and training.

Stephen Wilkinson from the International Zinc Association later gave a presentation on zinc and how it is an essential nutrient for human health. With a third of the global population deficient in zinc, it is crucial that adequate levels of zinc intake are achieved. Globally, 800,000 people die each year from zinc deficiency – 450,000 of which are children under the age of five – and many of who live in developing countries.  Zinc is a growth-limiting nutrient, which means that inadequate intakes can cause growth retardation or stunting in children. Wilkinson spoke about how the International Zinc Association has launched a partnership program with UNICEF with a goal of raising $3 million from zinc industry. “One sustainable solution to zinc deficiency is applying zinc to crops” said Wilkinson at the event. “Farmers using zinc fertilizer can increase their profitability whilst at the same time growing more nutritious food that contains higher levels of zinc”. HarvestZinc, a program under HarvestPlus, has shown that proper zinc fertilizer use can double the zinc concentration in cereal grains.

The final presentation at the event was given by Patrick O’Quin from Danone who spoke about private-private partnerships and gave an introduction to three Danone funds: The Danone Ecosystem Fund, The Danone Livelihood Fund and the Danone Communities Fund.  The Danone Ecosystem Fund is designed to support, strengthen and develop the activity of Danone’s “ecosystem”, meaning all stakeholders whose activities are impacted by Danone and who act closely with its local subsidiaries on economic, social and territorial matters. Through cooperation with 29 partners, the fund finances 36 projects around the world.

The Danone Communities Fund was created to fund and develop social enterprises that create social and economic value, locally. Alongside social entrepreneurs, this support is provided through investment and technical advice via a network of committed experts. The Danone Livelihood Fund is a carbon investment fund that helps poor rural communities by generating financial resources for projects with high social and environmental value. Since its creation in 2008, Danone has invited companies such as Crédit Agricole, Schneider Electric and CDC Climate to join the Livelihood fund. Fund partners receive top-grade certified carbon credits in proportion to their investment, and can use the credits to offset their carbon emissions. Read more about the Danone Livelihood Fund in our previous blog.

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The call to action was announced at this year’s annual Agriculture and Rural Development Day, which took place on Saturday 3^rd December in Durban in parallel with the COP17 climate change negotiations. The all-day event brought together more than 500 agricultural experts, including policymakers and negotiators, journalists, farmers and scientists to discuss priorities to boost agricultural production while supporting adaptation and mitigation to climate change.

Dr. Bruce Campbell, Director of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) said:

It is astonishing that agriculture remains excluded from a global agreement on climate change.  This year’s conference offers a unique opportunity for this omission to be addressed.

Professor Sir John Beddington, Chair of the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, outlined a seven-point plan for urgent action for achieving food security in the face of climate change in his keynote presentation. These included integrating food security and sustainable agriculture into global and national policies, raising the level of investment in sustainable agriculture and food systems over the next decade and sustainably intensifying agricultural production whilst reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

A number of key learning events took place during the day, which looked at the successes in agricultural adaptation and mitigation. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) led a learning event that looked at the tools and policies required to bring food security, adaptation, and mitigation together and shared best practice. At the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) learning event on building the resilience of African smallholder farmers in a changing climate, Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, Chief Executive of FANRPAN highlighted the importance of research, technology and mobilisation of funding for smallholder farmers in Swaziland, and other regions across Africa. Many other side events on the day provided agricultural organisations with the opportunity to share knowledge on examples of best practice in early action on agricultural adaptation and mitigation that deliver economic and livelihood benefits  – the triple wins we need for climate smart agriculture.

Other high-level speakers at the event included, Rachel Kyte, Vice President for Sustainable Development at the World Bank and Chair of the CGIAR Fund Council, Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Dr. Mary Robinson, Chair of the The Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice (MRFCJ) and Former President of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner and Tina Joemat-Pettersson, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Republic of South Africa

In the afternoon, there was a high level panel discussion, facilitated by Laurie Goering, Editor of Reuters Alertnet Climate, and included prominent participants such as Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State for the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). As the panel discussed taking agricultural productivity and food security into a new era, Spelman put forward the UK’s position on climate-smart agriculture saying:

Coping with climate change is a matter of extreme urgency. There are no simple, one-size-fits-all solutions but rather a rich diversity of approaches used around the world. Climate-smart solutions require smart finance.

Agriculture possesses huge uptapped potential to reduce poverty, bolster food security, adapt to climate change, reduce pressure on natural resources, and in many places lower greenhouse gas emissions. To realise this potential, farmers, fishers, and pastoralists must urgently become “climate-smart”, especially in the developed world, which is being hit hardest by climate change impacts. As the open letter endorsed by the 19 agricultural organisations reads:

Whilst agriculture is a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, it has significant potential to be part of the solution to climate change. Preserving and enhancing food security requires increasing agricultural productivity whilst at the time adapting to and mitigating climate change. It also requires a shift towards building farmers’ and vulnerable communities’ resilience to climate shocks, and related food price volatility.

You can read more about the open letter in our previous blog: “Agriculture: A call to action for COP17 climate negotiators”.

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The report argues that although irrigation in Africa has the potential to boost agricultural productivities by at least 50 per cent, food production is almost entirely sustained through rainwater, with only six per cent of the total cultivated area equipped for irrigation.

Over 70 per cent of Africa’s poor live in rural areas, and most of these people depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Therefore, the report says, agriculture has a key role to play in tackling poverty on the continent.

To help increase agricultural production and decrease poverty, many development agencies have recently proposed to substantially increase investments in irrigation in Africa. But, as the report claims, the potential for irrigation investments in the region is highly dependent on geographic, hydrologic, agronomic and economic factors that must be taken into account when the viability of projects is assessed.

The report analyses irrigation investment potential in Africa, and concludes that there is “significant profitable irrigation potential for both small-scale and large-scale systems”.

Farming First think that water use efficiency is important as water is a precious resource. By 2050, the proportion of the population facing stressed water supplies is expected to increase by 500% and the number facing full water scarcity is expected to increase by 800%.

We believe that research, innovation, and access to improved technologies, seeds, and improved irrigation techniques are essential to increasing the efficiency of water use, and that agriculture needs to be part of watershed management.

Click here to go to our water page, where you can download our position paper and read about our six-point action plan.

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The report states that water used for production, otherwise known as ‘virtual water’, constitutes 95 per cent of human water use. As pressure on global water supplies grows, recognising the amount of water used in each step of production could play a vital role in managing water use.

The report claims that 86 per cent of ‘virtual water’ is used in the production of food, but despite its importance, businesses are only just starting to seriously consider the risks of interruptions of water to their supply chains.

The report’s authors go on to state that the demand for water is forecast to outstrip supply by 40 per cent over the next twenty years, and this may worsen as a result of changes in hydrological cycles and precipitation patterns due to climate change.

According to the authors, the UK government’s pledge to invest in a green economy emphasises the importance of maintaining responsible production processes. Given the global dimension of water consumption, with countries exporting and importing water, it is important that countries recognise their interdependencies when drawing up national water strategies.

The report concludes that tighter management of water use in agriculture could be done through a number of measures, including greater cooperation between farmers that share the same water catchment.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank have also discussed implementing water metering and pricing as a regulatory mechanism; water pricing in the Guadalquivir basin in Spain has resulted in a 30 per cent reduction in water consumption.

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In his interview, he stressed that we will have to figure out how to reduce the impact of producing food, such as deforestation and water consumption.

In his recent article in Nature, Dr. Clay identified eight steps that, if they were all implemented, could enable farming to feed ten billion people in a sustainable manner. In his article, he talks about eight ‘wedges’, which need to be overcome to ensure maximum efficiency, and applies these to Africa.

These ‘wedges’ are:

-       Genetics. Ten crops account for 70-80 per cent of all calories consumed globally. Dr. Clay is “convinced that to increase production, we can’t afford to ignore genetics” and believes that the genomes of staple African crops, such as yams and cassava, should be mapped as a first step to doubling or tripling their productivity.

-       Better practices. For every crop, the best producers globally are 100 times more productive than the worst. Dr. Clay stresses that it takes too long for better practices to be passed along within the farming community in Africa. Technology such as mobile phones can help farmers connect to shared information hubs.

-       Efficiency through technology. Dr. Clay says we need to double the efficiency of every agricultural input, including water, pesticides and energy. There are technologies which can do this, but in Africa, many technologies are two or three generations behind those used elsewhere.

-       Degraded land. Rather than concentrating on farming in new areas, Dr. Clay says that we need to rehabilitate degraded, abandoned or underperforming lands; we should be rehabilitating 100 million hectares by 2030. Most farmland in Africa has been degraded over the past century, but this can be reversed through planting trees and grasses.

-       Property rights. Dr. Clay stresses that the lack of clear property rights is a significant barrier to food security in Africa; how many farmers will invest in land they don’t own? By 2020, according to Dr. Clay we should be aiming for fifty per cent of African households to have a title to the lands they cultivate.

-       Waste. Globally, we waste 30-40 per cent of all food produced, or one in three calories. Dr. Clay claims that if we could eliminate waste, we would halve the amount of new food needed by 2050. In rich nations individuals and institutions waste food, but in countries such as Africa most food waste results from post-harvest losses and lack of infrastructure. The goal in Africa should be to halve post-harvest waste in half by 2030.

-       Consumption. One billion people globally don’t have enough food, yet one billion eat too much. Both of these figures need to be halved by 2030, according to Dr. Clay, with the most urgent focus on those with not enough to eat.

-       Carbon. Soil carbon, or organic matter, is key to conserving farmland for future generations. The single best measure of rehabilitated soil is increasing organic matter from less than 0.5 per cent to two per cent or more; however, half of the world’s top soil (in which the most carbon resides) has been lost in the last 150 years. Carbon markets for agriculture need to be introduced, with a goal of food producers selling 1 billion metric tonnes per year by 2030.

In his article, Dr. Clay says that developing regions will bear the heaviest burden if these steps are not implemented; therefore it is in these regions that solutions should be applied first.

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The report’s authors found that increases in income earned from farming contributed more to poverty reduction than increased earnings from non-farm occupations.

The report also found that agricultural growth was pro-poor for all the variants of data used, but that this uniformity of growth was not present in non-agricultural sectors – in fact, the report’s findings show that isolated growth in a non-agricultural sector could have no effect, or even increase net poverty. The report’s authors noted that within poorer countries, estimated poverty elasticity for agriculture was significantly higher.

The report saw the countries posting the fastest progress in reducing poverty also reporting the greatest improvements in basic aspects of human development, particularly in education.

Lastly, the report argued that agricultural progress in the study countries seems in most part to the success of macroeconomic, trade and socioeconomic policies in fostering balanced economic growth.

The report’s authors conclude that in general when economies grow, incomes earned by those who farm for a living rise faster than other sectors.

To find out more or to read the report in full, please go to:

http://www.oecd.org/document/29/0,3746,en_2649_37401_48473309_1_1_1_37401,00.html

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“The increase of the world’s population to 9 billion people by 2050, the rise in global calorie intake by 60 percent between 2000 and 2050 due to greater affluence, as well the rising demands on land for the generation of food and fuels, will require significant increases in agricultural productivity in the context of more constrained availability of resources.”

Addressing Climate Change and Agriculture: A Scoping Report, 2011

With agriculture contributing almost a third of developing countries’ GDP and providing employment to 65 per cent of developing countries’ populations, the impact of climate change on agriculture has repercussions on lives and economies across the globe.

The agriculture sector holds significant potential in mitigating climate change through reductions of emissions, and effective policies could increase the capacity of farming and food systems to increase food production whilst minimising its impact on the climate.

The Meridian Institute report Addressing Climate Change and Agriculture suggests that:

• Early action on tackling the effects of climate change within the agricultural sector will allow countries to prepare for near- and longer-term agricultural adaptation, closely linked to food security and development efforts.
• Data collection and policy development measures may result in useful country-specific data and experience, which could inform vital long-term national strategies in mitigating the impact of climate change on global populations.
• Technology will have an important role to play in developing agricultural practices that are able to withstand changes in climate. Technology deployment and related capacity building in agriculture comes with significant costs for which developing countries in particular need financial support.

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Livelihoods is a carbon investment fund that helps poor rural communities by generating financial resources for projects with high social and environmental value.

The project is based on a scheme that Danone has been developing for the past three years. Since 2008, Danone has been developing new approaches to carbon offsets in Africa and Asia, supporting large-scale pilot projects that restore biodiversity, capture carbon and fight poverty.

In one pilot project, the Danone Fund for Nature purchased trucks and helped a local NGO employ the inhabitants of 450 coastal villages to collect and plant mangrove seeds and care for the trees in the long term. This project will capture 900,000 tonnes of carbon over the next 20 years.

Myriam Cohen-Welgryn, Danone’s General Manager Nature, says:

Danone’s food business is closely linked to nature’s cycles. Protecting natural springs and producing milk in sustainable conditions have been key concerns of our business units for years. Livelihoods is a new step forward, with carbon offset projects that associate restoration of natural resources and food security — two concerns at the heart of Danone’s corporate mission.

Now, following the success in Africa and Asia, Danone has invited other business to create the Livelihoods fund. The first to join Danone are Schneider Electric, Crédit Agricole and Caisse des Dépôts. Livelihoods will invest in three main programs: restoration and preservation of natural ecosystems, agroforestry and soil restoration, and rural energy projects that prevent deforestation.

In addition to this new carbon investment fund, a Livelihoods Network has been created by 80 representatives of NGOs, companies and high-level experts from Africa, Asia, Latin America. The Livelihoods Network is a forum where experts can exchange views and pool knowledge on a wide range of issues affecting livelihoods.

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• Electrostatic powder

Exosect, an integrated pest management (IPM) innovation company, has pioneered the use of a charged wax powder that is soaked in synthetic female pheromones and then attached to male insects. When sprayed over crops, male insects are attracted to each other, rather than to females, leading to a reduction in mating, egg laying and consequent crop damage with the benefit of very few pheromone dispensers. The powder is environmentally friendly, and works 24/7 in all weather conditions. The company is also starting a UK government project to tackle insects in grain storage. Around 16% of the world’s grain is destroyed by insects in storage.

• Monitoring Irrigation

PureSense is a company that provides farmers with the tools and support needed to manage irrigation more effectively. They use a Field Monitoring Station that collects real-time data from a grower’s field, orchard or vineyard by monitoring soil and climate conditions every 15 minutes.  By monitoring how much moisture there is in the soil in real-time, they adjust the farms’ irrigation systems accordingly via wi-fi. More accurate irrigation scheduling have resulted in water savings of 10% to 40% and the project has produced increased crop yields of 5% to 15% per year.

• Connecting farmers to buyers

FarmsReach is an US-based online marketplace that connects farmers to business buyers. This makes it easier for restaurants and independent supermarkets to buy produce from local farmers.

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