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’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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Following on from Hague Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change, the Farming First coalition welcomes the commitment expressed by participants to achieving the ‘triple win’ of improving food security, addressing climate change and improving the lives and livelihoods of rural populations.

The Road Map for Action on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change summarises the discussions from the conference that took place on 31st October to 5th November, and identifies solutions to the key challenges faced. We as a coalition welcome the emphasis on increasing agricultural productivity and sustainable intensification and on prioritising agriculture as a means for economic growth and poverty reduction.

Farming First supports the recognition of the need for increased research and technology, especially the need to address the ‘uptake gap’ and the need to think about delivery of tools. Sustainable agriculture is knowledge intensive and agricultural policies need to be knowledge-based. We need a stronger commitment to restoring extension and training programmes for farmers, and concrete commitments in this area were not sufficiently articulated. Innovation will be essential to achieving the challenges of the future but much can also be done by improving the uptake of existing technologies through extension services and increased investment in farmer education. In particular, we recognise the need for building farmer knowledge in Integrated Crop Management (ICM) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to enable farmers to tackle pest problems in a sustainable and efficient manner. In addition to training, improving access to information and advice through ICTs, improving availability of suitable storage, improved transport and market facilities, as well as, when needed, pesticides, is an important part of offering farmers a ‘toolkit’ to minimize pre- and post-harvest losses. In addition, we would suggest that women farmers should become specially targeted recipients of programmes and funding because of their vital roles in the agricultural workforce, household food procurement and preparation, and family unit support.

We also urge building effective local private sector networks of technology providers to improve farmer access to tools.  It is essential for sustainability and growth that government policies and development aid work to build the local private sector and not undermine or bypass it.

We agree on the importance of creating an enabling environment for farmers to invest in their farms and to attract private sector investment. This effort should be extended to all sectors that contribute to the distribution, sale and transport of agricultural inputs, outputs and tools. Encouraging the development of storage facilities, transport firms, processing facilities and agrodealers can help farmers be more efficient and build agriculture as a dynamic economic sector.

Finally, there is a need for greater coherence and transparency in terms of the pledges and realisation of pledges made by government on the issue of food security. In the UN system, the Secretary- General’s High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis (HLTF) represents an effort at giving an overarching direction but how non-UN efforts (such as the G8 and GAFSP) relate, for instance, to the Comprehensive Framework for Action (CFA) developed by the HLTF, is not clear.

Farmers must be at the centre of our efforts to ensure that research programmes, as well as training and other services, are effective and respond to actual needs. The future will require a mosaic of solutions to be applied, and efforts in research, infrastructure and services must reflect the fact that viable long-term solutions must require collaboration between all groups involved and be localised and driven by farmers’ needs.

For a printer version of this statement click here.

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Climate-Smart Agriculture: Policies, Practices and Financing for Food Security is divided into three sections; i) examples of climate-smart production systems, ii) institutional and policy options and iii) financing and investment.

The key messages of the report are:

1. Agriculture in developing countries must undergo a significant transformation in order to meet the related challenges of food security and climate change.
2. Effective climate-smart practices already exist and could be implemented in developing country agricultural systems.
3. Adopting an ecosystem approach, working at landscape scale and ensuring intersectoral coordination and cooperation is crucial for effective climate change responses.
4. Considerable investment is required in filling data and knowledge gaps and in research and development of technologies, methodologies, as well as the conservation and production of suitable varieties and breeds.
5. Institutional and financial support will be required to enable smallholders to make the transition to climate-smart agriculture.
6. Strengthened institutional capacity will be needed to improve dissemination of climate-smart information and coordinate over large areas and numbers of farmers.
7. Greater consistency between agriculture, food security and climate change policy-making must be achieved at national, regional and international levels.
8. Available financing, current and projected, is substantially insufficient to meet climate change and food security challenges faced by the agriculture sector.
9. Synergistically combining financing from public and private sources, as well as those earmarked for climate change and food security are innovative options to meet the investment requirements of the agricultural sector.
10. To be effective in channeling fast-track financing to agriculture, financing mechanisms will need to take sector-specific considerations into account.

At next week’s conference, the Farming First coalition is holding a side event, ‘Best practices in agricultural value chains: Improving productivity, reliability and resilience to climate change.’ The discussion will hear from industry experts who will be providing case studies of existing initiatives that are helping to increase resilience and productivity at different points in the value chain. The purpose is to provide examples of initiatives that could be scaled up.

The Farming First event will take place on Wednesday 3 November 2010 from 13:00-15:00 (CET) in “Room Yangtze 2” at the World Forum. To view the event flyer click here.

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The article, ‘Private Sector Interest Grows in African Farming’ looks at how fears about another global food crisis are leading private companies to tap into the huge potential of the farm sector in Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to hold up to 60% of the world’s uncultivated land suitable for farming.

Reflecting on this current wave of investment, Lucy Muchoki, head of PanAAC, said, “People are realizing the potential of agriculture.”

Sindiso Ngwenya, chairperson of COMESA and chairman of FANRPAN, spoke about the failure of previous African agricultural projects initiated by foreign investors, that did not properly address the barriers to the sector’s development, saying,“You end up with an enclave economy, prosperous on cheap labor in the countryside without integrating the locals, and this can lead to future conflicts.”

Hugh Scott, director of the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund, said that private sector investors have the power to empower local farmers to boost output and ensure sustainable markets. Speaking about AECF’s mission, he said, “We’re looking to create projects others will copy, that will change the way market systems work. By doing this with for-profit companies, hopefully they will be there in 10 years,” he said.

Mima Nedelcovych, board director of the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, said if governments want to encourage a sea-change in investment, they need to foster a productive environment themselves.“The agro-industrial side can always be financed because it can handle shorter-term loans. But developing infrastructure and putting in irrigation requires longer term soft money.”

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Agrium and Mosaic are two fertilizer companies that partner with Millennium Promise, an NGO committed to supporting the achievement of the MDGs. Millennium Promise oversees the Millennium Villages project, which is providing support to 14 ‘hunger hotspot’ villages in Africa to develop all sectors including health and nutrition, agriculture and environment, education, infrastructure, gender equality and business development.

Since 2009, Agrium has been providing farmers in the villages with access to nitrogen fertilizer (urea) to increase and improve food production. To date, over 5,000 farmers in the Pampaida and Sauri villages who previously had limited access to inputs now have improved access, and over 5,000 households have experienced increased crop production. In 2011, Agrium will double its commitments to the programme to $1 million. It will also increase its involvement to include sites in Malawi, Ethiopia, Uganda and Senegal, expanding its reach to help 25,000 farmers.

By the end of 2010, Mosaic will have donated 52,000 bags of fertilizer and the associated logistics, totalling at $2.1 million, to the seven Millennium Villages it works with. Mosaic currently partners with the Millennium Villages in Mali, Nigeria, Uganda, Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia, impacting over 300,000 people.

The results of the Millennium Villages project are immensely positive, and call for an urgent scaling up of the initiative to elsewhere. Through support to farming activities, communities have experienced more than a tripling of average maize crop yields, consequently reducing malnutrition and hunger and increasing income. Many farmers have transitioned entirely from being dependent on food aid to being entirely self-sufficient.

With a focus on providing improved inputs, and training farmers in improved agroforestry techniques, the project is helping to promote food security in the villages.

This video from Millennium Promise shows how the introduction of fertilizer has help farmers in Sauri, Kenya.

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Here is the text of his speech:

UN HIGH-LEVEL PLENARY SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Roundtable 1
Intervention by IFAP Secretary General, David King
on behalf of President Ajay Vashee

September 20, 2010

United National Headquarters

Mr. President, Excellencies, Delegates and Observers,

It is an honour for me to present four key messages on poverty, food security and gender on behalf of the farm families represented by IFAP. I also bring apologies from the IFAP President, Ajay Vashee, who is unfortunately retained on his farm in Zambia.

1. Investing in small-holder agriculture is essential to reducing hunger and poverty, and underpins success with all the Millennium Development Goals, including those regarding health and well-being.
2. Funding agricultural development programs is critical to achieving the MDGs so we are counting on the G-8 countries to follow through on their L’Aquila funding commitments.
3. Programs are needed that are ‘Farmer-centred and knowledge-based’ so that the full potential of farmers, both men and women, including small-holder and commercial farmers, can be harnessed in making food security and sustainable development a reality.
4. Farmer organizations have a vital contribution to make to the development of agriculture and rural communities. Unless small-scale farmers are organized, they will remain politically powerless and economically disadvantaged. One of the keys to a successful fight against hunger and poverty is therefore having wellorganized partners to work with. Strengthening the institutional capacity of farmers’ organizations therefore needs to be a cornerstone of any strategy for reaching the rural poor.

Farmers’ organizations can contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals in four ways:

1. Policy definition and implementation, e.g. in country strategies
2. Research: defining research priorities that meet the real needs of farmers, including the special needs of women farmers
3. Sharing knowledge and information among their members e.g. on prevention of HIV/AIDS, or on technology transfer
4. Strengthening the place of farmers in the market through farmer cooperatives and commodity associations

Since the world food price crisis of 2008, agriculture has become a priority for many national governments, donors and international institutions. However, in order to translate good intentions into real impacts on the ground, governments need to work with their farmer organisations as partners in a process of continual improvement of all agricultural systems, creating rural employment, protecting eco-systems, delivering fair prices for safe and nutritious food for consumers, and allowing farmers a fair return for their work. In this way, we are convinced that the MDGs can be achieved by 2015.

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TMSA is a DFID-funded project involved in supporting and strengthening regional integration and trade issues in Southern Africa. The programme addresses current restraints to trade and proposes solutions, helping to assist African countries and their Regional Economic Communities in order to raise higher growth rates, deepen economic integration reduce trade barriers, build better infrastructure, increase levels of investment, increase competitivenesss, expand exports to regional and international markets, and create more productive jobs for women and men.

The site offers:

• RSS: Users can subscribe to RSS feeds on topics of interest. This includes country and thematic news feeds, with the option of following a BRIC-focused news feed that is specially compiled to show all activities by the BRIC countries in the region.
• Reports: The “Seen This?” section on the home page captures new reports issues be other agencies.
• Events: The site offers a comprehensive calendar of events taking place in southern Africa month by month.
• Transport map: An interactive map shows the current transportation links throughout the region, covering roads, rail networks, ports and energy lines.

A sister project to Trade Mark SA focuses on promoting regional trade and economic integration in East Africa. Trade Mark East Africa functions throughout the EAC region, working with governments, business and civil society organisations to deepen regional integration for the benefit of East Africa’s development.

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