At COP26, Climate Threats to Smallholder Farmers Drive New Investments in CGIAR Research, Pushing 2021 Pledges Close to $1 Billion
PR92797
GLASGOW, Scotland, Nov. 3, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --
-- Adaptation investments urgently needed for agriculture-dependent regions
like Africa that have done the least to cause the climate crisis but suffer the
most
Facing mounting evidence (
) that climate change will fall hardest on agriculture-dependent regions like
sub-Saharan Africa, a coalition of funders at the United Nations climate summit
pledged $575 million today to deliver climate-smart solutions to farmers in
low-income countries via the CGIAR global network of agricultural research
partnerships. Combined with the $256 million recently pledged at the Global
Citizen Live event, and other commitments from Sweden and Belgium, CGIAR now
has secured $863 million this year to confront a host of rapidly intensifying
climate challenges that could upend the global fight against hunger and
poverty.
Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1677024/COP26.jpg
There is also the potential for significant additional investments in CGIAR to
emerge later this week at COP26.
"This critical investment surge is a welcome down-payment for accelerating
CGIAR's climate adaptation efforts that already are providing millions of
farmers with innovations like stress-tolerant crop varieties and new strategies
to restore degraded lands," said Kundhavi Kadiresan, Managing Director, Global
Engagement and Innovation at CGIAR. "We have a deep understanding of the many
ways climate change is affecting food production in fast growing regions like
sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia and a commitment to building resilience
through integrated, environmentally sustainable solutions that rebalance
agriculture's relationship with nature."
CGIAR is the world's largest public sector research partnership serving the
needs of more than 500 million smallholder farmers who are responsible for
feeding billions of people in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The effect of
climate change on crops, fish and livestock is a key factor behind a steady
rise in hunger that is eroding years of progress.
The trajectory of the climate threat is particularly daunting in sub-Saharan
Africa, where most people work in agriculture and impacts on food production
are a key reason climate change could cost African countries up to 15 percent
of their GDP (
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305750X1930347X ) by
2030. There are also fears that absent aggressive efforts to help farmers
adapt, climate impacts on agriculture in regions already suffering high rates
of poverty and malnutrition will make it impossible to achieve the global
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) pledging zero hunger and an end to extreme
poverty (
) by 2030.
In today's funding announcement, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged
$315 million over the next three years to support CGIAR's climate-related work.
Half of the US $315 million investment from the Gates Foundation will support
climate adaptation initiatives undertaken through the new CGIAR portfolio,
which is streamlining CGIAR partnerships, knowledge and assets to accelerate
the pace of innovation flowing to smallholder farmers.
In addition, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
pledged $215 million over the next five years and Canada $45 million.
They were joined by other funders who also have committed to support CGIAR's
Research and Innovation strategy for 2022 onwards. Sweden has pledged $18
million and Belgium, noting that it wants to continue its strong partnership
with CGIAR, put forth plans to release an additional $14 million pending
approval of the 2022 budget by its federal parliament.
The investments announced today are on top of $256 million pledged to CGIAR by
the European Commission, the Netherlands and Belgium at the September Global
Citizen Live event. That pledge included $162.4 million from European
Commission; $87 million from the Netherlands; and $7 million from Belgium.
"Climate impacts on food production are an existential threat for several
hundred million people who depend on agriculture to support their families,"
said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "CGIAR has
been delivering high-impact solutions to smallholder farmers for half a century
(https://www.cgiar.org/cgiar-at-50/ ) and I'm confident they can lead a global
effort to develop the innovations needed to adapt to a changing climate."
"As one of CGIAR's founding donors, USAID is proud to continue our longstanding
partnership by committing at least $215 million over five years to CGIAR's
critical agriculture research and innovation," said Dr. Jim Barnhart, Assistant
to the Administrator at USAID's Bureau for Resilience and Food Security.
"Climate change is threatening the lives and livelihoods of families and
communities, particularly in the least developed countries. This funding will
contribute to raising agricultural productivity for 200 million people in South
Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa by 25 percent by 2030. CGIAR is an important
partner in our work to build a food secure, climate-resilient future."
"For 50 years, CGIAR has delivered critical research and innovation to address
hunger," said Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of International
Development and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development
Agency of Canada. "Canada has been a partner since the very beginning because
we believe scientific research and innovation is necessary in making food, land
and water systems more sustainable, equitable and efficient. Today, we are
pleased to further support the work of CGIAR by contributing CAD $55 million
over three years to help end hunger and build climate smart and sustainable
food systems, and put gender equality at the forefront of global agricultural
research for development."
The new investments are building on an already strong foundation of
CGIAR-supported climate work. For example, in recent years, CGIAR partnerships
have provided about eight million farming households with 200 varieties of
climate-smart maize (https://www.cgiar.org/innovations/climate-smart-maize/ )
and some 18 million farmers with new varieties of flood and salt-tolerant rice
(https://www.cgiar.org/innovations/climate-smart-rice/ ). CGIAR is also leading
efforts to integrate a host of climate-smart food production practices across a
network of climate-smart villages and valleys
(https://www.cgiar.org/innovations/climate-smart-villages-and-valleys/ ) in
Africa, Asia and Latin America that are home to millions of farming families.
In addition, CGIAR's pioneering work on low-emission, high-nutrition
(https://www.cgiar.org/news-events/news/diversifying-aquaculture-systems-to-nour
ish-nations/ ) food production like aquaculture is opening up new sustainable
pathways for improving diets and incomes in rural communities.
The quest at COP26 to secure more support for smallholder farmers is getting a
significant lift from the launch of the new Agriculture Innovation Mission for
Climate or AIM4C (https://aimforclimate.org/ ). The coalition, which now
includes more than 30 countries, was formed by the United States and the United
Arab Emirates to generate new funding for basic breakthrough agriculture
research, international partnerships and national agricultural research systems
in low-income countries. A key focus of AIM4C is to significantly increase
investments in "innovation sprints" – projects primed to translate new
investments into immediate impact for smallholder farmers.
A $40 million innovation sprint led by CGIAR, in partnership with the
Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) and the Gates Foundation,
will unlock key climate-resilient traits from CGIAR's vast global collections
of crop diversity. This sprint will supply crop breeders with the raw materials
they need to provide farmers with a wide array of climate-smart crop varieties.
"The urgency is clear: if the global community is truly committed to ending
hunger and poverty, then it must act now to support smallholder farming
communities that are already being hit hard by climate change," said Claudia
Sadoff, Executive Management Team Convener, and Managing Director, Research
Delivery and Impact at CGIAR. "There are many exciting innovations available.
But even with today's announcements there is still a large gap between the
magnitude of the climate threat to smallholder farmers and investments required
to help them adapt."
Sadoff noted that investing in adaptation is also a "historic opportunity to
implement nature-positive approaches to food production across some of the
world's most valuable and vulnerable ecosystems."
"Adaptation in agriculture is about pursuing a greener pathway," she said.
"That includes providing technologies that help farmers grow more food with
less water and revitalizing degraded landscapes through holistic strategies
that support both food production and ecosystem services."
Notes to editor:
About CGIAR
CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. CGIAR science
is dedicated to transforming food, land and water systems in a climate crisis.
Its research is carried out by 13 CGIAR Centers/Alliances in close
collaboration with hundreds of partners, including national and regional
research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development
organizations and the private sector. www.cgiar.org
SOURCE CGIAR
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