For another year, millions of small-scale farmers have been bearing the brunt of Climate Change and COVID19. Despite the challenges, they have been using everything from boats to goats to build resilience. IFAD was there to support them every step of the way.
IFAD
Many people involved in agriculture do not consume enough food or benefit from a healthy diet. Although 63 per cent of low-income people worldwide work in agriculture – the overwhelming majority of them on small farms – many are at risk of food and nutrition insecurity. Farmers often must make difficult choices between what they consume and what they sell. Many of them sell most of what they produce, with little or nothing left for household consumption; others need to purchase most of their food at the market because they grow only one or a few crops.
answers why and how the world’s poorest rural dwellers should be helped to adapt to the changing climate.
Even as climate change takes hold, believes it’s possible to transform rural economies and food systems to make them more resilient, sustainable and inclusive, while also making them more productive and investment in small-scale farmers is key.
How and who should pay the costs associated with climate change? Climate finance is at the heart of the discussions at COP26. To date, has committed US$990 million in climate finance.
Staple crops in eight African countries could decrease by as much as 80 percent by 2050 in some areas if temperatures continue to rise due to climate change, according to a report released today by . This could have a catastrophic impact on poverty and food availability unless there is an urgent injection of funding to help vulnerable farmers adapt how and what they farm. The organisation warned that COP26 will fail to achieve a lasting impact if world leaders continue to prioritise mitigation and neglect investments in climate adaptation.
When it comes to the changes we need to make to our food systems, rural small-scale farmers are the on-the-ground experts. presents the people at the heart of our food systems.
This is all about food systems. ’s podcast team first speaks with Martin Frick, Deputy Special Envoy for the Food Systems Summit, to learn more about what food systems are.
works with rural and indigenous communities that hold valuable knowledge of species that are adapted to local environments and contribute to providing more diverse and nutritious diets.
We celebrate the sacrifice of migrant workers, who support their families and communities of origin through the money they send back home, particularly in these times of crisis. Over 200 million migrants defied predictions and continued to send money to their countries of origin throughout the pandemic.
In , celebrates World Environment Day through developments protecting the environment; Africa Climate Week and innovations from East and Southern Africa; and the International Day of Family Remittances, a day celebrating a vital source of funding for people living in rural communities in the developing world.
Other features include a new report on nature-based solutions in agriculture, the environment as inspiration for a UN Human Rights Champion, the changes to environmental policies in Afghanistan and organic farming in China, and a new group called Chefs 4 the Planet.
has invested US$1.6 million to work with community groups as they restore and conserve nearly 15,000 hectares of native forest, grasslands, and high Andean wetland habitats. Their actions will include reforestation with native species, fencing and sustainable use of grasslands, and installation of barriers throughout the wetlands. Through Compensation for Ecosystem Services systems, downstream users of ecosystem services remunerate the upstream rural populations who maintain them.
Guatemala has the fourth highest rate of malnutrition in the world where over 50 per cent of children under five are stunted. Many children do not get enough nutritious food, and often came to school hungry. teamed up with and to set up a food chain that enables local farmers to provide fruit and vegetables for school meals.
Coffee and chocolate can do much more than give us a boost of energy in the morning. For the last seven years, the project, financed by , has improved the incomes and quality of life of more than 45,000 families in Nicaragua through the sustainable development of coffee and cocoa production. NICADAPTA works closely with producer cooperatives and their members, many of them women and youth, to help them access lucrative coffee and cocoa markets and increase their resilience to climate change.
The Maasai of Kenya and the Red Maasai sheep slow food presidium