AFRICA – The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has launched a new climate adaptation fund that the organization expects to be the largest of its kind specifically targeting smallholder farmers.
The Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Program, known as ASAP+, aims to mobilize US$500 million to reach more than 10 million people with climate adaptation activities and was officially launched by IFAD President Gilbert Houngbo at the Climate Adaptation Summit.
This follows a recent United Nations’ announcement that 2020 was one of the warmest years on record, with catastrophic temperature rises expected this century.
ASAP+ will focus on low-income countries that depend the most on agriculture and face the greatest challenges in terms of food insecurity, rural poverty and exposure to climate change.
It aims to bring 4 million hectares of degraded land under climate resilient practices, and sequester around 110 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent over 20 years.
It will also help countries achieve their nationally determined contributions set under the Paris agreement.
“Small-scale farmers in rural areas play a pivotal role in ensuring sustainability, stability, and security in the world. Climate adaptation funding must not leave them behind,” said Jo Puri, Director of IFAD’s climate change division.
“ASAP+ will contribute to the global call for reducing greenhouse gases while ensuring significant income-related benefits for rural farmers and other vulnerable people.”
Small-scale farming systems currently produce half of the world’s food calories, but are often entirely reliant on natural resources, including rain.
As a result, they are at significant risk from increasing temperatures, erratic rainfall, pest infestations, rising sea levels, and extreme events such as floods, droughts, landslides, typhoons and heat waves.
“It is unacceptable that small-scale farmers who grow much of the world’s food are left at the mercy of unpredictable weather patterns, with such low investment to help them to adapt.”
Gilbert F. Houngbo – President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Recent research supported by IFAD shows that the production of important staple crops such beans, maize, and cassava could decrease by as much as 50 to 90 percent by 2050 in parts of Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe due to climate change, which would result in substantial increases in hunger and poverty.
If nothing changes, climate change could push more than 140 million people to migrate by 2050. Price volatility is also expected, as natural disasters in one part of the world can cause the price of grain everywhere to increase by more than 50 percent.
“It is unacceptable that small-scale farmers who grow much of the world’s food are left at the mercy of unpredictable weather patterns, with such low investment to help them to adapt,” said Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
“They do little to cause climate change, but suffer the most from its impacts. Their increasingly common crop failures and livestock deaths put our entire food system at risk. It is imperative that we ensure they remain on their land and sustainably produce nutritious food. If not, then hunger, poverty and migration will become even more widespread in the years to come,” said Houngbo
ASAP+ builds on IFAD’s Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP) which has already channelled US$300 million to more than 5 million farmers in 41 countries with investments in promoting climate-sensitive agricultural techniques and nature-based solutions, and access to infrastructure and technologies such as small-scale irrigation, rainwater harvesting systems, weather information and drought- and flood-resistant crops.
Liked this article? Subscribe to Food Business Africa News, our regular email newsletters with the latest news insights from Africa and the World’s food and agro industry. SUBSCRIBE HERE
