Post date: Jun 04, 2013 2:39:14 PM
Financing smallholder farmers in the developing world is crucial for the fight against climate change, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) says on the eve of World Environment Day.
ROME, ITALY (MAY 25, 2013) (INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT (IFAD) VNR) - Marking World Environment Day, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is calling for greater recognition of the role of small farmers in climate change solutions.
Financing climate change adaptation for smallholder farmers in the developing world is of "critical" importance, the United Nations agency says.While almost invisible in global climate change debate, the smallholders are on the front line of climate impacts IFAD says. More than a third of the world's population is fed by rural farmers who in the developing world provide up to 80 percent of the food. While also creating a great pressure on natural resources, the farmers themselves are strained under the impact of environmental changes and weather conditions.
According to an IFAD press release large numbers of farmers live in some of the world's most ecologically and climatically vulnerable areas such as African regions where some 95 percent of agriculture relies on waterfall for its water needs. With little ability to adapt to new conditions, they remain reliant on weather-dependant natural resources.
As climate change bears dire consequences on their lives, the farmers themselves are causing further damage with unsuitable farming practices.
At Benin's Lake Ahime overfishing means some 70 percent of local fisheries are in danger of collapsing, according to the UN agency.
"Before there was a lot of money to be made in fish but now the fishermen come back with small fish or none at all," local fish vendor Rose Mensah said.
Director of IFAD's Environment and Climate Change Division, Elwyn Grainger-Jones, says recognising the key role of rural farmers in climate change solutions would both improve their conditions as well help protect the environment.
"Through their activities, they hold the key to a significant amount of future emissions which will depend on how they manage that land and whether the carbon is kept in the soil or if it is released from the soil through unsustainable farming practices and uncontrolled deforestation. So we can't forget these people," Grainger-Jones, said.
IFAD cites a project on the slopes of Mt Kenya as an example of the benefits of investing in rural farmers and enabling them to become custodians of both the natural resources as well as their carbon emissions.
According to IFAD forest cover in the area had shrunk by over 5000 hectares due to excessive logging and unsustainable farming practices which consequently hindered water flow in rivers and caused soil erosion.
After local farmers were engaged in a project to plant and protect trees in the area and made responsible for protecting the water sources, both the farmers and the environment benefitted, said Nestry Ndichu, River Basin Management Officer at the Mount Kenya East Pilot Project.
"You can see the vegetation cover has improved. The farmers have changed their way of farming and as well the pollution in the river has lessened and the volumes of the water in the river has improved," he said.
Seeking to help some eight million rural people face the effects of climate change, IFAD launched the "Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme" (ASAP) in October 2012.
Initiatives in the project include the "Re-greening the Sahel" programme against desertification which has resulted in improved crop yields, greater resistance to droughts and income for local communites as well a project in Kenya in which Flexi-Biogas generators have helped rural families supply power to their homes, saving them money and reducing deforestration, the agency said in a statement.
World Environment Day is on Wednesday (June 5).