CLIMATE IMPACTS AFRICA – AGRICULTURAL SECTOR ADAPTATION

COP 22 Agriculture – Science to Action ~ FAO Dep. Director and Coordinator for Natural Resources – Climate Change Impacts in Africa.

Maria Helena Semedo (FAO Deputy Director) explained that Agriculture should be “considered a solution and not a threat”, adding that FAO’s work on climate change is aimed at strengthening resilience of smallholder farmers through a number of actions and strategies, from providing technologies to improve production, to the implementation of systems as agroecology and climate smart agriculture.
On a different level, FAO works with policy makers for a global approach to climate change, because, as Ms. Semedo stresses, climate change is cross-cutting all 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda, and if we don’t face it, it won’t be possible to achieve them, (COP 21).

COP 22 – At the side-event Agriculture Day – Science to Action, Maria Helena Semedo spoke on the continent of Africa’s Climate Change Impacts and future adaptation required to handle these impacts in the future years.

An extract from her presentation: Quote: ‘We are already seeing the impacts of Climate Change all over the world, with Africa being the most affected due to it being the continent most exposed to climate impacts.
The Agricultural sectors bear the brunt of these impacts, therefore it is imperative that African agriculture needs to be adapted to handle Climate Change in future years. Two-thirds of Africa depends on farming for their livelihoods, but because of low productivity, the sector accounts for only 25% of the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP), and by boosting Africa’s agriculture, we can reduce malnutrition and poverty, create economic opportunities and generate faster, fairer growth, especially for the young people of the continent, unquote.

Links:
fao.org/news/audio-video/detail-video/en/?uid=11478 (The importance of agriculture in addressing climate change at COP21)
fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/newsroom/docs/Semedo%20speech_en.pdf (Drought Emergency – FAO Reg. Rep in Africa – 2011 Statement by Maria Helena Semedo.)