Heifer International reposted this
Here at #COP29 with my colleagues Sumnima Shrestha and Shyam Katta on Food, Water and Agriculture thematic day. Lots of talk about how we help farmers - especially smallholder farmers - deal with an increasingly volatile and extreme climate situation. For example at a The World Bank session, speakers active in the relief/humanitarian space emphasized that having early warning systems and available tools are just half the battle - countries themselves need to be in a position to interpret and act upon data and warnings that are shared. As an official from Lesotho put it at the event: "Do we have enough capacity in the Ministry of Agriculture or other institutions...to take up the information and determine what the impact will be downstream, so we ca properly inform and guide district managers, extension officers, etc." One element of helping farmers is to expand accessbility of crop and livestock insurance products, which Heifer International is doing with partners in some countries. Micol Mulon of World Food Programme' climate finance team described their approach in the R4 rural resiliene initiative which (like Heifer's) combines insurance with support to restore degrated lands, promotes improved ag practices as well as savings groups so that farmers actually can invest in climate-friendly technologies and approaches. Many speakers also highlighted the great urgency of the matter - such as CGIAR chief Ismahane Elouafi, who told a crowd at the U.S. pavillion that "the science is very clear. We're on track to exceed the 1.5C limit - it's at 1.3C above already. With every degree more there will be more malnourished people...there are 350 million in extreme hunger today, with a rise of 2C there would be 500M." Time to act!
