Climate change and low financing are two of the great threats facing agriculture family in americaindicates a report published today by the Inter-American Institute of Cooperation for Agriculture (IICA) and the Fund international of Agricultural Development (IFAD).
The report “The Paris Agreement and agriculture- a look at the implementation of the NDC (Nationally Determined Contributions) in the Americas Latina” details that family farming is one of the sectors most vulnerable to climate change due to extreme events, coupled with lack of financing, deterioration of soil health and high production costs.
On the other hand, the research confirms that in Latin America and the Caribbean family farming performs important contributions to resilience, adaptation and mitigation, which are often made invisible.
“There is no doubt that the effects of climate change put additional pressure on small and medium-sized agriculture, and on critical resources such as water. There are in our region about 21 millions of small and medium producers, cannot be leave out,” the manager of IICA’s Territorial Development and Family Farming program, Mario León, said in a statement.
The document exposes the status of the implementation in agriculture of the Contributions Determined to National Level (NDC) in Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, EcuadorGuatemala, Honduras, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, established to operationalize the Paris Agreement, under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
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“The contribution of small farmers still needs to gain visibility within the NDCs so that this effort can be counted and rewarded, this is very important when we think about the architecture of international financing for rural development and adaptation to climate change, mainly in research, development and innovation of family farming”, said IFAD Operations and Projects Analyst in Brazil, Frederic Lacerda.
According to the report, financing, capacity building, better data collection for decision-making and linkage to markets are necessary to encourage a increased production resilient to change climate.
The report is based on interviews with more than 70 agricultural and environmental authorities, and public and private specialists from the aforementioned countriesand puts on the table the potential contribution of family farming to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.
“The good practices that are being developed in the countries must be articulated in a network to begin to quantify them. Without data we will not have the necessary support so that the contributions of family farming are recognized”, said the coordinator of the joint agricultural project between IICA and IFAD called INNOVA-AF, Miguel Altamirano.
According to the authorities, the countries included in the study have, to a greater or lesser extent, frameworks legal and institutional arrangements to develop the capacities of its agricultural sector and participate in the climate agenda and in the NDC implementation processes.
However, despite the great contributions of the sector to the achievement of goals and priorities, it is observed that its progress remains lagging compared to other sectors more exposed to the climate agenda, such as the environment and energy.
