FAO official calls on all parties to support food and agriculture in tackling climate change

Alexander Mebeck, senior policy officer for agriculture, environment and climate change of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, said recently that climate change is affecting global agriculture and will have a further impact in the future. He called on all parties concerned to support food and agriculture in addressing climate change to ensure world food security.

In an interview with Xinhua News Agency reporters, Mebeck said that the countries and regions most seriously affected by climate change are those whose citizens are in a state of malnutrition and social instability. The number of vulnerable groups in such countries and areas is about 2 billion, who depend on agriculture for their survival and engage in agricultural or agriculture-related activities. "For them, a small change in climate can quickly affect food security," Mebeck said."

A number of climatic parameters such as summer temperature, rainfall and rainfall area will play an extremely important role in agriculture. Even small changes will affect agricultural production and harvest. Mebeck said that climate change is already happening globally and has a greater impact on agriculture than extreme weather. He said climate change could lead to lower agricultural yields in some areas, unstable yields or change the geographical distribution of crops.

He believes that agriculture accounts for a large proportion of the entire economy in developing countries and has an impact on local employment and the implementation of national development policies. Given the large number of smallholder farmers in developing and poor countries, helping these groups to improve their ability to cope with climate change will help ensure world food security.

Mebeck also said that attention to climate-sensitive agriculture will help prevent and mitigate the impact of climate change, resolve the risk of food crisis, and protect the environment. He said that FAO recommends promoting food security by increasing production capacity and improving rural population structure; at the same time, agricultural production needs to adopt methods to adapt to climate change and reduce or not increase excessive greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible.

Release date: 2015-06-16 Source: Xinhua