For Immediate Release April 21, 2020
The North America Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance (NACSAA), working in partnership with Solutions from the Land (SfL), filed today its latest Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA) submissions to global climate negotiators.
Farmer-led work groups formulated 35 recommendations on “Improved livestock management systems” (Topic 2[e]) and 28 proposals addressing “Socioeconomic and food security dimensions of climate change” (Topic 2[f]).
Among the issues covered within these topic areas are emissions and climate mitigation solutions, climate smart agricultural production systems, high quality protein, animal health, production and conservation systems, clean energy, payments for ecosystem services, infrastructure and risk management strategies, among others.
The 63 NACSAA recommendations have been offered to advocate for important action pathways that the KJWA – the policy global negotiators adopted in 2017 to put agriculture representatives at the forefront of discussions impacting the sector – should embrace, including:
- Knowledge generation; science and technology innovation development, access and affordability; incentives and investments that support all scales of sustainable intensification production systems; soil, water and resource conservation; and healthy ecosystems;
- Multi-stakeholder collaborative governance models, inclusive of government, private sector, and civil society at appropriate landscape level (watershed, country, region etc.), that develop, implement, and monitor land use and management policies that enable priority economic, social and environmental outcomes;
- Integrated, reflexive and holistic policy frameworks that support new markets for ecosystem services and create economic incentives for all scales of sustainable production of nutritious food, effective management of natural resources, and improvement of rural livelihoods; and
- Effective and innovative solutions-policies, practices, programs, and investments- that enable all scales of agriculture, its value chains and rural people to prepare, cope, and recover from climate disruptions and shocks.
Since the crafting of the document began, the world has changed in a radical way due to the spread of COVID-19 into a global pandemic. The recommendations note that the outbreak is exposing the vital need for a resilient, safe and sufficient food supply. While much of the world’s population has long faced food insecurity as an existing threat – a threat exacerbated by climate change – the emergence of the novel coronavirus has brought this threat to the forefront in new and concerning ways.
The most important prerequisite for the battle against COVID-19, the recommendations assert, is to ensure the healthiest population possible, via stable food supplies in developing and developed countries alike. While the production, processing, transportation and availability of food has been recognized and supported as “essential” in many nations, these key elements of food access have been impeded by the effects of worker shortages, breakdowns in processing and transportation chains, human illness and hoarding sparked by the fear of shortages. Without thoughtful solutions, this problem will only worsen existing food and distribution issues worldwide.
NACSAA Chairman Fred Yoder offered his appreciation to the Work Group members for their diligent work in formulating the recommendations.
“Given the hardships this world is facing,” Yoder said, “our volunteer agriculture leaders have worked diligently to develop the kinds of ideas that can guarantee a strong and ample food supply chain in the face of threats to our health around the globe, all while addressing a changing climate that can only exacerbate the risks we face.
“We believe our recommendations optimize the ability of those who work the land to meet the environmental and health-related challenges ahead, he concluded.
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For additional information, contact NACSAA Chair Fred Yoder at 614-530-4510 or fredyoder4510@gmail.com; or SfL President Ernie Shea at 410-952-0123, or at Eshea@SfLDialogue.net.