As delegates gather once again for negotiations under the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture, the current conflict in Ukraine is triggering alarming global price rises for food, fuel and fertilisers.
This global crisis comes at a tragic time for communities on the front lines of the climate crisis. Currently 20 million people are facing famine in the Horn of Africa due to the drought affecting Ethiopia, Kenya and Somaliland. They and millions of others are not only losing their livelihoods to climate change, but are also seeing the price of food escalating beyond their reach – with tragic consequences.
Meanwhile, farmers around the world are also being hammered by the rising price of synthetic nitrogen fertilisers, triggered by the increasing cost of fossil fuels. But on farms where fertilisers have been applied for many years, soils have sadly lost the biota that provide natural soil fertility. Cropping systems have become dependent on agrochemicals delivering nutrients to grow crops, creating a vicious circle of dependency that needs to stop.
Alternative strategies to provide natural soil fertility are urgently needed to avoid significant crop yield reductions. If multiple agricultural nations simultaneously experience reduced crop yield, this will further worsen the crisis in global food prices and availability.
But what can we do about this? For many years, CAN has been pointing to the answers. Governments urgently need to plan for alternatives to improve soil fertility and protect yields, without depending on fossil-fuelled fertilisers. They need to look at the entire food system from farm to fork. This can neatly be delivered through scaling up agroecology with training, support and gender-transformative extension services. By using natural and locally available materials such as compost and manure, farmers can improve soil fertility and crop yields – while also providing the climate benefits such as strengthening resilience and reducing emissions, in addition to multiple health, socioeconomic and biodiversity benefits.
Agroecology is now well-defined and easy to understand. The FAO’s 10 elements of agroecology, and the Committee on World Food Security’s High Level Panel of Expert’s 13 principles of agroecology have done great work in making this clear.
Now more than ever it’s time for Parties to endorse the language of agroecology in the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture, so that climate solutions and climate finance can be channeled to strengthen countries’ long term resilience to both economic and climate crises. Agriculture negotiations must not ignore this global food crisis, nor the voices of those calling out for agroecology outside of the UNFCCC’s doors. The IPCC and the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) have both called for a shift towards agroecological approaches while UNEP points out that 87% of agricultural subsidies are harmful and could be far better used – for example to train and support smallholder farmers to adopt climate solutions such as agroecology.
This week in Bonn, Parties have the opportunity to shape change that will put food systems on track to weather the multiple storms ahead.