The programme was split in four axes, each tackling key themes for the natural resources agenda: land, water, forests and action. Each axis will bring together major stakeholders to discuss action tracks, public-private partnerships and solutions that can bring results for Brazil and Africa in dealing with their own - as well as their shared - challengers.
One of the panels of the two-day forum, themed “Sustainable Agriculture and Food Production: Ensuring Climate-Smart Food Systems,” focused on finding solutions to ensure long-term sustainable development.
Acute food insecurity in Africa has gradually increased over the past years due to several reasons such as regional conflicts, political mismanagement, and economic slowdowns. It has become a critical issue with heavy impacts on ordinary people’s wellbeing. Panelists stressed the fundamental issues that are impeding Africa’s development, especially climate change, hunger, and malnutrition.
23/11 Sustainable Agriculture and Food Production: Ensuring Climate-Smart Food Systems
To achieve economic development, countries must address food security. Societies cannot thrive with people in extreme poverty, facing hunger and malnutrition. Food production, nonetheless, must not be a pretext for environmental negligence.- How can we structure climate-smart food systems and cope with today’s challenges without exhausting natural resources and harming
- future generations?
- What should countries do to make sure sustainable agriculture is properly incentivized?
- What good practices and solutions can be exchanged between developing nations?
- Mr. Claus Reiner | IFAD Country Director at Brazil
- Ms. Maria Helena Semedo | Deputy Director General of FAO
- Mr. Yemi Akibamijo | Executive Director of FARA
- Mr. Fayçal Benameur | Senior VP for East Africa at OCP Group
- Moderator: Mr. Waiganjo Njoroje| Head of Communications of the UN Committee on World Food Security
There is a need to have a “holistic system-based approach where we should look not only atproduction but also transformation and consumption.” Such an approach, would allow countries to produce while bringing the maximum benefit to natural resources. Producing sustainably and putting bio-diversity at the center of the food system will help achieve a more efficient, inclusive, and resilient agri-food system. There is a panoply of climate-smart approaches that can provide solutions to today’s challenges such as nature-based solutions, reducing waste, using organic waste and improving access to renewable energy, she explained. Beyond policies and investments, leadership is crucial to put forward stronger steps to curb climate change globally. Maria Helena Semedo, Deputy Director General of FAO,
“With the number of events that happened in line with such a topic, we shouldn’t be facing this paradox and fallout. There are 3 aspects of the struggle to address the key concern of the second goal - zero hunger - of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): biological production systems, social infrastructure of the production system, and technology that can contribute to reduce post-harvest losses (PHL). The PHL refers to measurable quantitative and qualitative food loss in the post-harvest system. The system consists of interconnected activities from the time of harvest through crop processing, marketing and food preparation, to the final decision by the consumer to eat or discard the food. To avoid global warming we need to produce more with less, as we are exceeding the limit of the planet,” Yemi Akinbamijo, Executive director of FARA.
23/11 Fostering Cooperation between Brazil and Africa: Sharing Solutions across Crops and Value-Chains (Promoted by AGRA)
Brazil and African countries have an unquestionable similarity in their natural resources. This, in turn, has led to a shared path in the development of agriculture, with good practices, innovations and technologies finding their way between the two regions. As we move towards more sustainable food systems, we must look for ways to approximate Brazilian and African producers, jointly strengthening our value chains to ensure food security for all.- What lessons for South-South Cooperation were drawn from the UN Food Systems Summit?
- Which crops and value-chains have the greatest potential for the exchange of know-how between Brazil and Africa?
- Which have shown the best results in sustainable agricultural practices?
- How can we actively engage leadership to develop new South-South Cooperation projects in food production?
- Ms. Agnes Kalibata | President of AGRA
- Mr. Hailemariam Desalegn | Chairman of AGRA
- Mr. João Bosco Monte| President of the Brazil Africa Institute
- Moderator: Mr. Fadel Ndiame | Deputy President of AGRA
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