Tomorrow, we are co-hosting the Agriculture and Rural Development Day (ARDD) with the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) at the Durban University of Technology.
ARDD is a very important platform as it brings together approximately 500 persons (governments, civil society, scientists and the private sector) to build consensus on what is required to address climate change adaptation and mitigation challenges in the agriculture sector.
On Sunday, we are co-hosting Forest Day 5 with the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) at the Olive Conference Centre, here in Durban. As this year has been declared the Internatonal Year for Forests, the South Aafrican recognises the importance of forests and the role they play in sustaining commercial industries, providing utilisable natural rsources and conserving our biological diversity and mitigating against the effect of climate change.
Forest Day 5 will without doubt highlight the urgency to guarantee the survival of the world’s forests, their biodiversity and the millions of people whose livelihoods depend on them.
Next Wednesday, on the 7th of December, we are hosting the high level event: Climate-Smart Agriculture – Africa: A Call to Action, together with the World Bank, here at the ICC.
Some of you will recall the African Ministerial Summit on Climate-Smart Agriculture which our Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries hosted in Johannesburg in September this year, to formalise our position on Climate-Smart Agriculture as the African Ministers of Agriculture.
A lot of enthusiasm was generated for the concept and associated developments, both locally and internationally and it is a subject about which we are all likely to hear about a great deal in the future.
This high level event has been organised by the African Union, the Government of South Africa and the World Bank and features high level and influential speakers, including Kofi Annan, the chairperson of the Board of the Alliance for a Green Revolution; Jean Ping,chairperson of the African Union Commission; Mary Robinson, President of Mary Robinson Foundation and former President of Ireland, to name a few.
At the African Ministerial Conference in September, we came out with a Communiqué that called on developed countries and other partners, to support the implementation and scaling‐up of early action programmes, including best practice and technologies in climate‐smart agriculture and food security, through regional, subregional and national programmes and institutions as a matter of priority.
It also urged African countries to invest in research, technology and information dissemination to facilitate the adaptation and application of climate‐smart agriculture wherever possible.
To date, Africa is hosting about18 United Nations ClimateProjects; we need more; we are encouraged that China, Brazil and India could be hostinga number of such projects; these include reforestation and renewable energy.
Climate change poses many threats to agriculture, including the reduction of agricultural productivity, production incomes and stability in areas of the world that already have high levels of food insecurity and limited means of coping with adverse weather.
Being able to transform agriculture to feed a growing population in the face of a changing climate without hindering the natural resource base will not only achieve food security goals but also help mitigate the negative effects of climate change.
Enquiries:
Selby Bokaba
Media Liaison Officer
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
E-mail: selbyb@daff.gov.za
Cell: 082 778 0245
