Liberia, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania and the United States confirmed last week their intention to join the Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture (GACSA). At the August 4 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit event entitled “Resilience and Food Security in a Changing Climate,” Secretary of State John Kerry announced the United States’ intention to join GACSA and encouraged African countries to participate. The event highlighted the nexus of food security, climate change, and resilience – issues that are of particular concern among African nations, where much of the population, relying on rain-fed agriculture, is especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change on rainfall patterns and seasonal temperatures.

Slated for launch at the UN Secretary General’s Climate Summit on September 23, GACSA is expected to engage a range of government, multinational organizations, private sector, farmers and civil society stakeholders to achieve sustainable increases in agricultural productivity, greater resilience and a reduction of agriculture-related greenhouse gas emissions.

The United States supports climate-smart agriculture globally through its Feed the Future and Global Climate Change initiatives. This year, USAID initiated ten new Feed the Future Innovation Laboratories to increase global food security and help smallholder farmers boost incomes and improve nutrition. These laboratories draw the expertise of top U.S. universities and developing country research institutions, and will tackle some of the world’s most challenging agricultural research problems with the premise of introducing safe, environmentally sustainable proven and appropriate technologies to the world’s most vulnerable people.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the establishment of seven regional climate hubs to deliver information to farmers, ranchers and forest landowners in the United States to help them adapt to climate change and weather variability.

The U.S. State Department also supports targeted programs that advance climate resilience and food security throughout the world including through contributions to the multilateral Least Developed Countries Fund and Special Climate Change Fund and through support for the Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s new Agriculture Initiative.

 

Full text of the joint announcement:

Statement of Endorsement for a Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture

The Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity includes, in Section VI, a Commitment to Enhancing Resilience of Livelihoods and Production Systems to Climate Variability and other related risks. This commitment is consistent with the aspirations of those supporting the founding, later this year, of the Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (GACSA).

Liberia, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, and the United States announce our intention to:

• Join and support the Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture expected to be launched in September of this year at the UN Secretary General’s Climate Summit.
• Urge other countries, along with civil society organizations, private sector representatives, farmer organizations, and other enterprises to join the Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture to help fulfill our shared aspirations for strengthened global food and nutrition security and resilience.

Source: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/230610.htm