Food Security and Climate Change: A Copenhagen Call for Commitment and Preparation
Frank A. Hilario
November 19, 2009
Leaders from all over the world will meet shortly in Copenhagen for the UN Climate Change Conference. We call on them, as they seek agreement on a global response to the challenges of climate change, to recognize and address the specific threat that it poses to the world´s food security.
The negative impact of climate change on agriculture, and thus on the production of food, could well place at risk all other efforts to mitigate and adapt to new climate conditions. The magnitude of change now being forecast, even in relatively optimistic scenarios, is historically unprecedented, and our agricultural systems are still largely unprepared to face it.
Farmers will encounter problems they have never before experienced: much greater weather variability, higher average temperatures, increased numbers of extremely hot days, shorter growing seasons, much greater moisture stress, added salinity from salt water incursion and irrigation systems, and new combinations of pests and diseases.
Getting agriculture ready for such dramatically new growing environments is not a trivial matter. No one should assume that success is guaranteed. For agriculture to adapt, crops must adapt, but there is no "climate change gene," no single characteristic, that can ensure that they will retain, much less increase, their productivity in new climates. Concerted adaptation efforts will be required crop-by-crop, country-by-country and internationally.
Crop diversity is the raw material for crop adaptation. This diversity, primarily found today in seedbanks, contains the traits that plant breeders and farmers will need to incorporate into tomorrow´s resilient, climate-ready crop varieties. Agriculture—and people—cannot do without it.
Current institutional and financial arrangements, however, are inadequate to guarantee conservation of this priceless resource. Indeed, diversity is being lost – diversity that almost certainly holds the key to future crop adaptation. Moreover, the time required to integrate new traits into crop varieties can be a decade or more. We cannot wait for disaster before initiating action.
Fortunately, ensuring the availability of crop diversity is entirely feasible technically, financially and politically. Small investments made now will soon generate enormous and recurring benefits even if climate change is far less pronounced than is now widely anticipated.
No credible or effective agreement to address the challenges of climate change can ignore agriculture and the need for crop adaptation to ensure the world´s future food supplies. We urge countries at the Copenhagen Conference to give due attention to crop diversity conservation and use as an essential element of the commitments they will make for climate change adaptation.
Mark Alley, USA
* President of the American Society for Agronomy
* Professor of Agriculture, Virginia Tech University
Per Pinstrup Andersen, Denmark
* World Food Prize Laureate, 2001
* Former Director-General of International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Pamela Anderson, USA
* Director General, International Potato Center (CIP)
* Former Senior Entomologist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
David Battisti, USA
* Former co-Chair of the Science Steering Committee for the U.S. Program on Climate (US CLIVAR)
* Professor of Atmospheric Sciences University of Washington
Bernard Le Buanec, France
* Former Secretary General of the International Seed Federation
* Member of the French Academy of Agriculture
Teresita Borromeo, Philippines
* Chair of the Rice Technical Working Group of the National Seed Industry Council
* Professor, Crop Science Cluster, University of Philippines, Los Baсos
Marcel Bruins, Netherlands
* Secretary General, International Seed Foundation
* Former Manager of Plant Variety Protection, Seminis Vegetable Seeds
Maggie Catley-Carlson, Canada
* Former President of Canadian International Development Agency
* Member of the United Nations Secretary General Advisory Board on Water
Colin Chartres, Australia/Britain
* Director General, International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
* Former Chief Science Advisor to Australia's National Water Commission
Bob Clements, Australia
* Former Executive Director, Crawford Fund for International Agricultural Research
* Former Chief of Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Division of Tropical Crops and Pastures
Lew Coleman, USA
* Founding President of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
* Former Chairman Bank of America Securities
Sir Peter Crane, United Kingdom
* Former Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
* Dean of Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
William Dar, Philippines
* Director General, ICRISAT
* Former Secretary of Agriculture (Philippines)
Jorio Dauster, Brazil
* Board Chairman of Brasil Ecodiesel
* Former Ambassador of Brazil to the European Union
Keith Downey, Canada
* Research Scientist Emeritus and Adjunct Professor of Crop Science, Agri-Food Canada
* Canadian Agriculture Hall of Fame, 2002
Ruben Echeverria, Uruguay
* Director General, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
* Former Executive Director, Science Council of the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
Gebisa Ejeta, Ethiopia
* World Food Prize Laureate, 2009
* Distinguished Professor of Agronomy, Purdue University
Adel El-Baltegy, Egypt
* Chair of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR)
* Former Director General of the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA)
Walter Falcon, USA
* Professor Emeritus of International Agricultural Policy, Stanford University
* Former Member of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger
Cary Fowler, USA
* Executive Director, Global Crop Diversity Trust
* Former Head of Secretariat, International Conference and Programme for Plant Genetic Resources of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations
Emile Frison, Belgium
* Director General, Bioversity International
* Former Director, International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain
Walter Fust, Switzerland
* CEO/ Director General of the Global Humanitarian Forum in Geneva
* Former Director General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)
Amy Goldman, USA
* Board Chair, Seed Savers Exchange
* Board Member, New York Botanical Garden
Hartwig de Haen, Germany
* Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, University of Gцttingen
* Former Assistant Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations
Hartmann, USA
* Director General, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)
* Former Professor and Director of International Programs, University of Florida
Geoff Hawtin, United Kingdom
* Former Director General of the International Plant Genetics Resource Institute (IPGRI)
* Former Director General of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
Vernon Heywood, United Kingdom
* Emeritus Professor in the School of Plant Sciences at the University of Reading
* Former Director of Botanic Gardens Conservation International
Masaru Iwanaga, Japan
* Director General, National Institute of Crop Science, Japan
* Former Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
Gurdev Khush, India
* World Food Prize Laureate, 1996
* Former Head, Division of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biotechnology, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
Kay Killingsworth, USA
* Former Secretary-General, World Food Summit
* Former Assistant Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations
Norman Looney, Canada
* Chair, Global Horticulture Initiative
* President, International Society for Horticultural Science
John Lovett, Australia
* Chair, Cooperative Research Centre for National Plant Biosecurity
* President, Australian Agronomy Society
Frank Loy, USA
* Former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs
* Former Chair of the Conference of Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
Thomas Lumpkin, USA
* Director General of International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
* Former Director General of the World Vegetable Center (AVRDC)
Chebet Maikut, Uganda
* Vice-President of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF)
* Former MP (Uganda)
Gian Tommaso Scarascia Mugnozza, Italy
* President, Italian National Academy of Sciences
* Cavaliere di Gran Croce Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana
Paul Munyenyembe, Malawi
* Head, Plant Genetic Resources Centre (SPGRC), South African Development Community
* Head of Department, Bunda Collge, University of Malawi
Zachary Kithinji Muthamia, Kenya
* Head, National Genebank of Kenya
Godfrey Mwila, Zambia
* Former Chair of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations
* Former Head, National Genebank, Zambia
Rosamond Naylor, USA
* Director, Programme on Food Security and the Environment, Stanford University
* Professor, Environmental Earth Science, Stanford University
Karl Erik Olsson, Sweden
* Former Minister of Agriculture (Sweden)
* Former MP (Sweden) and MEP
Jim Peacock, Australia
* Former Chief Scientist, Australia
* Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Lifetime Achievement Award, 2005
Sir Ghillean Prance, United Kingdom
* Former Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
* Fellow, Royal Society
Cal Qualset, USA
* Former President American Society of Agronomy
* Former Director of the Genetic Resources Conservation Program at University of California, Davis
Kenneth Quesenberry, USA
* President, Crop Science Society of America (CSSA)
* Professor, Forage Breeding and Genetics Department of Agronomy, University of Florida
Rudy Rabbinge, Netherlands
* Chair, Science Council of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
* Senator, National Parliament of the Netherlands
Peter Raven, USA
* President and Director, Missouri Botanical Gardens
* U.S. National Medal of Science, 2000
Roberto Rodrigues, Brazil
* Former Minister of Agriculture (Brazil)
* Former Chair of the World Committee on Agricultural Cooperatives
Pedro Sanchez, Cuba/ USA
* World Food Prize Laureate, 2002
* Director of Tropical Agriculture at the Earth Institute, Columbia University
Rajaram Sanjay, India
* Former Director, Wheat Program, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
* Recipient of Chinese Friendship Award
Papa Seck, Senegal
* Director General, Africa Rice Center (WARDA)
* Former Chair of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)
Carlos Serй, Uruguay
* Director General, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
* Former Regional Director International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
Henry Shands, USA
* Former Director of the USDA-Agriculture Research Service (ARS) National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation
* President of the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST)
Emmy Simmons, USA
* Former Assistant Administrator for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade (EGAT) at USAID
* Co-Chair, Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability of the National Academies
Paul Smith, United Kingdom
* Head, Millennium Seed Bank, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
* International Editor, Oryx Journal
Mahmoud Solh, Lebanon
* Director General, International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA)
* Former Director, Plant Production and Protection Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations
M.S. Swaminathan, India
* First World Food Prize Laureate, 1987
* Former Minister of Agriculture, India
Bert Visser, Netherlands
* Director, Centre for Genetic Resources the Netherlands (CGN)
* Former Chair of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA)
Joachim von Braun, Germany
* Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
* Former Professor of Food Economics and Policy at Kiel University, Germany
Ren Wang, China
* Director, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
* Former Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS)
David Williams, USA
* Coordinator of the CGIAR System-wide Genetic Resources Program
* Former International Affairs Specialist, Foreign Agricultural Service, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Andrew Westby, United Kingdom
* President, International Society for Tropical Root Crops
* Director of Research, Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich
Mohamed Zehni, Libya
* Former Director, Plant Production and Protection Division, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations
* Former Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Libya to the United Nations Organizations
Robert Zeigler, USA
* Director General, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
* Time Magazine Global Innovator Award, 2007
This is a press release. To download the original: Food Security and Climate Change: A Call for Commitment and Preparation (croptrust.org)
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