The recently formed North American Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance (Alliance) provides platforms for engagement, dialogue, knowledge sharing and application of climate science to the agriculture and forestry sectors.
Through the Alliance, farmers, ranchers and foresters across the North American continent will be able to collaborate with value chain, academic, government and other partners to share new adaptive management practices and production systems that can improve their resilience and reduce their risk from changing climate conditions.
The Alliance will serve as the interface with the parallel Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (GlobalAlliance) announced in September 2014 at the United NationsClimate Summit held in New York City. The Alliance was recently named to the Strategic Committee working to advance the work of the Global Alliance.
Alliance Chair Fred Yoder, Solutions from the Land’s (SfL) Co-Chair A.G. Kawamura and President Ernie Shea will represent the Alliance and present at the Global Forumfor Innovations in Agriculture (GFIA), a showcase of innovations and investmentopportunities in the field of sustainable agriculture in over 85 countries. GFIA is being hosted by the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi, March 9-11, 2015.
“Speaking at the GFIA and participating in the ministerial session and trade show will be a great way to hear what is happening in climate adaptation in agriculture, and showcase the leadership of North American agriculture and forestry,” Yoder says. “GFIA will also be the site of numerous side meetings and the Global Climate Smart Agriculture Summit.’
“It’s exciting to be a part of the initial meeting of the Global Alliance’s Strategic Committee, knowing that it represents millions of farmers, and an even greater number of undernourished people,” Yoder continued. “The Global Alliance has set an ambitious goal to enable 500 million farmers to practice climate smart agriculture production within 15 years.”
Yoder and Kawamura have spoken about the convergence occurring in the agro-forestry sector. “Through our work on the Solutions from the Land initiative we heard a new levels of concern among farmers, about the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, the shifts in the level of risks they face in their growing seasons and the magnitude of challenges farmers around the world are facing to feed a burgeoning population.”
“Of course there is this underlying desire to use their key resource, land, and other inputs in ways that will protect them for the future. But now there is a seriousness that we can’t wait any longer to become the agents of change. Farmers see hungry faces in their own communities and around the world. It’s sobering. There’s this new comradery though, that we can adapt and change up our game. We believe it’s the beginning of a new era in agriculture.”
