Global food crisis must be solved alongside climate crisis: Leaders at WEF

The war in Ukraine has exacerbated food insecurity worldwide due to precarious supply chains increased fertiliser prices and blocked grain exports leaders said at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting here on Tuesday and called for resolving the global food crisis alongside the climate crisisInstability in Ukraine is threatening to intensify an already precarious global food security outlookIncreasing prices of fertilisers and inaccessibility of Ukrainian exports have made a delicate situation potentially dire as 800 million people are now estimated to go hungry each night Russian blockades of Ukrainian ports have further intensified world leaders focus on worsening food insecurityFailure to open the ports is a declaration of war on global food security said David Beasley Executive Director United Nations World Food ProgrammeThe pandemic had already complicated global efforts to reduce famine and food insecurity and those challenges have only intensified with the conflict in UkraineWere taking food from the hungry to give to the starving said Beasley about the recent conditionsAt a panel discussion leaders also said food insecurity is a problem not only for public health but also for geopolitics and securityThere is a risk that shortterm efforts to combat food shortages could come at the expense of meeting climate and sustainability targets given the interconnection between agriculture and climate changeGlobal food production contributes more than a third of greenhouse gas emissions and efforts to ramp up food supply could worsen emissions and reliance on fossil fuelsInnovative technologies and regenerative techniques can improve agricultural productivity according to expertsAgriculture has to be part of the solution to climate change and the solution for food security said J Erik Fyrwald CEO Syngenta GroupHe said the goal must be growing more food on less land and to do so farmers can employ best practices from both organic and conventional farmingHe advised that EU food policy reforms that shift away from a focus on organics towards targets on productivity and emissions reduction could better address the current crisisSome leaders opined that Africa can play a major role in improving global food security but the continent faces multiple challenges to unlocking agricultural productivityIf we dont silence the guns its not going to work said Philip Isdor Mpango VicePresident of Tanzania regarding the goal of increasing agricultural productivityHe pointed to the continents young population with roughly 70 per cent of the population aged 25 or younger and the need to include youth in improving agricultural productivity We must strategise so we have the youthful population involved in agricultural value chainsViet Nam is also experiencing the current food crisis alongside intensified effects of climate change such as rising sea levels and saltwater intrusionThe nation has a plan to become a food innovation hub in SouthEast Asia said Le Minh Khai Deputy Prime Minister of Viet NamDoing so requires a holistic approach that balances shortterm and longterm strategies and involves multinational organisations entrepreneurs investors and farmers the leader saidBoth wealthy and developing nations have a key role to play particularly given that food production must increase more than 60 per cent by 2050 to feed the world and solving the global food crisis is everyones business said Mariam Mohammed Saeed Al Mheiri Minister of Climate Change and the Environment United Arab EmiratesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever