Agriculture is key to food and a solution to the climate crisis, affirms IICA

The agriculture is a key factor for food safety global and an important part of the solution to the climate crisis, which is why it must be an actor with a strong presence in the climate negotiations, said this Wednesday the director general of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Manuel Otero.

Prior to his participation in the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP28) to be held in Dubai from November 30 to December 12, Otero highlighted that the agri-food sector in the Americas is particularly vulnerable to the climate crisis. and at the same time constitutes the support of food security, which is why “can never again be absent from global environmental negotiation forums.”

Otero emphasized that agricultural activity has a marginal responsibility for global greenhouse gas emissions and that despite this, there is a consensus between producers and the public agricultural sector on the importance of acting in coordination to confront the climate crisis.

“If we take the emissions per hectare from agricultural production in general, including deforestation, Latin America and the Caribbean have fewer emissions, measured in carbon dioxide equivalent, than the European Union. “This has been achieved with a great effort of science and technology and other public policies and, above all, with the courage and determination of the producers and workers of the agri-food systems.”Otero stated in a statement.

The director general of IICA assured that agriculture is the only sector that can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and at the same time make a fundamental contribution to mitigating the climate crisis, as it is a net carbon sink.

“Latin America and the Caribbeanwith its wealth in natural resources, is and will be, under any future scenario, a strategic actor in global food and environmental security,” he claimed.

Otero explained that the expectation of the agri-food sector of the Americas at COP28 is that it be recognized that agriculture is a sector particularly vulnerable to climate change, strategic for the livelihoods of millions of people around the planet, and is part of the solution to the climate crisis.

“The region’s agri-food systems are not failed, as some narratives try to argue. That doesn’t mean there aren’t things to improve. There is still a lot to do and problems to solve.”he expressed.

Otero recalled that currently in the region there are about 43 million people who suffer from hunger, more than 133 million who cannot access a healthy diet and more than 110 million obese adults.