Liberia: FAO Urges Strong and Effective Action

FAO

At the end of activities marking the celebration of World Food Day (WFD) in Liberia, the Country Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has called on food security actors including the Government of Liberia to take more appropriate actions to mitigate the impact of climate change by supporting sustainable and climate smart agriculture gender and environment sensitive.

Speaking in Saclepea, Nimba County on November 2016 during the WFD exhibition, Mr. Marc Abdala stressed that to achieve the theme of this year WFD "Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too," requires more awareness raising and support to increasing farmers' production.

He said: "We need to ensure that farmers have enough to produce at the same time protect the forest and other natural resources. We also need to ensure that they produce the right crops."

Mr. Abdala mentioned that as we discussed the eradication of hunger, malnutrition and poverty, we need to ensure that nobody is left out. Therefore we should particularly consider the effective involvement of the youth and women who are pivotal but also in many cases the most vulnerable.

International and political commitments needed to end hunger. The FAO Representative disclosed that at the Maputo Agreement in 2003 and the Malabo conference in 2014, agriculture was prioritized as an engine to address food insecurity, malnutrition and poverty.

He emphasized that to urgently address the problems of inequality and injustice, countries need to put into place policies that guarantee equal rights, access and use of the natural resources as well as settling of land disputes.

"International efforts towards climate change actions and support need to be "action-oriented" and geared towards effective implementation of the commitments made by countries such as the COP21/Paris Agreement in last December 2015."

He said: "Countries need to nurture and promote the spirit of mobilization which prevailed in the various international meetings and effectively ensure increasing climate change funding, developing expertise and ensuring the transfer of technology to countries and most specifically those at risks. This will contribute to building countries local capacity to adaption and mitigation to climate change manifestation and potential shocks."

He mentioned that rural smallholder producers need to become more resilient to the impacts of climate change as the smallholder producers are the source of food for their families and communities, but are vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Pulse, the food for the future

Highlighting the importance of 2016 International Year of Pulses (IYP), Mr. Abdala said Pulses/beans have tremendous advantages for their nutritious values highly comparable to sources of animal protein and even better.

"Leguminous are well known for their high quality nutritious value but also their capacity to improve soil fertility and conservation."

As the world population is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, it is urgent that we adequately choose what we grow and what we eat in order to ensure good health for all.

Furthermore, Abdala wants for government and partners to shoulder the responsibility to develop more sustainable and equitable food systems, end hunger, promote healthy diets, reduce waste and conserve biodiversity while adapting to climate change and mitigating it effects.

"The signing of the Country Programming Framework (CPF) with the Government of Liberia demonstrates our willingness to work with the Government and partners to reduce poverty, hunger and malnutrition through an inclusive sustainable smart climate change and transformative agriculture," he concluded.