Disease-Resilient Crops |
As climate change
and disease continue to affect crops worldwide and threaten food
security, experts are meeting in Kigali at a crop development meeting
proposing solutions to these threats through resilient varieties.
The meeting by the
Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources
for Food and Agriculture started Monday and closes Friday.
The meeting convened participants from over 140 countries signatories to the treaty.
The Treaty was
adopted to ensure conservation and sustainable use of all plant genetic
resources for food and agriculture and the fair and equitable sharing of
the benefits arising out of their use, in harmony with the Convention
on Biological Diversity, for sustainable agriculture and food security.
According to FAO's
2016 report on State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) titled, Climate
Change, Agriculture and Food Security, the sheer number of smallholder
farm families in developing countries - some 475 million - justifies a
specific focus on the threat posed by climate change to their
livelihoods and the urgent need to transform those livelihoods along
sustainable pathways.
It underscores that
success in transforming food and agriculture systems will largely
depend on urgently supporting smallholder farmers in adapting to climate
change.
Farmers raise issues
Karwa Amani, the
president of COOPROMASA, a cooperative of maize farmers in Gatsibo
District, said they face diseases such as armyworm, and drought which
affect their maize crops, which have resulted in crop yield reduction.
"Our yield reduced
from 200 tonnes in 2014 to about 140 tonnes in 2016," he told The New
Times, calling for efforts to ensure crops resilient to diseases and
drought.
Majory Jeke, a
farmer from Zimbabwe, said the theme of the seventh forum, "The 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development and the role of PGRFA," is pertinent
and timely.
"It is relevant
particularly now when we, as farmers in developing countries, are
experiencing extreme weather events caused by climate change, which is
leading to extreme hunger and poverty," she said.
While opening the
forum, the Minister for Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr Gerardine
Mukeshimana, noted that crops are attacked by diseases that even attack
people, including those caused by virus, bacteria, fungus, nematodes,
all kinds of living disease-carrying organisms.
She said the main objective is to develop varieties which have disease resistance or disease tolerance.
And the crop
disease issue is getting worse owing to climate change, as changing
temperatures are becoming a breeding area for disease agents among
crops, the minister added.
Dr René
Castro-Salazar, the assistant director-general for climate,
biodiversity, land and water department at FAO, said there is difference
between nature's time and the diplomatic time, expressing the need to
act quickly to tackle the issues of crop diversity and productivity.
"Above all, we are here because the world and the UN committed that, by 2030, there should be zero hunger," he said.
Ann Tutwiler, the
director-general for Bioversity International, a global research for
development organisation, said [plant] genetic resources do not
contribute to food security by "sitting in cold storage rooms."
"They (genetic resources) need to be used and improved and widely disseminated to [farmers] to have an impact," she said.
It is the first time this conference is held in sub-Saharan Africa.
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