March 25, 2014

Source: World Farmers' Organisation

How do you cope with increasing extreme weather events? How can a farmer adapt to drought, heavy rainfall or flooding? These are some of the questions that inspired the workshop “More Crop per Drop” organized by the World Farmers’ Organisation and World Meteorogical Organisation (WMO), Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases and Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP). The event was attended by Mr Robert Carlson, President, WFO, H.E. Hayden Montgomery, Ambassador, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr Robert Stefanski, Chief WMO, Mr Bart Vrolijk, Counselor, Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands, Dr Daniel Caldiz, Principal Scientist, McCain Foods Limited.

Several experts shared their experiences from different angles and parts of the world about the impact of climate change on agriculture is clear, the adaptation strategy and what can the farmer do to improve resilience. They discussed about the need of support from research, government or other stakeholders and how climate services can help them to mitigate the adverse impact of climate change. At the centre of the workshop also the meteo services, soil and water management from the perspective of farmers and the effective measures against the climate change.

"WFO has climate change adaptation and mitigation as a high priority for action because farmers are among the very first professions to feel the effects of a changing climate – said WFO President, Robert Carlson –. It will affect our crops and livestock production negatively and will impact world food security if we fail to adapt by raising yields and saving natural resources. We will continue to work through the UN process to get agriculture recognized as a priority, but in the meantime, we are working with scientists and the private sector to make more efficient use of water and crop nutrients. Our sessions today gave farmers practical solutions to the complex problems of a changing climate”.
 

Published: March 25, 2014