On the third day of CSAYN’s participation at COP23, we were on the panel for the UN System Side Event: ‘Climate action for food security: Harvesting adaptation and mitigation benefits in the land sector’. The key focus was “What particular support do young farmers need to increase action towards more risk-informed sustainable food production and agriculture.
Ms. Tania from WFP highlighted that global hunger is on the rise due to climate related disasters and mentioned that it posed major threats to food security and high levels of environmental degradation. She mentioned that it was of great importance to analyze hunger effects of climate change and migration. She also raised the point that it was important to work together and create partnerships so as to achieve all SDGs by 2030 and leave no one behind.
Mr. Tekini Nakidakida, with his case study, mentioned the importance of research in pests and diseases for it is a major cause of migration. He highlighted the issue of marginal land restoration, which have been degraded by the processes of erosion and intensive fertilizer use. He mentioned that restoration of land was very important for agriculture contributes to food security. He spoke about his partnership with a delegation negotiating on soil health, nutrients deficiency and socio-economic & gender.
Mr. Divine Ntiokam gave a brief description of the work of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSAYN). He mentioned the first support the young people need is Capacity Building so that they are empowered. The second thing he mentioned was ‘space’ translating to youth involvement. He gave an example of IFAD funding CSAYN in their involvement at COP23. The last point that he raised was funding that is required to implement projects. For example, he spoke about the translation of SDGs into local languages the network has undertaken, which is bringing about great information flow amongst youth in the various countries.
Ms. Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim spoke about how indigenous people, rather than fighting for food security, were fighting for food sovereignty. That is, having diversity in food sovereignty. She mentioned the need for right to land and land tenure being very import for food security. She emphasized that justice and rights should be based on equal access to the resources for everyone. If there is land then it is easy to achieve food security for land forest is the indigenous community’s supermarket.
Ms. Katia Araajo highlighted that rural women and girls were being affected by the impacts of climate change yet they rely on that land and resources to have sustainable livelihood. There is therefore need for policies and strategies that mainly focus on the role women are playing and which give them the right they deserve. They should be empowered so as to participate in different land use and land tenure. Women should have access to information and technology in cases of adaptation and mitigation.
Green Climate Fund has the mandate to allocate funds on adaptation and mitigations on Climate Change. Land user rights and food security is key to them. Mr. Juan Chang highlighted that funding for green projects is already underway putting into consideration women empowerment, indigenous knowledge and youth participation. He also emphasized the importance of evaluation and implementation of projects after they are given funds.
Professor Sifulu mentioned that GIS and RS complement each other to predict crop production and RM can also be used to predict the future. He highlighted that Science and Technology is a very important tool, which can be used for crop modeling, rainfall patterns, water quality and quantity. He mentioned that RS helps identify climatic changes using bands and algorithm, He mentioned the importance of scientific research to predict the future.
During the Side Event, CSAYN rolled out a Live Video Feed on Facebook that streamed the live proceedings of the event. It was coupled with an online discussion with youths who were given the opportunity to ask questions through the platform and get the panelist to respond through the live feed. We got 52 live views with 6 questions coming from the viewers.
