A billion people go hungry every day. The problem is particularly severe in Africa where one in three of those without sufficient food live. It is why I intend today to concentrate my remarks on the challenge within Africa. The continent, the only one which fails to grow enough food to meet its own needs, has paid a heavy price for the neglect of its agriculture.

Thirty years ago, some 18% of all official development assistance was directed towards improving agriculture. In 2008, that figure had fallen to just 3%. African farmers found themselves cut off from the knowledge and resources needed to improve their crops and farms. Poor management of land and water resources, along with weak national and regional economic and infrastructure links, has also held back agricultural development. The result is, Africa alone has failed to see agricultural productivity keep pace with its growing population.

The continent also faces the greatest threat from climate change. Climate change is an all-encompassing threat. Our food and water supplies, our health, our security, stability and prosperity are all at risk. We desperately need urgent, universal and fair measures to halt the build up of greenhouse gases and must hope the UNFCCC talks in Cancun move us towards this goal.

Climate change will inevitably worsen and accelerate for decades to come. Rising temperatures and changes to rainfall patterns will have a particularly devastating impact in sub-Saharan Africa because of its heavy reliance on rain-water for crops. By the end of this century, yields from rain-feed farmlands are forecast to fall by as much as 50%. Semi-arid land is predicted to rise by between five to eight per cent.

These damaging changes are taking place in a continent where 80 per cent of the population – some 500 million people south of the Sahara - depend on farming to support and feed their families. Many of them are women and almost all of them are working on small farms of two hectares or less. They, and the rural poor as a whole, are the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Yet tragically, they are the group, of course, who have done least to cause it and have benefited little from the economic growth and prosperity it has brought.

Without concerted action, we will see many more people forced to leave their land, increased famines, tensions and instability. The impact of failure will go far beyond Africa. We will not meet our hopes for a fairer, more prosperous and peaceful world. We can not under-estimate the scale of the challenges that must be addressed or the consequences if we fail.

But nor should we despair. Africa’s small-holder farmers are both resilient and resourceful. With access to the knowledge resources and skills necessary to adapt to climate change and increase productivity, they can rise to the challenge. Indeed they already are. Thanks to greatly improved yields – partly because of improved access to affordable fertilizers, – Malawi has not only met its food needs for the last four years but has been able to export surplus to its neighbours. Rwanda’s food production has increased successively by 13 and 17 per cent over the last two years.

Helping provide this access to knowledge and new crops – and the investment to support it – is the goal of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa or AGRA . I am proud of AGRA’s work, with our partners at the national and international level, to begin to turn these ambitions into reality on the ground. Our focus on smallholder farmers, staple crops and key breadbasket areas is helping not only fight hunger but adapt to the challenges of climate change. For example, in Tanzania, the farmers in the southern highlands now plant early-maturing maize to escape the damage caused by an increasingly unreliable rainy season. This is the result of what we call ‘agro-ecology based breeding’ – using local knowledge to identify and breed new crop varieties. But it might just as easily be called ‘climate change breeding.’ In fact, localized crop genetic improvement and selection for crop performance will be essential to help farmers protect and increase yields.
 
AGRA is already experimenting with digital soil mapping and different applications of lime to soil, so the roots of plants can go deeper and access greater volumes of water. In West Africa, micro-dosing techniques are being used by over 300,000 farmers to achieve higher sorghum yields with only 1/3 of the recommended fertilizer.

As the climate becomes more unpredictable, farmers, for example, require reliable information about the weather. As I heard on a recent visit to Mali, they are already struggling with the dramatic climate variation. The speed and scale of climate change is making the traditional knowledge of when to plant and when to harvest, passed down through generations, much less accurate than in the past. Dry spells occur when there used to be rain. There are floods when it used to be dry. Global expertise has to be brought to help understand climate trends and emerging weather patterns.
  
We also need to put in place new water management programmes to address the increasingly urgent issue of water availability and sustainable use of water. This is particularly important for countries such as such as Niger, Ethiopia and Kenya, where access to clean water is predicted to decrease the most over the next ten years. Across sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, it is estimated that as many as 250 million people could face increased water stress by 2020.

Our long-term goal must be to develop a more sustainable model of farming which is neither the victim nor cause of climate change. For, of course, the agricultural sector is also a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. 

Despite received wisdom, there is increasing evidence that appropriate land use and more productive agriculture can reduce, rather than increase, emissions. We know, for example, that high yielding rice production systems have lower CH4 emission than lower productivity systems.By helping small-scale farmers access international carbon markets, we can provide fresh impetus and investment for these changes. Up to now small scale farmers have found themselves shut out from carbon markets because of cost and an inability to compete on a global scale. But there is, in fact, real potential through improved natural resource management for farmers to capture sufficient volumes of carbon so they can play a part and benefit.
  
At present the Clean Development Mechanism – the primary compliance market offset mechanism – excludes forest conservation, soil carbon capture and agro-forestry. These are the three major forms of carbon emission reductions that farmers can deliver. But there are other voluntary markets, which may be a more fruitful route for small holder farmers – particularly if buyers are willing to restore degraded lands and promote agro-forestry. Support for pilot projects in these areas will be essential as best practice is still developing. More research is necessary before it becomes a viable option. If we get this right, we will benefit from a double dividend. Africa’s farmers can be part of the global solution to combat climate change as well as enabling them to deliver food security.

Improving the productivity and sustainability of existing farmland will slow down the clearing of forests for cultivation. Improving depleted farm soils and crops will transform African farms from being carbon sources to being carbon sinks. But these changes do not come free. Africa’s farmers must be rewarded for both avoiding deforestation through intensified production on existing land, and for sequestering carbon through improved land use practices.

Indeed, the transformation of farming practices in Africa depends on providing the necessary mechanisms and sources of investment – something on which I know this conference is focusing. Meeting this investment shortfall is also the best way of achieving our wider ambitions.

According to the World Bank, every development dollar invested in agriculture in Africa has two to three times the positive impact on poverty than the same dollar invested in other economic sectors. Africa today needs new investment in agriculture on a par with that which Asia and Latin America received in the 1960s and 1970s. Their “green revolution” did not just avert widespread famine but provided the foundation for higher levels of development and economic progress in both regions. We need to re-examine and refocus international assistance to meet the investment needs of agriculture. The role of the private sector should also not be underestimated.

Many companies are already meeting their broader responsibilities through eco-efficiency, responsible investment and decent sourcing and working standards. There is no reason for the agriculture sector to be an exception to that trend.

Commercial farms and agribusinesses must also play their part in supporting and helping small farmers. Large scale farming systems, when acting responsibly, can and do play a pivotal role in the wider rural economy by sharing technical advice and helping smaller farmers access markets.

Solid and sustained investments in agriculture and strong partnerships across sectors will deliver food security, reduce poverty and help us combat climate change. I am sure that the Netherlands will continue to lead by example.

We need other countries, too, to join landmark initiatives such as the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme, hosted by the World Bank, which aims to find long-term solutions.

Feeding Africa, at a time of climate change, is one of the major development challenges of our time. But by working with Africa’s farmers and building partnerships to increase resources, share knowledge and focus efforts, it can be achieved.

By H.E  Kofi Annan,

Chairperson, AGRA.