CAIRO: Officials at the World Food Program (WFP) urged world leaders to take quick action with regards to climate change after the number of hungry people reached a record of 1 billion due to the changing weather conditions affecting food production and water availability.
“Climate change isn’t theoretical anymore; the growing severity of weather-related disasters is a reality for many people and villages, as climate change has raised hunger numbers as we speak, said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the WFP.
“We need real solutions for real people, she added.
According to WFP statistics, the number of hungry people increased by 150 million in the last 24 months; by 2050, the number of malnourished children is expected to reach 24 million.
People directly affected by climate change have reached 600 million with annual economic losses of $300 billion; 70 percent of today’s disasters are climate-related, up 50 percent from 20 years ago.
WFP organized a virtual panel Wednesday on climate change and world hunger days while world leaders met in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Summit.
The UN organization aims at highlighting the link between climate change and hunger, and the importance of its partnership with governments to help communities adapt to climate change.
“The community needs to be resilient to this change, and the challenge of building this resilience will have to involve the entire world system from farms where food is produced to homes where food is consumed, Sheeran said.
Phil Bloomer, Oxfam policy director, says that there is a more hidden disaster that needs to be tackled urgently.
“The insidious nature of climate change is producing erratic rainfall that people can’t predict the seasons when to plant or if they should plant at all, Bloomer said.
According to Sheeran, most of the developing world lacks food safety as there is no ability to meet these increasing needs when they hit.
“In the long-term, food demand would increase globally by 50 percent by 2020, Alex Evans, author of the Chatham House report “The Feeding of the Nine Billion: Global Food Security for the 21st Century, said.
“There will also be an increase in the demand for energy as well as an increasing competition for land, he added.
Sheeran said that this is a peace and stability concern as well.
“People wouldn’t cooperate with efforts to restore peace while they suffer from hunger, she said.
Is Egypt vulnerable?
Although Egypt contributes with less than 0.5 percent to the global emissions of greenhouse gases (gases that cause climate change) a mere rise of 3.3 feet (one meter) would flood a quarter of the Delta, forcing about 10.5 percent of Egypt’s population from their homes, according to a World Bank report.
Studies carried by the Agricultural Research Center (ARC) showed that higher temperatures will result in a decrease in the harvest of maize by 19 percent, wheat by 18 percent, rice by 11 percent and soybean by 28 percent; the only exception will be cotton which will increase by 17 percent because it thrives on heat.
Experts predict that high demand on water and low quantities available will decrease the productivity of crops as well as the type of crops grown in Egypt.
“We worked in sections of Egypt where the land didn’t produce enough food to really ensure that farmers get access to sufficient food to feed their families, Sheeran said, in response to Daily News Egypt’s question.
Sheeran said that the WFP is working with Egypt on developing innovative food that can be important to and culturally appropriate for the region.
Researchers at ARC are focusing on conducting adaptation studies in order to discover suitable plants that have a short life span, choose plants that can endure dryness, high salinity and high temperatures, and change the farming cycle.
Samia El Marsafawy, vice president of Soil, Water and Environment Research Institute (SWERI), previously told Daily News Egypt that an adaptation study they conducted last year succeeded in decreasing the loss in the corn harvest from 21 percent to 1 percent by changing a factor inside the plant, making the crop yield in May instead of June
“We need to focus on climate proofed food; for example, Egypt helped us ramp up production of date bars for Gaza, power packed nutrition that can provide nutrition in situations where access to water is vulnerable, as they had access to food but none to water or fuel to cook it, Sheeran said.
A call for action
However, panelists remained positive on the future of world hunger.
“This isn’t a call for desperation but a call for action, Sheeran said.
Twenty years ago the WFP joined forces with the Chinese government to plant a billion trees to produce their own crops which eventually resulted in China no more receiving food aid from the agency.
Sheeran also cited a successful campaign in Mali to plant 40,000 trees to stop the desertification of agricultural lands which resulted in villagers growing enough food and even asking for packing technologies in order to be able to export their products.
“We need to study the relationship between climate change and human vulnerability; exactly when and where people are most vulnerable, Sheeran said.
During the past three years, the WFP succeeded in cultivating and rehabilitating 250 million hectares of land, rehabilitating 20,000 reservoir water harvesting methods and planted 180 million trees.
“We are in need of massive effort by the international community, local governments, and communities themselves to produce low carbon emissions, develop agricultural systems with high levels of productivity and allow food to be fairly distributed to those in need, Bloomer said.
According to Evans, successful policy action like stabilizing average global warming to 2°C, developing more efficient ways of sharing food or making growth equitable in developing countries can reduce the impact of climate change.
“One of the key findings of the report was that making trade systems more fair and resilient alone would reduce the number of hungry people by 20 percent, he said.
“We call on world leaders to ensure community-based adaptation and robust humanitarian response, Sheeran said.
African potential
Although Africa is ranked as one of the most important hunger hot zones in the world, experts say that the solution lies within the continent as a potential home for food outsourcing.
Many countries, including Egypt, started to invest in farmlands in African countries in what was termed as “global land grab where a country buys a certain area of land, reclaims it and shares the crops with the host country according to the agreement.
“It isn’t bad, our only call is that there are enough benefits for the farmers and that it would be a win-win investment for the villagers, Sheeran said
“The production shouldn’t be for export only but farmers must be able to earn enough and have enough food to feed their villagers as well, she added.
Countries like Brazil, Argentina and Kazakhstan, famous for producing more food, welcome investments in reclaiming farm lands.
“The world needs to double food production and we can’t reach that goal without African farmers and [they] must be a key part of this resolution, Sheeran said.
