IFPRI’s Shenggen Fan argues for climate-smart agriculture policies

December 4, 2015

The Crawford Fund’s chief executive, Dr Denis Blight, recently paid tribute to Sir John Crawford’s significant contributions to international agricultural research for development. Sir John was the first chairman of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), which this year is celebrating 40 years of ongoing dedication to international agricultural research. The IFPRI’s mission is to “provide research-based policy solutions that sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition”.

As the world’s leaders meet in Paris for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, IFPRI Director General Shenggen Fan makes the case for climate-smart agriculture to not only reduce global warming but also fight hunger, in his latest Huffington Post blog, ‘Climate-Smart Agriculture Is Key to Ending Hunger.’

Noting his own experience in China, Fan writes, “Hunger, we now know, results not from food shortages but from policy failures.”

Many policy actions that can reduce carbon emissions in agriculture—from reforming trade and subsidy policies to supporting new farming practices such as no-till and drip irrigation—also reduce hunger.

“We need a new green revolution that can reduce agriculture’s carbon footprint, empower women, and generate a productive agricultural sector that can nourish everybody in the world,” Fan writes.

You can view Shenggen Fan’s blog here.
To read Dr Blight’s blog on Sir John Crawford, click here.