A coalition of donors, aid institutions and philanthropy promised yesterday to invest more than US $650 million to help 300 million smallholder farmers in developing countries including those in Bangladesh adapt to the impacts of climate change.
This big investment pledge came at a time when climate change is already eroding crop and livestock production in places like South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
The investments from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the European Commission, Switzerland, Sweden and Germany are part of a broader commitment of more than US $790 million to address the impact of climate change on food and agriculture.
The announcement came yesterday at the United Nations Climate Action Summit as a response to a call to action from the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA) urging world leaders to mount a massive effort to adapt to conditions that are now inevitable. The GCA is co-chaired by Bill Gates, former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva.
The funding will be funneled through CGIAR (formerly known as consultative group for international agricultural research), which has long been working for the benefits of smallholders across regions including South Asia and Bangladesh.
CGIAR is a global research partnership dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources for smallholder farmers in the developing world. Investments in CGIAR have proven to be highly cost-effective, generating returns upto $17 for every $1 invested, with significant economic benefits for producers and consumers.
CGIAR’s 15 research centers are working as a single unit under its flagship ‘Two Degree Initiative for Food and Agriculture’. This ‘Two Degree’ effort is helping small-scale food producers across the globe adapt their farming systems, livelihoods, and landscapes to weather extremes and embrace production practices that lower emissions.
CGIAR’s research mandates include readying climate change ready-rice – for instance – new “scuba rice” varieties that survive under water for up to 17 days and potentially benefit 18 million farming households and save millions more from hunger.
During floods, farmers in Bangladesh and India lose up to 4 million tons of rice per year—enough to feed 30 million people.
Submergence can affect rice crops at any stage of growth, either short-term (flash floods) or long-term (stagnant flooding). The chances of survival are extremely low when completely submerged during the crop’s vegetative stage.
Improved varieties incorporated with the SUB1 gene (that withstand flood situation) have shown a yield advantage of 1–3 tons following flooding for 10–15 days. Flood-tolerant varieties that have been released and are now being planted include Swarna Sub1 in India, Samba Mahsuri in Bangladesh, and IR64-Sub1 in the Philippines.
CGIAR experts are also developing solar-powered irrigation pumps for large-scale distribution in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The pumps are to be deployed alongside advanced information systems to ensure they can help farmers sustainably adapt to increasingly unreliable rains, but without stressing available water resources.
The move comes at a time when government in Bangladesh just charted out a roadmap envisaging plan to replace a third of the countries over 1.3 million diesel-run irrigation pumps by solar pumps.
Elwyn Grainger-Jones, Executive Director of the CGIAR System Organization said: “The new investments announced today (yesterday) are a recognition that we have just 11 growing seasons between now and 2030 and farmers need a host of new innovations to overcome a growing array of climate threats. This new funding is an important start towards a global effort to substantially increase support for CGIAR activities.”
The investment pledged include, among others: $310 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, $150 million from the World Bank, $110 million from the Netherlands, $100 million from the United Kingdom, $33 million from Switzerland, $35 million from the European Commission, and $16 million from Sweden.