The agricultural sector makes steady progress at COP29 and foresees a “bright” future, but challenges persist and must be overcome

A debate on the future of agriculture, its role in food security, climate variability mitigation, economic development and political and social stability emerged as one of the highlights of the deliberations at COP29, the largest environmental negotiation forum on the planet.

The conversation took place at the House of Sustainable Agriculture of the Americas, the pavilion set up by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) at the Olympic Stadium in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan and host city of COP29. The participants included IICA Director General Manuel Otero; Ohio State University Professor Rattan Lal (Nobel Peace Prize and World Food Prize winner and considered the world’s leading authority on soil science); CAF-Development Bank for Latin America and the Caribbean Director of Climate Action Ignacio Lorenzo; Belize’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Security José Abelardo Mai; and Andrea Porro, Secretary General of the World Farmers’ Organization (WFO).

The Deputy Director General of IICA, Lloyd Day, moderated the debate, which addressed the challenges facing agriculture and food security and the need to produce more and more with less. This agrifood agenda has also played a leading role at the Baku COP.

Otero, who opened the discussions, recalled that a large city with an average population of 10 million requires 6.000 tons of food per day, reaffirming the strategic importance of sustainable, productive, efficient and inclusive agriculture for the preservation of social peace. “We need to produce more food with less nature, recognizing the new challenges facing agriculture. And to overcome them, it is essential to take advantage of science, technology and innovation and facilitate their access to family farmers,” said the Director General of IICA.

Otero indicated that the next 25 years until 2050 will be more important and decisive in the history of agriculture than the last 10.000 years. “We will have to feed 2 billion more people in a context of new challenges,” he said. Lloyd Day recalled that farmers have always overcome these challenges and now they will overcome the challenge of producing more with less land and less water.

Minister Mai, in the same vein, recalled how the Green Revolution of the United States geneticist Norman Borlaug made it possible to abandon theories that indicated that population growth would push part of humanity towards food shortages. “Problems have emerged, but not the ones we thought. Now, it is important to educate young people about the future and formulate strong policies to support climate-smart and sustainable agriculture. We need incentives to mitigate, incentives for producers,” said Mai.

Professor Rattan Lal, IICA Goodwill Ambassador, expressed more than just a conviction, he expressed a certainty: “I am honored to know that agriculture has a bright future.” However, he listed soil degradation as a challenge and highlighted the need to restore it. Lal, one of the world’s leading scientists, also called for “respect for the profession of farmers and their ecosystem services” and agreed with Minister Mai on the importance of “educating children about the importance of agriculture.” He also called for farmers to be paid for sequestering carbon.

Andrea Porro said that “the voice of farmers must be heard” and called for improvements in access to finance to drive climate action. “Climate finance for smallholder farmers is not sufficient in many countries, and the ambition to support our farmers to grow must be a major goal. They are more than producers, they are members of society, they have solutions that must be heard and they must also be supported,” she explained.

Lorenzo, from CAF, emphasized the importance of inter-institutional collaboration, indicating the importance of financing from entities such as IICA, “which understands technical cooperation to develop new production models and understand the diversity of the sector.” “We seek to build partnerships to bring additional income to producers, to conserve, to reduce emissions; to provide innovative financing,” he said.