Food security and agriculture should be at the center of the debate at the UN climate change conference later this year, said the head of FAO and the French agriculture minister. “We believe that agriculture in the broad sense – including forestry, fisheries and aquaculture – can and must play a central role in addressing climate change, particularly in adapting its impacts, such as water scarcity, soil salinity or increasing pests and diseases of plants and animals,” said FAO director general Graziano da Silva during an event in Rome. “It already is impacting food security and making hunger eradication more difficult.”
French Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll called for innovations that “allow us to be more economical and consume less energy” in agriculture. Da Silva said 80 percent of the world’s poorest people live in rural areas and are heavily affected by climate change. The climate change conference is scheduled to open on Nov 30.