Not so smart Climate Smart Agriculture

Written by Administrator Wednesday, 23 May 2012 13:40

PCFS is preparing a special report on the World Bank’s new big project: Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA). The World Bank is presenting CSA, a project primarily targeted at small-scale farmers and food producers, as the solution to the threats posed to food security from climate change impacts on agriculture and poverty. PCFS is concerned about the real implications of the projects which will undermine small-scale farmers and provide little benefits in return for high investments.

The special report will highlight the main concerns raised by the CSA Projects. Firstly the linking of agriculture with carbon markets – a prospect objected to during COP-17 by hundreds of civil society organisations in an open letter to leaders. This will be a costly endeavour which offers little returns for small-scale farmers and increases the risk of land invasions as land becomes increasingly commodified. CSA also diverts attention and responsibility for unsustainable agriculture from the industrial agri-corporations to small-scale farmers.

PCFS calls for carbon markets to be dropped from the agriculture agenda and for food sovereignty principles to be held up in their place. PCFS also calls for more action to be taken to stop unsustainable farming practices by industrial agri-corporations.

The Special Release will explore these issues in detail. It will be published in May 2012.