CropLife Asia Supports UN FAO Call for Food & Agriculture to "Change" along with Climate to Meet Growing Demands
14 Octobre 2016 - 7:40AM
JCN Newswire (English)
Plant Science Technology Highlighted as Key "Tool in the Toolbox"
for Smallholder Farmers
SINGAPORE, Oct 14, 2016 - (ACN Newswire) - As Asia and the world
prepare to mark World Food Day, CropLife Asia expressed its strong
support for the 2016 theme put forth by the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO) - 'Climate is changing.
Food and agriculture must too.'
The impact of climate change is increasingly being felt by our
farmers, as the number of extreme weather events each year
continues to rise. In 2013 alone there were 880 such events -
representing a 40% increase over the 30-year average.
At the same time, our population is growing. Estimates suggest the
world's population is set to eclipse nine billion inhabitants by
the year 2050, and Asia alone is projected to have one billion more
people calling it home than do today. Within just 10 short years,
an additional 60 million men, women and children will be living in
Singapore and the rest of ASEAN.
As the population continues to rise, so too do the demands we're
placing on smallholder farmers to feed more people. Factor in the
agricultural impact of climate change, less available water and
arable land, more pests and diseases to combat, and the
catastrophic affect weather-related events bring to disrupt the
fragile balance smallholder farmers depend on - and the task at
hand is that much more daunting.
Among the global regions, Asia has the smallest-sized farms and the
largest number of smallholder farmers. It's estimated that 85% of
the world's 525 million smallholder farmers live and work within
our continent - around 100 million alone in ASEAN.
"Enabling the smallholder farmers of Asia to produce more with less
is a pursuit the plant science industry takes seriously, and a
responsibility we share with our fellow food chain stakeholders
across the region," said Dr. Siang Hee Tan, Executive Director of
CropLife Asia. "Climate change presents a formidable challenge for
our region's smallholder farmers. Innovative plant science
technologies are changing the game and increasingly becoming an
essential tool in the toolbox towards a sustainable solution."
To meet demands, growers around the world will need to produce more
food - as much as 70% more than today - while reducing the
footprint of farming. The technology of plant science is a key
resource in making that possible. Crop protection products prevent
nearly 40% of global rice and maize harvests from being lost every
year. Meanwhile, biotech crops helped slow the advance of climate
change by reducing carbon emissions. It is estimated biotech crop
plantings in 2013 alone lowered carbon dioxide emissions equivalent
to removing 12.4 million cars from the road for one year.
About CropLife Asia
CropLife Asia is a non-profit society and the regional organization
of CropLife International, the voice of the global plant science
industry. We advocate a safe, secure food supply, and our vision is
food security enabled by innovative agriculture. CropLife Asia
supports the work of 15 member associations across the continent
and is led by eight member companies at the forefront of crop
protection, seeds and/or biotechnology research and development.
For more information, visit us at www.croplifeasia.org.
Source: CropLife Asia
Contact:
Duke Hipp
Director, Public Affairs
CropLife Asia
Tel: +65 6221 1615
duke.hipp@croplifeasia.org
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