PRESS RELEASE: FAO to Partner with FARA

PRESS RELEASE: FAO to Partner with FARA and Continental Institutions to Push African CSA Agenda
Maize under irrigation to avert drought

Maize under irrigation to avert drought
04/12/2020. ACCRA – The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has pledged its commitment to providing support for Africa’s climate-smart agriculture agenda. Speaking at the Biennial Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) stakeholders conference organized by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, Dr. Ade Freeman, Regional Program Leader, FAO Regional Office for Africa, called on FARA to lead the charge to drive the continental CSA agenda. Dr. Freeman also indicated FAO’s readiness to provide financial support to FARA and the continental institutions for the realization of the climate-smart agriculture agenda.
“We invite FARA to take the lead and FAO will be happy to work with you…and to put some money behind this and make sure that when we meet the next time we will be talking about concrete initiatives to influence investment… to drive the African CSA agenda”
Dr. Freeman (below) also charged the stakeholders to fast-track what needs to happen to how we can get it done. This revolves around mechanisms, institutions and processes that are required, policies that need to be put in place, platforms that need to be established not only to share information but also to hold discussions around translating policies into actions. He called for focus on integrated approaches and synergy in objectives.
According to the FAO Regional Program Leader, the FAO and African Development Bank (AfDB) have been discussing ways to link the available knowledge and the technical assistance to the needed investment to drive climate-smart agriculture in Africa. He underscored the importance of synergy in the approach to addressing the resource needs for climate change issues.
“If FAO is talking about technical assistance and the AfDB is talking about investments, it’s not going to happen. We need to bring these two together. The goal is to link the knowledge, the policy, the technical assistance with investment, and this includes investment from the private sector. We have the capacity to do so…”
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Date Published:
Monday, 07 December 2020