Recommendation 17

HM Government Acknowledged

Accept To promote sustainable agriculture to deliver inclusive economic development and sustainable food security, poor and vulnerable countries whose food security and growth depend on agriculture investment and transformation, need increased support for the sector. This is the case in particular in those countries most affected by the exacerbating impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Our agriculture portfolio pursues the dual objective set out in our Agriculture Development Policy6 of promoting food security while also helping smallholders to benefit from sustainably increased incomes. Our new International Development Strategy7 reiterates our commitment to develop lasting solutions to challenges in the global food system. Our British Investment Partnerships and humanitarian assistance help build resilient food security and drive sustainable transformation in the longer term. For example, at this year’s Commonwealth Summit and at the G7 Leaders’ Summit held in June, the UK pledged £372 million8 in aid to provide immediate and longer-term relief to countries on the frontline of this crisis. This also includes £133 million for research and development partnerships with world-leading agricultural and scientific organisations, £37 million for the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development, and £17.7 million through the FCDO’s Green Growth Centre of Expertise to improve the effective use of fertiliser and increase food production in countries. The UK also recently allocated a further £10 million to the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP)9, bringing the UK’s total contribution to £186 million as the fourth largest donor to this global initiative that was created in 2009 specifically to provide rapid, inclusive and sustainable solutions to food security crises such as this one, with a focus exclusively on the poorest and most vulnerable countries. The UK has co-chaired and shaped this global initiative over the past few years to deliver maximum impact for poor people’s food security while transforming the food system and greening the agriculture sector, through direct public and private sector finance, technical assistance, and support to producer organisations. This new UK funding will be spent on immediate actions to drive green agriculture investments and to help mitigate the scale of the emerging humanitarian emergency. GAFSP is also currently preparing further support for governments and farmers associations for the best proposals submitted for two calls for proposals, to be launched at UNGA.10 In our COP Presidency year and beyond, the UK Government is committed to leading the way on global climate action. We have supported initiatives designed to assist smallholder farmers in the most climate vulnerable countries to adopt sustainable and resilient agricultural practices and to secure access to local markets. For example, the FCDO’s Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders and Agribusiness programme (CASA) works with producer organisations and agri-businesses in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia to increase sourcing of agri-food products from smallholder farmers and to help farmers adopt climate-smart and productivity-enhancing agriculture technologies. The most recent review of the FCDO’s commercial agriculture portfolio11 found that: • 20 million farmers had their incomes improved, earning a total of £320 million more, and four million smallholders had increased their agricultural productivity. • The majority of programmes are focused on strengthening farmers’ access to domestic markets, reflecting the portfolio’s focus on small-scale producers. • Since 2011, FCDO’s commercial agriculture programmes have accounted for almost half of FCDO’s results Key Performance Indicator 1 of the UK’s International Climate Finance results framework (number of people supported to better adapt to the effects of climate change), demonstrating the important role that well-designed commercial agriculture programming can play in supporting rural communities to adapt to the effects of climate change.