FAO / FOOD SECURITY

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned today that the effects of slow-onset climate change are expected to have "potentially catastrophic" impact on food production in developing countries in future, calling for action to mitigate the adverse consequences. FILE

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:21
• Production Date: 31 March 2011
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION - FAO; UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - UNHCR; WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME - WFP
• Subject Topical: NATURAL RESOURCES; ENVIRONMENT; NUTRITION
• Geographic Subject: UNITED NATIONS STABILIZATION MISSION IN HAITI - MINUSTAH
• MAMS Id: U110331e

Description

STORY: FAO/ FOOD SECURITY
TRT: 1.21
SOURCE: FAO/ WFP/ UNHCR/ MINUSTAH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: NATS

DATELINE: FILE

Shotlist

FILE - UNHCR - 10 AUGUST 2010, SUKKUR DISTRICT, SINDH PROVINCE, PAKISTAN

1. Wide shot, men walking through water
2. Wide shot, mosque in the flooded water

FILE - MINUSTAH - 5 NOVEMBER 2010, LEOGANE, HAITI

3. Wide shot, people watching flooded street
4. Med shot, kids stranded on an isle on flooded street

FILE - FAO - 25, 31 MAY 2010, NIGER

5. Med shot, Ox tilling the field
6. Med shot, farmer walking among oxen
7. Wide shot, women working in the field
8. Wide shot, women carrying buckets of water
9. Med shot, women working in the field

FILE - WFP - 30 AUGUST 2010, RAJAMPUR, PAKISTAN

10. Med shot, off loading WFP wheat flour

FILE - WFP - 26 AUGUST 2010, KOT ADU, PAKISTAN

11. Various shots, WFP food distribution

FILE - FAO - DATE UNKNOWN, CONGO

12. Various shots, women farming

FILE - FAO - DATE UNKNOWN, BURKINA FASO

13. Zoom out, woman selling grains in market
14. Various shots, women cooking
15. Various shots, woman feeding children

Storyline

The effects of slow-onset climate change are expected to have “potentially catastrophic” impact on food production in developing countries in future, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned today (31 March), calling for action to mitigate the adverse consequences.

The FAO outlines steps that governments could consider in climate change negotiations to ensure that food security is not threatened. The agency recommends that food security be used as an indicator of vulnerability to climate change, saying that agriculture systems and the ecosystems it depends on are highly sensitive to climate variability and climate change.

Changes in temperature, precipitation and related outbreaks of pest and diseases can reduce production, with poor people in countries that depend on food imports particularly vulnerable, according to FAO.

FAO suggests that global climate change adaptation mechanisms include greater attention to risks arising from slow-onset impacts of climate change, particularly the effect on food security.

A key measure highlighted in the FAO submission is the need to develop staple food varieties that are better adapted to future climatic conditions. Plant genetic material stored in gene banks should be screened with future requirements in mind, and additional plant genetic resources – including those from wild relatives of food crops – should be collected and studied because of the risk that they may disappear, FAO recommends.

Climate-adapted crops such varieties of major cereals that are resistant to heat, drought, submergence and salty water, the agency suggests, stressing this should be done in ways that respect breeders’ and farmers’ rights, in accordance with the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources.