Investment Forum for Advancing Climate Resilient Agrifood Systems

The 'Investment Forum for Advancing Climate Resilient Agrifood Systems' was launched by the NITI Aayog, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW), Government of India and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.

• Initiative was launched during a two-day Multi-stakeholder Meeting on January 18-19, 2024, at the India International Centre in New Delhi. 
• The main goal of the initiative is to establish a partnership strategy and investment plan that will promote climate resilient agrifood systems among the government, private sectors, farmers’ organisations and financial institutions in India.

Climate change and agriculture

• Agriculture is responsible for contributing a little over 13% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the country, which contributes to climate change. However, agriculture can also help in carbon sequestration by planting trees on farmland. 
• Climate change has severe consequences for India, especially for its economically vulnerable rural population who rely heavily on climate-sensitive agricultural livelihoods. 
• Indian agriculture is vulnerable to extreme temperatures, droughts, floods, cyclones and soil salinity. 
• To integrate climate change into agrifood systems, it is essential to have larger investments from global climate finance, domestic budgets and the private sector. 
• This forum aims to identify national priorities and policy platforms to finance climate-resilient agrifood systems. 
• The forum enables key stakeholders to provide insights into various opportunities that can be leveraged through regional collaboration on climate-smart food system initiatives. 
• It also proposes possible arrangements to maximize resource consolidation, catalytic findings and support large-scale climate advocacy campaigns.

About Food and Agriculture Organisations (FAO):

• FAO, which stands for Food and Agriculture Organization, is a specialized agency of the United Nations. 
• Its main focus is on global food and agricultural matters and it leads international efforts to prevent hunger. 
• Every year on 16th October, World Food Day is celebrated to commemorate the anniversary of the establishment of FAO in 1945. 
• The headquarters of FAO is located in Rome, Italy and the current Director General is QU Dongyu 
• India is one of the founding members of FAO.