Moroccan Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, M. Aziz Akhannouch, has called on African countries to invest more in agriculture as he believes the sector has immense potential to address the huge impact of climate change that the continent is currently experiencing.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that agriculture is responsible for over a quarter of total global greenhouse gas emissions. Given that agriculture's share in global gross domestic product (GDP) is about 4 percent, these figures suggest that agriculture is highly greenhouse gas intensive. But Akhannouch said innovative agricultural practices and technologies can play a role in climate mitigation and adaptation.
The Minister said adaptation and mitigation potential is nowhere more pronounced than in African countries, where agricultural productivity remains low; poverty, vulnerability and food insecurity remain high; and the direct effects of climate change are expected to be especially harsh.
Therefore, he said, creating the necessary agricultural technologies and harnessing them to enable African countries adapt their agricultural systems to changing climate will require innovations in policy and institutions. In this context, institutions and policies are important at multiple levels. He noted that his country has been working in this direction for years now.
Source - http://www.freshplaza.com
