At COP-17 in Durban, Agriculture is Playing a Starring Role

The second event focused on the Presidential Feed the Future Initiative and featured talks by USAID Food Security Chief Scientist Julie Howard, Dubale Admasu, from the USAID Mission in Ethiopia, Charles Hopkins from CARE Ethiopia, and Director of USDA’s Climate Change Program Office, Bill Hohenstein.

The event opened up with an overview of the $3.5 billion program and how it’s going to be used to raise incomes and reduce malnutrition among the 925 million who suffer from hunger, how agriculture can be used to drive economic growth, and how all of this can be done in an environmentally stable way. At the heart of Feed the Future is the agricultural research strategy, which focuses on sustainable intensification, and encompasses three “big ideas” including developing climate-resilient cereals, addressing key crops and animal diseases, and seeing major gains in grain and legume productivity.