1. Stockholm Environment Institute
Johan Rockström
Executive Director
Bridging science and policy

2. SEI bridges science
and policy
• Independent, international research institute
• Established by the Swedish Government 1989
• Headquarters in Stockholm
• Supports decision making in the field of
sustainable development

3. Stockholm Environment Institute

4. SEI research themes
• Reducing Climate Risk
• Managing Environmental Systems
• Transforming Governance
• Rethinking Development

5. Towards a Coherent Swedish Response to
International Agricultural Development under the mandate of the Policy
for Global Development (PGD)

6. agriculture matters
SIANI
Swedish International
Agricultural Network Initiative
Hands-on Training in Ex-Act,
A Climate Change Tool for Agriculture and Forestry
December 7-8th, 2011

7. www.siani.se melinda.sundell@sei.se
1. An independent, multi-stakeholder platform for
government, civil society, private sector, research
and education sectors
2. A network aiming to connect Swedish actors to
international policy processes related to agriculture
as driver of change in economic growth and
poverty alleviation, food security, climate change
and sustainable development.
agriculture matters
What is SIANI?

8. www.siani.se
melinda.sundell@sei.se
agriculture matters
How does it work?
Financed by Sida
Hosted by Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)
Guided by an Advisory Group independent of both Sida
and SEI (13 members; 3 academia, 2 private sector, 4 government and 4 NGO/Civil Society)
Coordinated by a Secretariat (2.5 tjänster + interns)
Responsive to member input and initiative

9. www.siani.se melinda.sundell@sei.se
agriculture matters
Potential Subject Matter
Areas

10. www.siani.se
melinda.sundell@sei.se
agriculture matters
What does SIANI do?
Organises and facilitates seminars and workshops
Facilitates expert groups and issue based clusters
Synthesizes the understanding of specific issues in the
form of policy briefs and concept notes
 Implements strategic initiatives at request of
government institutions
Facilitates dialogues, including member to member
contact on the website database

11. www.siani.se melinda.sundell@sei.se
agriculture matters
Agriculture, Forestry and Climate Change

12. Global forces underlying food insecurity
• Poverty amidst abundance
(effective demand for food)
• Increased pressure on natural
resources (planetary boundaries)
• Climate Change (extreme weather
events and global warming)
• Population pressure (more & older)

13. Events in Sustainable Development
300 BC: Aristotle
Recognizes a tragedy of
commons-type problem
and the need to
conserve resources
1700s: a reaction against
mercantilism fuels activity
within sustainable
development discourse
1800s:
concerns
surrounding
population
growth begin to
mount
1972: UN Stockholm
Conference on the
Human Environment
1987: Publication of the
Brundtland Report by the
World Commission on
Environment & Development
1992: UN
Conference on
Environment &
Development and
Agenda 21
2000: Adoption
of Millennium
Development
Goals
2001: Kyoto
Protocol
negotiations
and signing
2002: Earth
Summit in
Johannesburg

14. The Latest from COP 17

15. 1. Integrate Food Security and Sustainable
Agriculture into Global and National Policies
• Requires trend reversal (1700-2011)
• Energy issues dominate global environmental
conferences and policies
• REDD—where is agriculture?
Emissions from forests are largely caused by agriculture
So REDD+ is largely to be achieved in the agriculture sector
Which means that climate-smart agriculture should be included in
REDD+ strategies and finance

16. 2. Significantly raise the level of global investment
in sustainable agriculture and food systems in the
next decade

17. Why Invest in Agriculture?
• Food Security
• Poverty Alleviation
• Employment Creation
• Carbon Sequestration
• Develop infrastructure &
ease urban congestion
These are discussed in detail
in the IFAD Rural Poverty Report
2011
Total average contribution to poverty
reduction from growth of agricultural, remittance
and non-farm incomes in selected countries

18. Investment in the agricultural sector:
government spending and donor aid declining
Share of total government spending on agriculture
Year Africa Asia Latin America Total (Weighted
Average)
1980 6.4% 14.8% 8% 11.3%
1990 5.2% 12.2% 2% 7.9%
2002 4.5% 8.6% 2.5% 6.7%
Source: DFID/ World Bank 2007
Donor Aid to developing countries: Share of agriculture
1980 20%
1990 15%
2006 4%
Source: IFPRI, April 2009
18

19. Aid to agriculture is still relatively low
but may be reversing
Trends in aid to agriculture
Commitments 1973-2008, five-year moving averages and annual figures,
constant 2007 prices
Source: OECD-DAC (2010)
19

20. 3. Sustainably intensify agricultural production while
reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other negative
environmental impacts of agriculture
• Include smallholders in the new food markets, which requires,
among other instruments, greater access to land and skills for the
new agriculture.
• Improve productivity in subsistence agriculture and provide social
assistance, together with payments for environmental services to
create incentives for conservation.
• Follow a territorial approach to promote the rural nonfarm economy
and enhance skills to give access to the jobs and investment
opportunities offered by growth of the rural nonfarm economy.
(recommendations found in IFAD Rural Poverty Report, 2011)

21. Will Conventional Agriculture be
Sustainable and be able to feed the
planet?
• Water use
• Fertilizer problems (peak oil
and runoff/eutrophication)
• Energy quotients
• Competition with non-
food crops
Currently, on a global basis, 69% of all water withdrawn for human use on an annual basis is
soaked up by agriculture (mostly in the form of irrigation); industry accounts for 23% and
domestic use (household, drinking water, sanitation) accounts for about 8%. These global
averages vary a great deal between regions. In Africa, for instance, agriculture consumes
88% of all water withdrawn for human use, while domestic use accounts for 7% and industry
for 5%. In Europe, most water is used in industry (54%), while agriculture and domestic use
take 33% and 13% respectively. (UN Figures, 2003)

22. Is Organic Agriculture a solution?
• Given market and policy constraints, certified organic
agriculture needs to be paid a premium to be competitive
• One alternative is to change these constraints so that
price systems reflect such considerations as carbon
footprint, ecosystem services, etc.
• Traditional agriculture is often ‖poverty organic‖, but not
certified and suffers from low productivity and low levels
of investment, both in financial and managerial terms
• Still, traditional agriculture produces 70% of the food
consumed

23. 4. Develop specific programmes and policies to assist
populations and sectors that are most vulnerable to climate
change and food insecurity

24. Climate Change and Food Security
• Climate induced food shortages: The next great
cause of conflict?
• To the extent that climate change causes
migration, this is always a source of conflict
• Climate change can undermine livelihoods and
exacerbate food insecurity by increasing risk

25. Who’s causing the conflict?
• If GHG emissions are
seen to be major
drivers of climate
change, then,
somewhat simplified,
the industrialized
world is creating
conflicts in the
developing world (this is
the perspective of the African
Union)

26. 5. Reshape food access and consumption patterns to
ensure basic nutritional needs are met and to foster
healthy and sustainable eating patterns worldwide
• Calories are
available
• Some/most calories
are from
carbohydrates
• People are (or are
not) being nourished
• They do NOT tell us
who is accessing
food, how and why?
• How expensive is
food in relation to
total income?
• How much food is
being wasted?

27. Already existing calorie deficits are compounded
by water stress and climate-related falls in
productivity

28. The effect of consumer demand and food
preferences
• Food preferences are learned
and can prove difficult to
unlearn, even in the face of
information
• Optimizing nutrition is not
always affordable
• Eating is not scientifically
fueling the human body, it is an
emotional activity above all
• Boycotts only function with
items that can easily be
foregone or substituted

29. Urban Agriculture?
• Urban ‖agriculture‖ will never produce food
in enough volume to be economically
significant for most crops
• Development of agricultural methods for
limited land resource is important in
poverty reduction
• In spite of its complementary role to rural
agriculture, urban agriculture can play a
vital role in sensitivizing normal people to
the complexity of biological production and
the quality possible in fresh produce

30. 6. Reduce loss and waste in food systems, targeting
infrastructure, farming practices, processing,
distribution and household habits
Perhaps the most important area for several reasons:
• No major breakthroughs in technology
required, more a question of management and
organization
• No more production resources (land & water)
required
• Individual and local action is possible and
significant

31. Food Waste and Consumers:
50 Percent of Food is Wasted Causing Water,
Food and Hunger Crisis (www.siwi.org)
To meet the challenge of feeding growing
populations and the global hungry, massive
reductions in the amount of food wasted
after production are needed.
The Stockholm International Water Institute
(SIWI), the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
and the International Water Management
Institute (IWMI) released on Thursday,
August 21, a policy brief ―Saving Water:
From Field to Fork – Curbing Losses and
Wastage in the Food Chain,‖ that calls on
governments to reduce by half, by 2025, the
amount of food that is wasted after it is
grown and outlines attainable steps for this
be achieved.

33. Room for Improvement!
Food production &
Consumption unit are
the two areas with
most room for
improvement!

34. Differences between Rich and Poor
Countries

35. 7. Create comprehensive, shared, integrated information
systems that encompass human and ecologicial
dimensions
• More work for SEI. FAO and similar institutions

36. THANK YOU