Arusha, Tanzania | The philanthropies are seeking approximately 4.3 trillion US dollars to fund the transition of global agriculture to agroecology over the next ten years.
This was revealed at the conference on regenerative, agroecological, and food systems transformation, which concluded last week in Arusha, Tanzania.
Farley Sara, vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation, stated that the transformation will cost 4.3 trillion US dollars, with 430 billion required annually.
“Total current investment is US44 billion per year; we are appealing to philanthropies, governments, private partners, and other well-wishers; we need a systemic and sustained approach to addressing the interlocking crises that we are facing; the cost of a climate biodiversity crisis, food security, and inequality is already being felt by governments, taxpayers, and the most vulnerable,” Sara stated.
The global Alliance for the Future of Food is leading the engagement process, and it is a strategic alliance of philanthropic foundations working with others to transform global food systems now and in the future.
Lauren Baker, Deputy Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Foods, believes that through philanthropic leadership and civil society organisations in Tanzania, the necessary funds can be leveraged as a group to transition.
“We know that we need ten times the amount of funding to properly transition to regenerative and agroecology approaches, as a group our job is to make a case and talk to other funders and make sure the funds are put to the right use,” she said.
She further explained that they will build a connected movement with countries that are developing national strategies as a guide to the action.
Jasmin Hundor, the senior advisor on Agroecology at GIZ observed that from 2014 to last year, GIZ invested €800 million on 80 projects globally for agroecology, noting that East African countries of Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania have their area of Focus.
“We have come to listen to the demands of the different governments to be able to align strategies of the transformation agenda.”
Daniel Moss, the president of the Agroecology Fund, observed that they are committed to supporting grassroots initiatives for small-scale farmers that address food systems.
Dr John Garcia Ulloa, senior program Manager at Biovision Foundation notes that two critical areas need to be focused on, that is the coordination of the different foundations and also the element of finance and investment to achieve the target.
He also said that through proper coordination it will be easy to mobilise resources to fund the transformation and also avoid duplication of resources.
“The strategy is providing the elements, for this strategy to make a difference to transform the food systems we need resources, to strategies creating a market, strengthening network and building capacities,” Garcia said.
The Host government of Tanzania has committed TZshs 1.248 trillion for the financial year 2024/2025 to transform into agroecological farming.
The permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture Gerald Geofry Mweli said the government of Tanzania values the contribution of ecological agriculture in creating sustainable food systems.
It has been noted by the scientific community that Ecological Organic Agriculture can be among the vehicles towards achieving national and international goals of achieving food security, employment, and poverty reduction.
Thus, Tanzania through The National Ecological Organic Agriculture Strategy of 2023 – 2030, and other policies has set actions for sustainable utilisation of land and water sources for agriculture, the use of climate resilient agriculture practices, and conservation of forests, and other natural ecologies to advance food and nutrition security and safety, climate resilience, biodiversity as well as income and job creation.
“We collaborating with Development Partners, UN-based agencies, and Civil Society Organizations, to plan and implement various interventions on agroecology, supporting smallholder farmers in practising agroecology, access to local and global organic and agroecological markets,” the PS added
Swati Rendudintala of World Agroecology Center CIFOR-ICRAF, Kenya notes that the approach should be reaching out to more farmers and tapping on the experiences of small-scale farmers for inclusivity.
“We want to accelerate the process of regenerative and agroecology, we must take it to the farmers through collaborative approaches,” Swati stated.
“Indigenous communities, local women and small-scale farmers are a bedrock in the solutions to achieve sustainable food systems,” Michael Kwam Nkonu of the IKEA foundation said.
Frison Emile, the senior advisor of the agroecology coalition re-echoed from last year’s convening that was held in Rome, they have not yet moved.
“That is the reason we are here for this meeting, we want to identify a clear path and the different types of actors being government, and private sector to identify the different roles they play in accelerating the food systems transformation,” Emile noted.
Background
The agroecology principles apply to all forms of sustainable agriculture and food production systems including crops, livestock and pastoral systems, agroforestry, fisheries, and aquaculture.
The 13 principles of agroecology as defined by the high-level panel of experts of the committee on World Food Security and aligned with the 10 elements of Agroecology adopted by the 197 FAO members in December 2019.
The philanthropic partners who are participating in this initiative to address the issues related to global food and agriculture at different scales, on diverse issues, and from multitudes of perspectives are, the Africa Climate Foundation, Agroecology Fund, Biovision Foundation for ecological development.
Others are Global Alliance for Future of Foods, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Climateworks foundation, European climate foundation, funders for regenerative Agriculture, Communications Foundation, IKEA foundation, among others.
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