UNGA president calls for urgent action to address unsustainable agriculture

Volkan Bozkir, president of the Seventy fifth session of the UN Widespread Meeting, tacklees The general Meeting Extreme-diploma Dialogue on Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought On the UN headquarters in Ny, on June 14, 2021. Volkan Bozkir on Monday referred to as for pressing movement To deal with unprimarytainable agriculture. (Eskinder Debebe/UN Photograph/Handout by way of Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, June 14 (Xinhua) — The president of the Seventy fifth session of the UN Widespread Meeting (UNGA), Volkan Bozkir, on Monday referred to as for pressing movement To deal with unprimarytainable agriculture.

“We should pressingly tackle unprimarytainable agriculture, Definitely one of many primary drivers of desertification, land degradation and drought,” the UNGA president, or the PGA, informed The general Meeting Extreme-diploma Dialogue on Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought held On the UN headquarters in Ny.

“I name on member states to conduct nationbroad dialogues on agricultural reform forward of the Meals Methods Summit this September,” he said. “Making sure food safety for 9.7 billion people by 2050, whereas assembly The completely different goals of the Paris Settlement, Shall be potential Provided that we scale up land restoration and regeneration To rework our food systems.”

The PGA warned that half of all agricultural land is degraded — and unable to primarytain any Sort of life — threatening the livelihoods and safety of over three billion people.

“The scarcity of healthful land is driving extinction and intensifying local climate change, as healthful land is the world’s biggest carbon sink,” he said.

“And by no means using a change in course, This will solely Worsen. By 2050, worldbroad crop yields are estimated to fall by 10 %, with some struggling As a lot as a 50 % discount. This will Finish in A sharp 30 % rise in world food prices, threatening progress on hunger and vitamin, As properly as to a myriad of associated enchancment goals,” said Bozkir.

The PGA said that over half Of worldbroad GDP relies upon on land assets. If extra arable land is misplaced, hundreds of hundreds of farmers hazard being plunged into poverty, probably displacing 135 million people by 2045, and growing The hazard of instability and rigidity.

“Healthy land is the world’s Greatest water filter. However right now, land degradation, and resultant droughts and local climate change, are intensifying the incidence of wildfires. From 2018-2020 alone, wildfires have devasaid roughly 30 million acres of land Inside The worldbroad north and south,” he said.

“We should unite right now To raise the significance of land factors and construct momentum forward of the three upcoming cop-diploma summits on land, biodiversity and local climate,” said the PGA, noting that solely the UN has the world-broad capacities To deal with holistinamey the pressing worldbroad problem of land restoration. Finishitem