·¬ÇÑÉçÇø

By Gabriel Ferrero / Gabriel Ferrero is strategic advisor to the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of AgFunderNews.

----

Although food security is recognized as a fundamental priority under the Paris Agreement, agriculture and food systems have long been sidelined in climate negotiations.

This neglect persists even though farming and land use are among the sectors most vulnerable to climate impacts—especially smallholder farmers and small-scale food producers more broadly. And while agriculture is a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, it is also a powerful potential source of solutions.

Agrifood systems receive just 4.3% of total climate finance. Smallholder farmers, who produce up to 80% of food in developing countries, only receive 0.3%— a striking imbalance, given their role in feeding the world and their exposure to climate impacts.

It is also a missed opportunity: agrifood systems can cut emissions, restore ecosystems, safeguard water, and store carbon, while generating livelihoods for smallholders and rural communities.

What COP30 can learn from Brazil

This year’s UN climate talks in Brazil—a country home to 10 million smallholders and architect of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty—offer a pivotal chance to change course. To meet global climate and developmental goals, we must put smallholders at the center of climate action.

On November 7, world leaders at COP30 will endorse the Belém Declaration on Hunger, Poverty, and Human-Centered Climate Action, a significant step toward empowering those who feed the world yet suffer most from climate impacts to help deliver a sustainable future.

Inspired by President Luis Lula da Silva’s Fome Zero strategy in Brazil, the Declaration calls on leaders to follow Brazil’s lead and place social protection and smallholders at the heart of climate action.

Over the course of two decades, Brazil has shown what is possible when policy, innovation, and investment align behind sustainable family farming.

The country dramatically increased agricultural productivity, transforming from a net food importer to a leading exporter and lifting millions of people out of poverty and food insecurity. It also put measures in place to curb deforestation through social programs and investment in climate-smart innovation.

Through programs such as Fome Zero—which integrate rural development and social policies to combat hunger and poverty with support for smallholders—Brazil showed that growth, environmental protection, climate resilience, and poverty reduction can reinforce one another.

A pioneering model for public and private investment 

COP30 is a chance for countries to learn from this success and back sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture with real finance.

Every climate dollar invested in smallholders and small-scale producers is among the most effective ways to advance multiple development goals.

There is a tall mountain to climb: smallholders receive just a small fraction of financing for climate, but proven models can close this gap while delivering climate adaptation and mitigation co-benefits.

For example, for more than 15 years, the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) has leveraged its donor funds in order to deliver outsized impact. Some $2.5 billion has been mobilized to improve the food security of more than 30 million people in the most vulnerable communities in low-income countries.

Through its different financing tracks—government-led, producer-organization-led, and private sector financing windows—GAFSP offers a pioneering model for de-risking public and private investments in agriculture and creating new markets for agri-food producers in low-income countries.

While nearly half of its funds directly support climate actions, GAFSP alone cannot change the trajectory that enables small-scale producers to have the access to climate finance they need.

Moreover, to impact simultaneously on the livelihoods and resilience of smallholder farmers, as well as on environmental protection, integrated programs and finance are essential. Siloed sectoral interventions, which have been the norm for too long, lack the potential to deliver the multiple benefits that smallholder farmers can provide.

Mobilizing the broader climate and development finance architectures in an integrated way, including financial intermediaries and aggregators in the private sector that can be averse to risk, can unlock integrated investment support at scale to countries, smallholder farmers, and small- and medium-size agrifood businesses.

Only then can agrifood systems deliver better livelihoods, nutrition, climate resilience and empowerment for women and youth.

Bridging the divide between development and climate finance

To this end, GAFSP is exploring how to join forces with global climate funds under its emerging Vision 2030 Strategic Plan to bridge the traditional divide between development and climate finance. This will deliver coordinated support for governments, producer organizations, and the private sector.

These are the foundations of a broad, potentially transformative alliance between development and climate funds. Together, these are capable of accelerating the transition of food systems to end hunger and malnutrition, protect the planet, and secure a prosperous future for the 800 million small-scale producers who feed the world.

In a year of tightening budgets and rising needs, few investments deliver such high returns compared to putting smallholders at the core of climate action.

As leaders adopt the COP30 Belém Declaration, the challenge will be to translate its bold vision into concrete investment through global platforms such as GAFSP that can transform the lives of hundreds of millions suffering from hunger and food insecurity.