India Signs up for Sustainable Agriculture Action Agenda at COP26

Update: The Centre clarified two days after the report that India has not signed up for the agenda as it already has a National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture in place. 

As the COP26 summit moves ahead, more countries are making new commitments to do their part to protect the environment. The recent pledge has been to make agricultural practices more sustainable. India signed up for the ‘Sustainable Agriculture Policy Action Agenda for the Transition to Sustainable Agriculture and Global Action Agenda for Innovation in Agriculture’ in the COP26 climate conference, with 26 other countries.

The commitment was made at the conclusion of the first week of the COP26 summit. The nations vowed to change their agricultural policies to become more sustainable and less polluting. It also included investment in the science required for sustainable agriculture and for increasing food security in the face of climate change.

This announcement follows Ocean Action Day of over 10 countries signing up for the “30by30” target that aims to protect 30 percent of the world’s ocean by 2030. The countries included India, Bahrain, Jamaica, St Lucia, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Samoa, Tonga, Gambia and Georgia, with over 100 more countries supporting the target.

Image: Copernicus/EU

Alok Sharma, the Indian-origin UK cabinet minister, in his role as the President of COP26, said;

The commitments being made today show that nature and land use is being recognised as essential to meeting the Paris Agreement goals, and will contribute to addressing the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Meanwhile, as we look ahead to negotiations in week two of COP, I urge all parties to come to the table with the constructive compromises and ambitions needed.

Signing up for sustainable agriculture, there were 27 countries that included India, Australia, Uganda, Madagascar, Netherlands, Tanzania, Vietnam, Nigeria, Morocco, New Zealand, Lesotho, Laos, Spain, Switzerland, Indonesia, Guinea, Ghana, Germany, Philippines, Ethiopia, UK, Colombia, Costa Rica, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the UAE.

This specific pledge makes a lot of sense for India while posing some challenges as well. Almost 60 percent of the country’s population is employed by the agricultural sector, which contributes about 17 percent of the total GDP of the country. Sustainable agricultural practices will help the country in more crop yields, but India will require the essential tools and the science to achieve this target.

How much will these countries be able to achieve – only time can tell. But one thing is certain that if the world puts its economic benefits ahead of environmental health, the doomsday is not far away!

Via: Times of India