Addis Ababa: The government of Ethiopia has been implementing various homegrown initiatives with a view to mitigate the impacts of climate change and ensure food security of the people, Minister of Agriculture Girma Amente remarked.
The minister made the remark at the opening of High-Level Side Event on the margins of the 14th Session of the African Risk Capacity Conference of Parties in Addis Ababa.
The High-Level Panel aims to convene a diverse array of stakeholders, including policymakers, executives and representatives and experts of continental institutions to share lessons, build on existing strengths, and address the multifaceted challenges that the African food system faces.
The meeting will also addresses the interlinkages between climate change and food systems for food security, and resilience in Africa by fostering dialogue and knowledge exchange on climate-smart agricultural practices, technologies, and policies as well as resilience building efforts that enhance food security while mitigating
climate change impacts.
Attempting to identify Africa’s major opportunities and challenges in implementing climate-smart solutions and resilience building efforts at national, regional, and continental levels is also the other objetive.
Ethiopia’s Agriculture Minister Girma Amente said on the occasion that despite Africa is endowed with immense resources vital to ensuring food security; the continent has still been suffering from the harsh impacts of natural and manmade disasters.
However, he said Ethiopia is exerting efforts in order to alleviate the negative impacts of climate change and ensure food security in the country by implementing various homegrown development initiatives.
The minister mentioned the ongoing Green Legacy Initiative which has so far enabled the nation plant more than 32.5 billion tree seedlings stating that the objective is to reach 50 billion at the end of 2026.
The initiative is playing critical role in increasing the forest coverage of the country, he added.
The Minister has
also shared Ethiopia’s success registered in wheat development program that was initiated by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed pointing out the national wheat irrigation development currently underway on 3 million hectares of land across the country.
Girma said Ethiopia is sharing its success being registered in wheat development to other African countries.
Ethiopia has also been implementing National Food System Roadmap with view to successfully achieve efforts being carried out to ensure food security, the minister stated.
He called on African nations to strengthen cooperation in order to fight the impacts of climate change and food insecurity.
Source: Ethiopian News Agency