Agriterra, international specialist in cooperative development and the Danish Agriculture and Food Council (DAFC) / SEGES will be working together on sustainable intensive agricultural production as a solution to the climate challenge. The two partners have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on transfer of Danish knowhow and technology solutions to developing countries, and facilitating accreditation of an agricultural entity to the Green Climate Fund (GCF). Danish & Dutch expertise and technology offer potential for sustainable intensification of agriculture in emerging economies.
In Denmark and the Netherlands, farmers and their cooperatives have in recent decades succeeded producing more with less, limiting Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions while increasing agricultural production, and as a result have produced of some of the world’s most climate efficient commodities.
The increasing demands on agricultural productivity due to the combination of rising income, population growth, objectives to meet nutritional requirements, biodiversity protection and climate change mitigation, is fuelling the need for more efficient agricultural techniques. In developing countries, movement away from traditional very low productive slash-and-burn agriculture saves emissions and generates progress.
There is great potential increasing feed conversion rates, deploying remote sensing tools and deploying more climate resilient crops.
The collaborating organisations have determined their focus will be on intensive agricultural production, which both increases output using the same area of land and gives room for forest protection and reforestation in developing countries where intensification will reduce forest felling.
“Agriterra and DAFC / SEGES share a joint vision to promote sustainable intensive agricultural production as a solution to the climate challenge”, reads the MoU.
Kees Blokland, managing director of Agriterra: “Farmers are at the heart of successful and resilient countries. This is why we want to connect Dutch and Danish top notch knowledge to farmers worldwide.”
Anne Arhnung, CEO, Danish Agriculture and Food Council: ”Danish farmers are amongst the most climate efficient in the world. We want to share our expertise and technology with the rest of the world to achieve further CO2 reductions for the benefit of the world”.
With the MoU, Agriterra and DAFC / SEGES propose a public-private partnership for sustainable development and will work for Agriterra to become the first accredited entity to the GCF.
