Tuesday 1 October 2013

Farmers union calls for more help to combat climate change

The National Farmers Union (NFU) has called on the government to provide more investment and support to farmers to help combat climate change.

It follows the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Fifth Assessment report on Friday, which said scientists are now 95% sure climate change is the result of human activities.

The NFU said although the agricultural sector is set to meet its greenhouse gas emissions target for 2020 it still needs more help from the government.

NFU President Peter Kendall said: “The NFU firmly agrees that climate change is a global threat and agriculture is already making great strides in meeting its voluntary environmental goals, through improved resource use efficiency and innovations such as precision farming.

“Farmers worldwide have access to sufficient land on which to increase production but to meet this challenge there is a need for investment in inputs, infrastructure, improved skills and innovations derived from research, to drive rural growth and diversification.”

A recent UN report said the world faced a "collective crisis" of climate change, farming and poverty, while Oxfam warned a hotter world will be hungrier ahead of the release of the IPCC report.