The following article has been published by EurActiv.com on 25th November 2009.

While agriculture and food production have long been considered untouchable in international climate talks, calls to make the sector contribute to greenhouse gas mitigation efforts have been growing louder.

Food is strategic and agricultural production is a vital sector of many national economies. Yet, discussions are shifting from how to adapt farming to climate change to how to make agriculture contribute to climate change mitigation.

In a recent interview with EurActiv, outgoing EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel even backed the possibility of an emissions trading scheme for agriculture. While the EU has reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from its farming sector by 21% compared to 1990, according to the European Commission, agricultural emissions from other parts of the world have soared by nearly 17%, mainly due to increases in developing countries.

Farmers in the developing world emit the most GHGs due to inefficient agricultural practices and poor natural resource management. Meanwhile, experts agree that climate change represents more of a challenge to food security in the developing world than elsewhere: a dilemma which underlines the need for urgent mitigation measures.

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