By Oluwaseun Sonde
The United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken has said soil is literally at the root of pressing national security challenges the world faces, adding that without good soil, crops fail, prices rise, people go hungry.
Blinken who disclosed in his remarks at the World Economic Forum event in Devos on Tuesday with the theme: Treating Soil as a Precious Resources, revealed that over 700 million people do not know if they will have enough food to eat tomorrow.
He said, “Eroding soil worsens the impact of droughts, of floods, other climate -driven extreme weather, making crop yields even lower, and as a result, food even scarcer. As we meet here today, 700 million people do not know if they will have enough food to eat tomorrow.
“This hunger fuels instability, and instability fuels hunger. A parent who can’t put food on the table for their children picks up the family and moves because it’s the most basic thing, the most important thing that they can do, and they will do it however they have to do it.
“And if that means moving halfway around the world, they will. But that contributes to unprecedented migration flows that we’re facing around the world. Shifting climate patterns force neighbors to compete for dwindling resources, further straining ethnic tensions, destabilizing entire communities”.
Blinken added that Russia’s attacks on fields, on granaries, on ports in Ukraine, the world’s breadbasket, have disrupted global markets, making food harder to afford and harming the poor and most vulnerable most of all.
“In the Red Sea, through which 15 percent of world’s commerce passes, Houthi attacks forced ships to take longer, more expensive routes, further raising the price of food and energy. The United States has been and is working intensely to tackle this food crisis and support those who are most affected.
“Going back to January of 2021, the U.S. Government has devoted $17.5 billion to provide vital sustenance to people in need. We are honored to fund over one third of the World Food Programme’s budget.
“Now I had a chance to see some of these efforts just last week at a World Food Programme warehouse in Jordan, where I met with UN staff that is working relentlessly, often at great personal risk, to get aid to Palestinians in Gaza, over 90 percent of whom are facing acute food insecurity”.
He pressed further that too many people already go to sleep hungry, and set to get worse. “If you project out to 2050, global demand for food is projected to rise by 50 percent. But over that same period, climate change could reduce yields by as much as 30 percent.
“So do the math and it doesn’t balance out. In short, we need to feed more people as growing food becomes harder. That’s why the United States is partnering to adapt and transform agriculture, food systems.
“Because as vital as emergency assistance is, if we don’t get at underlying infrastructure, if we don’t get at a way to produce better, stronger, more resilient crops, then we won’t solve the problem. But we joined a pledge with over 130 countries signing the Emirates Declaration at COP 28 to address a big part of this”.
Blinken said US Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate initiative with the UAE has mobilized $17 billion to invest in efforts like regenerating degraded crop land and capturing carbon in soil.
“Through the global partnership for infrastructure and investment, we are working with dozens of countries – from India to Zambia – to scale climate-smart agriculture and bolster supply chains”, the Secretary of State added.
He revealed further that together with the African Union and the Food and Agriculture Organization, the United States launched a new initiative, called Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils, or VACS, and VACS is part of the USAID’s flagship Feed the Future initiative.
“This is our comprehensive response in the U.S. Government to food insecurity around the world, and the approach that we have is two-pronged. And it really boils down to this, two very basic things: First, we’re investing above ground, identifying the indigenous African crops that are most nutritious.
“And most resilient to climate change, improving these varieties, delivering them to the world; at the same time, we’re investing below ground, mapping, conserving, building healthy soils. If you get this right, if you get the seeds right, if you get the soil right, then you have your agricultural foundation for the future.
“We have the capacity as we’re doing this with all of this technology to literally map the soil any place in the world, any given field, to tell whether the soil is good, bad, deficient, and then to figure out how we can make it as productive as possible”, the Secretary said.
