Climate change poses an increasingly serious threat to agri-food systems, according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). The report reveals that around 35% of current climate action plans make explicit reference to loss and damage, highlighting the growing relevance of the issue globally, with agriculture identified as the most affected area.
It also notes that 40% of countries report economic losses explicitly linked to agriculture. Data from post-disaster assessments conducted between 2007 and 2022 indicate that agricultural losses accounted for an average of 23% of the total disaster impact across all sectors. Droughts alone caused more than 65% of losses in the agricultural sector during this period, which translates into an estimated US$3.8 trillion in lost crop and livestock production over the past 30 years.
Agrifood systems generate significant benefits to society, including the food that nourishes us and jobs and livelihoods for over a billion people. However, their negative impacts due to unsustainable business-as-usual activities and practices are contributing to climate change, natural resource degradation and the unaffordability of healthy diets. “Addressing these negative impacts is challenging, because people, businesses, governments and other stakeholders lack a complete picture of how their activities affect economic, social and environmental sustainability when they make decisions on a day-to-day basis”, states the report.
But we believe that the SustaiNext project and its DYANA concept can make a difference, first in Extremadura, the Spanish region where it will start deploying its full potential, and then in more European regions once its results are replicated.
