Food security is a top priority for Norway. This year Norway will allocate more than 300 million dollars in grants to food security initiatives alone. We work with other actors internationally to promote food security for populations and countries who need it the most. Our focus is especially on small-scale producers, to strengthen local and regional value chains, as well as adapting food production to climate change. We will also contribute to tackling food waste and loss.
Small scale producers are the backbone of the food security in all countries. We need targeted interventions to provide seeds and fertilizers to small scale farmers. But we also need to continue our support for the transformation to sustainable food systems. Farmers must be provided the tools they need to encounter climate change and environmental degradation, increase local production, produce nutritious food, and get it to the markets.
The agricultural sector has the potential to be the motor, the driver for social change, job creation and development. Sudan has a great potential for increased food production, while at the same time 11.7 million Sudanese are food insecure according to the IPC report, June 2022, a number that is on the rise this year because of higher prices of staple food and input to food production.
Food insecurity is also on the rise in the long term because of the impact of population growth and climate change. Both directly affecting the livelihood of farmers and pastoralists who represent 80% of the rural population in Sudan.
FAO leads international efforts to defeat hunger, improve food security, restore rural livelihoods, and build resilience to climate change. The Embassy is therefore pleased to announce our contribution of USD 15 million to the FAO Sudan project “FAO Sudan smallholders, agro-pastoralist and pastoralist value chain support in the face of climate change”.
The main objective of this project is to improve the productivity, income, food security and livelihood of smallholder farmers, agro-pastoralists, and pastoralists by promoting innovative and sustainable agricultural practises that are adaptive to climate change in three states.
I would like to thank the FAO office in Sudan for all their efforts in developing the project and look forward to our continued cooperation together with partners in Sudan.
Ambassador Endre Stiansen
