World Bank ties agriculture to climate

CANCUN, Mexico, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- World leaders need to sink cash into the agricultural sector to stave off productive declines associated with climate change, officials said in Mexico.

Delegates led by the World Bank announced a road map at the climate conference in Cancun, Mexico, intended to tie agricultural investments and policies to a green economy.

The road map, the World Bank said in a statement, aims to find the right programs needed to increase farm productivity while making agriculture part of the solution to climate change.

"Agriculture, forestry, and land use change account for more than 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions," said World Bank President Robert Zoellick. "So we need to make the agriculture sector and soil carbon part of the solution to climate change."

The World Bank said agriculture in developing countries must become "climate smart" to handle warmer average temperatures and the strains from a growing population.

Vietnamese Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat joined world leaders and the World Bank in saying that chronic under-investment in agriculture must be reversed.

"It is likely that climate change will reduce agricultural productivity and impact people's incomes in many areas that already experience high levels of food insecurity," he warned in his statement.