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HomePosts Tagged "Global Environment Facility (GEF)"
Agrotech, Foodgrains, Interaction, World

The global dialogue “Sustainable Maize and Wheat: Scaling Innovations for Resilience” in Istanbul highlighted the urgent need for innovative, collaborative, and inclusive approaches to maize and wheat sustainability.

Wheat, maize, and rice are key food crops supporting global food security, providing 50 per cent of the world’s dietary energy. While maize is a well-known smallholder crop, especially in Africa and Latin America, wheat is also produced by smallholders, for example in Ethiopia and South Asia.

Despite record-high global cereal harvests in recent years, these staple crops are increasingly at risk due to rising temperatures, groundwater depletion, pollution, biodiversity loss, and other environmental challenges. On the other hand, by strategically transforming food systems, including the value chains of wheat, maize and rice, we have a unique opportunity to mitigate environmental harm and address socio-economic challenges simultaneously. 

Two integrated programs funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF)—the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration Impact Program (FOLUR) and the Food Systems Integrated Program (FSIP)—are actively working toward this transformation. Together, these programs encompass 46 countries projects, with a substantial number dedicated to maize and wheat. Their collective efforts aim to enhance food crop value chains, making them more sustainable, pollution-free, resilient, and inclusive.

January 2025 marked a significant milestone in the global maize and wheat sustainability discussion. The FOLUR program, in collaboration with the Government of Türkiye, co-hosted the “Sustainable Maize and Wheat: Scaling Innovations for Resilience” dialogue. This event gathered over 60 international participants, including FAO and IFAD specialists, to discuss the latest advancements in sustainable maize and wheat value chains and agricultural systems. 

The global dialogue in Istanbul highlighted the urgent need for innovative, collaborative, and inclusive approaches to maize and wheat sustainability. By fostering synergies between FOLUR and FSIP, enhancing policy, legal and governance frameworks, and supporting small-scale producers, FAO and its partners are working to create resilient food systems that can withstand the challenges of climate change and environmental degradation. 

The dialogue served as an opportunity to reinforce connection and efforts of teams coordinating the two GEF-funded integrated programs—FOLUR, led by the World Bank, and FSIP, jointly led by FAO and IFAD. Key areas of discussion included:

Sustainable diversification: Moving beyond mono-crop commodity-driven approaches to increase resilience.

Support for small-scale producers: Ensuring an inclusive transition that benefits farmers’ livelihoods and enhances food security and nutrition.

Cross-country learning: Facilitating South-South and South-North knowledge exchange among FOLUR and FSIP maize and wheat countries to share best practices and innovative solutions.

Transforming food systems presents an opportunity to improve policies, governance and regulatory frameworks, and maximize knowledge resources for positive change. A strong policy and governance framework at national and landscape and field levels is key to accelerating the shift toward sustainable crop production.

To support this level of transformation, at the national level, FAO introduced its cutting-edge Policy Optimization Tool (PolOpT) designed to help governments optimize their food and agriculture budgets. The tool enables countries to optimize the allocation of financial resources to boost agrifood GDP, lift hundreds of thousands out of poverty, create rural jobs, make healthy diets more affordable, and increase agrifood production while achieving environmental goals. Early results suggest that economic growth and emission reductions do not have to be at odds—smart agricultural policies can achieve both.

To bridge national policies with on-the-ground action and ensure coherence between strategic landscape-level interventions across the two Integrated Programs, FAO presented early implementation results of the Participatory Informed Landscape Approach (PILA) currently being spearheaded within FOLUR. PILA is a cross-sectoral, multi-stakeholder, innovative, participatory and inclusive approach that facilitates informed decision-making through tailored information made available at the national, landscape, and field levels. It promotes integrated landscape management and governance, supporting the transformation of food systems towards greater sustainability.

IFAD shared practical experiences from the food systems projects it implements globally, including under the GEF-supported Resilient Food Systems (RFS) programme, highlighting innovative solutions for sustainable agriculture.  Discussion fostered valuable linkages between the next generation of FSIP projects currently under design with lessons emerging from FOLUR and existing GEF-supported food systems projects. Key examples included smallholder operated sub-surface irrigation systems, adapted small-scale machinery for combined straw integration and sowing in rice-wheat systems, and approaches to reduce zinc deficiencies, demonstrating IFAD’s commitment to scaling practical, climate-resilient solutions.

The global dialogue "Sustainable Maize and Wheat:

Carbon Farming, Climate, Country, Environment, Investments, Nature, Soil Health, Supply Chain, Sustainability

With FAO’s support, 22 countries access financing to address biodiversity loss, land degradation, climate change, and pollution

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has helped 22 countries unlock $68 million in financing from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to address biodiversity loss, groundwater management, climate change, land degradation, and pollution.

The projects were approved by the GEF Secretariat and Councils for the GEF Trust Fund, the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), and the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) meeting this week in Washington D.C. The projects expect to leverage an additional $273 million in co-financing to advance global goals for biodiversity, social inclusion, land and water management, and reducing use of hazardous chemicals.

“The approval of this batch of projects comes at the end of a year of environmental summits that highlighted both the need for finance to unlock transformation of global agrifood systems to this critical agenda,” said QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General. “We look forward to supporting countries to meet their biodiversity, climate, land, water, and pollution goals through agrifood systems solutions under the overall guidance of the Four Betters.”

“These projects will help change the way we produce our food, fuel, and fiber to address global environmental crises. They will enhance coherence between agricultural and environmental sectors and support countries and communities to tackle environmental challenges, food insecurity, and poverty. With this new financing in place, it is now equally important to their success to effectively communicate their goals and impacts,” said Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, CEO and Chairperson, GEF.

As part of the funding, the Council approved a $19 million allocation for FAO’s first activities as a new implementing agency for the Small Grants Program. The project builds upon 30 years of impact by bringing FAO’s expertise in working with smallholder producers to support civil society organizations and community-based organizations in co-designing and delivering locally led initiatives. The project will develop strategies, provide financial and technical assistance, and foster South-South Cooperation, with a strong focus on innovation, scalability, and social inclusion of women, Indigenous Peoples and youth.

The project will work with local organizations across 14 countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Cook Islands, Cuba, Guyana, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Marshall Islands, Nicaragua, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Uganda and Venezuela. It aims to restore 20,000 hectares of land, improve practices across 350,000 hectares, and benefit 45,000 people.

Five projects funded by the GBFF will help mainstream biodiversity in agrifood sectors, foster sustainable livelihoods, and empower Indigenous Peoples. These projects aim to improve the management of 500,000 hectares of protected areas, restore 13,000 hectares of landscapes, improve practices on 2.4 million hectares of land and sea, mitigate 1.2 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, and benefit 100,000 people.

The $1.7 million project in Laos will enhance biodiversity through ecosystem restoration and biodiversity-friendly One Health practices. The $6.4 million project in Papua New Guinea will improve ecosystem connectivity and climate resilience with integrated landscape management. In the Solomon Islands, $2.4 million will support community-led management of key biodiversity areas by Indigenous Peoples, including through spatial management and other effective area-based conservation mechanisms (OECM). In Cuba, the $3 million project will address unsustainable fishing and agriculture in Northeastern Cuba, and the $1.3 million project in Nepal will help conserve endangered freshwater fish through ecosystem-based fisheries management.

A $8 million project funded by the GEF Trust Fund will enhance biodiversity, ecosystem service, and carbon sequestration in Areas Important for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (AIBDES), including areas inside and outside protected areas in South Sumatra and Central Java, Indonesia. The project aims to conserve and restore 91,000 hectares of natural ecosystems that house species such as the Javan Leopard and Sumatran Elephant. The project will also improve practices on 565,000 hectares of land, mitigate 6.2 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, and benefit 40,000 people.

Under the Integrated Collaborative Approaches for Sustainable Tourism Program (iCOAST), FAO will support Vanuatu in promoting sustainable practices within the tourism industry through bioeconomy and circular approaches. The project will channel $4 million to update the national tourism strategy, restore over 32,000 hectares of degraded ecosystems, improve practices on 62,000 hectares of land and sea, and benefit over 246,000 people.

Under the Financing Agrochemical Reduction and Management Plus Program (FARM+), FAO will support Gambia to reduce harmful agrochemical use and transition to climate-resilient, agroecological practices in rice, millet and maize production. With $9.6 million from the GEF Trust Fund and the LDCF, the project aims to restore 10,000 hectares of land, improve practices on 120,000 hectares of land and sea, mitigate over 15,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, and benefit 240,000 people.

The program closes a year of record growth in the FAO-GEF partnership. In addition to $440 million approved across the February, June and December work programs in 2024, 13 FAO projects worth $14 million in GEF resources and $24 million in co-financing are providing global and national support in meeting reporting commitments for climate change and LDN.

With FAO’s support, 22 countries access financing