Question Period Note: Canada's support for agriculture and food systems in developing countries.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is reporting increasing levels of global hunger and destabilization of global agricultural production due to climate change.

• Canada is empowering rural women and helping developing countries to adopt climate-smart practices and increase agricultural productivity.

• Canada has invested more than $719 million over the past three years to support agriculture in developing countries, focusing on smallholder farmers, especially women farmers and women's producer organisations.

• Canada works with its international partners to end global hunger and malnutrition though research, global best practice, and concrete actions such as women's empowerment, rural infrastructure, and climate-smart agriculture.

Global agricultural production has increased significantly over the past 50 years, contributing to a reduction in global hunger and malnutrition. But the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports a reversal in this trend for the last three years. As of 2018, 821.6 million people (1 in 9 people) were undernourished -- a level almost unchanged from a decade ago.Prevalence of undernourishment is highest in Africa at almost 20%. Africa and Asia account for more than 90% of all stunted and wasted children, and nearly 75% of overweight children. If this worrying trend is not reversed, Sustainable Development Goal #2(Zero Hunger) will not be achieved.

The key drivers of rising hunger and malnutrition are climate change, conflict, and economic inequality. These factors also affect food systems more broadly. The increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather is threatening vulnerable agricultural systems. In turn, the current global food system is a major contributor to climate change and land degradation. The 2019 Report on Climate Change and Land by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that agriculture and food systems contribute 21-37% of total net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

Economic shocks have an uneven impact on food security in developing countries, where 86% of the rural population, including many women, make a living from agriculture. Agricultural productivity is not just a technical issue; rather it is constrained by limited access to inputs and land ownership, pests and disease, poor agricultural practices, inadequate infrastructure and market access, and gender inequality. It is estimated that equitable access to productive resources for women alone could increase agricultural yields by 20 to 30%. Closing this gap could lift 150 million people out of hunger.When women control income from agriculture or food systems they spend more of it than men do on food, health and education for their children.

Canada's key global partners for agriculture and food systems include FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, World Food Program, and CGIAR (for international agriculture research)

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