The UN Food and Agriculture Organization Director General called states to ensure an ambitious agreement to tackle climate change.
Da Silva made their appeals at a side event of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) which is meeting in Rome this week, where he urged countries to find an agreement on how to combat climate change ahead of the 30 November-11 December United Nations climate change conference, COP21, in Paris.
He called for more targeted policies and investments to adapt agriculture to the impacts of climate change, including reducing deforestation and overfishing, improving soil fertility and achieving lower emissions.
The FAO Director-General hailed the international community's recent adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes the eradication of hunger and extreme poverty.
However, he stressed that to achieve these goals requires a "paradigm shift" towards agriculture and food systems that are more productive and inclusive, and more adapted to climate change.
"We can end extreme poverty and hunger by 2030. We know what works and we have the tools for it, but we know climate change threatens to derail our efforts. It is already impacting on food security and making hunger eradication even more difficult," Graziano da Silva said.
"We believe that agriculture in the broad sense - including forestry, fisheries and aquaculture - can and must play a central role in addressing climate change, particularly in adapting its impacts, such as water scarcity, soil salinity or increasing pests and diseases of plants and animals," he added.
Graziano da Silva noted how the world's poorest and most vulnerable - some 80 percent of whom live in rural areas - are the hardest hit by the negative impacts of global warming including droughts and floods.
AO is ready to assist countries through it activities such as agroecology, climate smart agriculture, Integrated Coastal Management, Sustainable Land Management and Forest Landscape Restoration, the Director-General said.
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