The bank aims to build an ecosystem of scientific, technical and academic ability to help drive Africa's transition to sustainable agricultureWith agriculture accounting for 75% of Africa’s trade, 70% of its employment and more than 20% of the continent’s GDP, it is critical for farmers to understand how climate change affects agriculture and how agriculture influences climate change.
“Agriculture has a disproportionately large role to play in reducing carbon emissions and sequestering carbon. Understanding and introducing more climate smart farming practices will assist the industry in achieving a just transition to a more sustainable future,” says Louis van Ravesteyn, group head of agribusiness, business & commercial banking at Standard Bank.
As a leading African financial institution, Standard Bank has developed a strategy to finance climate-smart agriculture on the continentQuality aside, “the traceability of products, including reporting the impact of their production on the environment, is increasingly legislated by the EU and other receivers of African agricultural produce,” says Van Ravesteyn.
Many of Africa’s commercial farmers are aware of and — to some extent — are already practising sustainable agriculture. While many of Africa’s smallholder farmers operating under survival conditions are not always able to consider the longer-term impact of their farming methods, most are experiencing the impact of man-made environmental degradation driven by climate change.