The Second Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change was held in Hanoi on 3-7 September 2012. This conference brought together 500 delegates from 150 countries and 20 international organizations to Hanoi, to discuss how agriculture can become "climate smart". Climate-smart agriculture refers to agricultural practices or systems that sustainably increases productivity, resilience (adaptation), reduces /removes greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation), and enhances achievement of national food security and development goals.

Dr Tony Simons, Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre, was invited keynote speaker to talk about the need to move beyond the narrow requirements of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation schemes to a ﾑwhole landscapeﾒ approach if we are to effectively reduce the rate of global warming and be able to adapt. He said in his opening address, that what is needed is a whole-landscape approach that keeps the livelihoods of small-scale farmers at the heart of climate-smart agriculture.

ﾓCountries must focus on increasing farming productivity through diversification, intensification, reducing emissions from agriculture, and shielding small-scale farmersﾗwho grow most of the food in developing countriesﾗagainst extreme weather events,ﾔ he said.

Clearly, adapting farming to a changing climate will take the combined efforts of many actors, and especially governments.

"If the Vietnamese government wants to more rapidly transform agriculture to reduce the impact of climate change, fast-track methods include encouraging many stakeholders with differing interests, but especially smallholder farmers themselves, to be involved in developing and implementing policies for climate-smart agriculture," he said. "This includes creating conditions to boost private investment, and also helping farmers build strong cooperatives and associations."

Such action cannot wait if we are to ensure that the current generation and future ones have enough to eat. On this occasion, the signing ceremony of Memoradum of Understanding for research collaboration between ICRAF and Vietnam Academy of Agriculture Science (VAAS) was also held. The MOU, which was signed by Dr Tony Simons and Dr Nguyen Van Bo, President of VAAS aims to develop stronger and long-term collaboration for agroforestry research in Vietnam.