Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure that small-scale farmers in developing countries receive funding from the Government's climate finance commitments.

FCDO's existing agriculture portfolio contains programmes that are specifically designed to help smallholder farmers in the most climate vulnerable countries to adopt sustainable and resilient agricultural practices. For example, with UK International Climate Finance (ICF), we are supporting the Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders and Agribusiness programme (CASA) and the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme (GAFSP) which help countries, producer organisations and agri-businesses to address climate change through the adoption of mitigation and adaptation technologies and much-needed related capacity building.

The most recent review of the wider FCDO portfolio on agriculture (available at https://www.casaprogramme.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/CAPR-2020_May_Final.pdf) found that 20 million farmers had their income improved (earning a total of £320 million more) and four million smallholders increased their agricultural productivity over the period under consideration.

The UK has committed to doubling its spend on International Climate Finance (ICF) to £11.6 billion over the next five years and as we mobilise these funds we will continue to support the most vulnerable people, including farmers, adapt and build resilience to the impacts of climate change.