COP31 must center agroecology and farmers’ rights in climate action

As world leaders gather in Antalya, Türkiye, for the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) on November 9–20, advocates of agroecology must push for a fundamental transformation of agriculture and food systems. The fight is not simply to make existing agricultural practices more climate-resilient, but to address the corporate-controlled agricultural system that contributes to the climate crisis while leaving millions of small-scale food producers increasingly vulnerable.

Agriculture and food security figure prominently in COP31’s agenda. The conference will review the Sharm el-Sheikh Joint Work on Agriculture and Food Security, consider implementation of the Global Goal on Adaptation, and negotiate climate finance and just transition measures. The Turkish Presidency is also promoting sustainable food systems, financing for women farmers, and a new Food–Water–Climate Nexus initiative.

While these offer opportunities to advance agroecology, the more critical question is whether the climate policies that negotiators adopt in Antalya will transform the corporate agricultural system or merely make its existing structures appear more sustainable while fundamentally keeping the business-as-usual climate policy regime.

Recognize agroecology as a transformative climate solution

The global food system accounts for approximately one-third of greenhouse gas emissions. Corporate agriculture contributes through fossil-fuel-dependent production, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, monocultures, deforestation, and energy-intensive supply chains.

These same practices undermine agricultural resilience by degrading soils, reducing biodiversity, and increasing farmers’ dependence on expensive corporate inputs.

Agroecology offers an alternative. Diversified farming, agroforestry, ecological pest management, composting, indigenous seed conservation, and community-managed water systems strengthen adaptation while reducing dependence on emissions-intensive inputs.

Participatory Action Research conducted by PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) partners in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal provides community-based evidence of these benefits. Farmers practicing agroecology reported reduced production costs, diversified harvests, improved soil and water management, and stronger capacity to withstand climate disruptions.

In Andhra Pradesh, an illustrative comparison of groundnut cultivation costs found roughly 41% lower costs under diversified farming. In Bangladesh, women-led seed conservation initiatives have helped strengthen local biodiversity and farmers’ resilience.

These experiences demonstrate that agroecology is already being practiced by farming communities confronting the climate crisis.

At COP31, governments should explicitly recognize agroecology in the outcomes of the Sharm el-Sheikh agriculture work programme, accompanied by concrete commitments to implementation.

Agroecology must not be reduced to another component of so-called climate-smart agriculture, which can accommodate continued dependence on monocultures, proprietary technologies, and chemical-intensive production.

Redirect climate finance toward farmer-led transitions

COP31’s Food Security Action Agenda acknowledges that food systems receive only a small fraction of global climate finance. Yet increasing financing alone will not guarantee meaningful change.

Advocates should demand that developed countries fulfill their climate finance obligations and that agricultural funding prioritize small-scale food producers, particularly women, Indigenous Peoples, and marginalized rural communities.

Funding should be predominantly public, grant-based, and accessible directly to farmers’ organizations. It should finance community seed banks, ecological pest management, soil restoration, water conservation, and farmer-led research and extension.

Agricultural subsidies that perpetuate chemical-intensive monocultures and dependence on corporate inputs should be progressively redirected toward ecological production.

The proposed Turquoise Nexus Initiative, which integrates food, water, and climate action, should support community-governed water systems and agroecological farming rather than primarily commercially attractive agricultural investments.

Climate finance must not become another mechanism for expanding farmers’ indebtedness or corporate control over agriculture.

Put land rights and seed sovereignty at the center

Agroecology cannot achieve its transformative potential without confronting the unequal ownership and control of agricultural resources.

Landless farmers and insecure tenants cannot confidently invest in long-term soil regeneration, agroforestry, and ecosystem restoration when they face eviction or dispossession.

Genuine redistributive agrarian reform must therefore be recognized as an essential foundation of a just agricultural transition.

Governments should protect farmers’ land and tenancy rights, recognize Indigenous Peoples’ collective territories and free, prior and informed consent, and prevent land grabbing carried out in the name of supposed conservation, restoration, or carbon sequestration.

Farmers’ rights to save, use, exchange, reproduce, and distribute seeds must also be protected against restrictive intellectual-property regimes and corporate monopolization.

These measures are indispensable to food sovereignty and climate resilience.

Advance biodiversity, pesticide reduction, and ecological restoration

COP31’s discussions on the interconnected crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation provide another important opportunity.

Agroecology addresses these crises simultaneously through diversified farming, ecological soil management, natural pest regulation, and ecosystem restoration.

Governments should commit to phasing out highly hazardous pesticides, promoting ecological alternatives, and strengthening farmer-led knowledge systems.

Public investments should prioritize watershed rehabilitation, rainwater harvesting, restoration of degraded soils, local biodiversity conservation, and community-controlled irrigation.

Climate adaptation indicators must measure more than crop yields or hectares covered by new technologies. They should assess soil health, biodiversity, pesticide dependence, household food security, production costs, farmers’ incomes, and resilience to climate shocks.

 

Ensure a just transition and democratic climate governance

A just agricultural transition must benefit those who produce food—not merely large agricultural corporations and investors.

This requires stronger local food economies, public procurement of agroecologically produced food, fair farm prices, farmers’ cooperatives, local processing facilities, and social protection for agricultural workers and vulnerable farming households.

Small farmers, landless rural workers, rural women, and Indigenous Peoples must participate meaningfully in designing, implementing, and monitoring climate programmes.

Advocates should also challenge the treatment of agriculture primarily as a source of tradable carbon credits. Agroecology’s contributions to climate resilience, biodiversity, food security, and livelihoods cannot be reduced to the monetary value of carbon.

Instead, COP31 should strengthen publicly financed and non-market approaches to climate cooperation that protect people’s rights and ecological resources.

From climate pledges to systemic transformation

Ultimately, agroecology advocates must push governments to translate international commitments into national policies, budgets, and programmes.

Agroecology should be explicitly incorporated into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), and agricultural development strategies, with measurable targets and transparent public financing.

The central measure of success should not simply be how much investment COP31 mobilizes or how many climate-smart technologies are deployed. It should be whether climate action restores ecosystems, reduces agricultural emissions, secures farmers’ livelihoods, and strengthens people’s control over land, seeds, water, and food production. The transition required is ecological, economic, and social—one that challenges the structures perpetuating environmental destruction and rural poverty.

For agroecology advocates, climate justice demands genuine agrarian reform, food sovereignty, public investment, and democratic control over food systems. The people who feed the world must be at the center of transforming agriculture to confront the climate crisis.