Tell us more about the challenge of the project.What is the problem you are trying to solve? Why is the problem significant?

The massive release of greenhouse gases by human activities has caused the Earth's average temperature to rise and has led to large-scale climate change. These changes have threatened food systems around the world. In the Cerrado Mineiro region, producers are already suffering from prolonged droughts and severe frosts, causing production losses and even crop migration. Small farmers are more vulnerable, as they have less access to techniques and financial conditions to adapt. According to the FAO's strategic arc 2022-2031, the vision of a sustainable world is one in which all people have food security. Our project seeks to involve the new generations in rural areas in building solutions that make food production resilient to climate change and guarantee the availability of water resources. Empowering young people so that they can be strategic actors in tackling this climate crisis.

Tell us more about the proposed solution of the project.How will it work?

To leverage this achievement, in 2010 the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) launched the concept of climate-smart agriculture, whose pillars are: food security, carbon and climate resilience. Along the same lines, in 2019, in the Cerrado Mineiro region, the CCA implemented the PIPC (Conscious Producer Investment Program), which supports producers in implementing strategies towards climate-smart agriculture. Understanding the need to disseminate this concept and strengthen adaptive capacity to reduce vulnerabilities to climate and other stresses, the CCA seeks with this project to disseminate the precepts of smart agriculture among the young people of the Águas de Tufin Scout group, located in the rural community of São João da Serra Negra, in the municipality of Patrocínio/MG. The group was born in 2021 out of the desire of young people and adults to experience and reproduce the principles of Scouting, among which is duty to others, including active participation in society. Thus, the project aims to provide these young scouts with knowledge and practices that help and encourage them to take care of nature and the climate through climate-smart food production and respect for nature. As well as enabling them to multiply this knowledge in the community where they live.

What will be the main activities of the project and how will the resources be applied?

The activities will be divided into alternating moments of practice, construction of concepts and consolidation of the multiplier capacity with the local community.

1st activity - Field visits - these activities will involve guided field visits to introduce young people to farming models, watersheds, bodies of water and their impacts, as well as visiting the city's food supply site SEASA, with the aim of understanding the entire food production chain.

2nd activity - Concept-building workshop (agriculture, nature and water) - this will be the time to work on the concepts of agriculture, climate change, ecological relationships, the concept of the watershed, water infiltration in the soil, as well as building and understanding the concept of food security.