coastal erosion, but certainly, I mean, when you think about climate change and your job, both hats, water and food, what are you most worried about when you think of what's happening with climate change that is here so dramatically already?

Well, we are having, as I think it's well known, but we are having like countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, which are going through five, six years of drought.

So clearly that creates an extreme situation.

Right now, we might or not see a stronger El Niño, for example, as such.

I mean, if you think about what's the impact of El Niño, if we think about Zambia, for example, a couple of years ago, I think it was 2023, actually one million hectares of maize was lost there.

We had six million of people which needed humanitarian assistance, one million of households which actually were extremely impacted by the shock itself.

So these are the type of figures that we could see around climate change.

How important is it to engage women in farming projects?

Thank you.

Well, thank you very much.

Thank you to the IEA for inviting us and to Irish Aid for, uh, for, uh, having this very important discussion.

I remember three years ago, actually, we had a, uh, similar discussion then we were discussing about some of the shocks that happened after Ukraine, what was, uh, then going on about the food supply, some of the responses.

And here we are, probably three years later, whereby it's not any longer only about, I would say, the-- what's happening related to oil shocks or food price shocks, but actually also about the future of development cooperation.

As the-- as Ireland is now, as you were mentioning, taking the leadership in the EU and the presidency, and how that might relate to some of the discussions that you've had a couple of weeks ago with Commissioner Sikela.

I think it's a fascinating and very interesting time, actually, on seeing what's the future of development cooperation, how can we also make sure that global, uh, food systems remain resilient, and what are the investments that are actually working.

In an increasingly volatile global context, the role played by IFAD 14 will be central to delivering impact at the first mile.

What impact is the war in the Middle East having on smaller farmers in developing countries? Well, thank you for

having me.

As you mentioned, the Persian Gulf is currently supplying the highest share of the world's natural gas in ammonia and urea, which are components that we need for nitrogen fertilizers.

So many of the small-scale farmers, and here including in Ireland, we're seeing that they are being squeezed on their margins.

So they are being affected by higher fuel, which also It's impacting the ability of even harvesting also in the planting season right now on fertilizers, but also on food transportation costs.

So the three channels that we're currently seeing are building up over time.

This is a shock that we will continuously see from here to the year end.

ultimately though what's needed here is a resolution to the the conflict in the middle east ireland is about to assume the presidency of the european union it will have perhaps a stronger voice in advocating in matters like this, what role do you want to see Ireland playing then in helping to deal with this problem?