CCAFS Press releases

Invest US$120bn in agriculture innovation breakthrough to tackle climate crisis, urges UK-led alliance at COP26

Rhys — Sat, 06 Nov 2021 12:00:00 +0000

Governments and the private sector must commit to a doubling of their investments in agricultural research, innovation and deployment in developing and emerging economies, urges a new Global Action Agenda for Innovation in Agriculture, launched at COP26 today by the Climateshot campaign.

Such investment - an additional $15bn every year - will combat climate change and protect nature, according to the ClimateShot campaign, which is co-chaired by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

This amounts to US$ 120bn by 2030 for the benefit of lower income countries, across a decade of action to combat the climate crisis.

ClimateShot is backed by the government ministries or national agriculture research institutes of 18 major food producing countries, and secured the support of more than 160 allies that include large agriculture and food businesses, NGOs, international development institutions, national banks, SMEs, youth leaders, and impact investment funds that together are committed to mobilising some US$ 5bn for sustainable businesses.

The Global Action Agenda for Innovation in Agriculture sets out four critical actions around which global leaders attending COP26—both public and private—must galvanise action for people, nature and climate.

Firstly, they must increase investment in agricultural research and innovation to create more climate-resilient, low-emission technologies and practices in agriculture.

Research shows that such increases in investment will deliver effective, high-value-for-money incremental changes that us help us make very substantial progress towards international goals on food security, water conservation and climate change.

The investments deliver technologies and practices that reduce the risk of hunger, reverse the impact of climate change on the yields of key crops – and so helping avoid loss and damage – and reduce emissions.

But to deliver the truly transformative changes in global agriculture that are required, we must shift and focus at least a third of all agricultural research and innovation investments worldwide to delivering demand-driven solutions that work across food systems, and which specifically protect nature and limit climate change.

The ClimateShot campaign also calls on public and private sector leaders to urgently find ways to accelerate and scale the work of impact investment funds and initiatives promoting business models and public-private partnerships that deploy agricultural innovations on the scale needed.

These can not only address the climate crisis, but also the food security and environmental challenges we face. These challenges include feeding a global population expected to reach 10 billion by 2050, and reversing upward trends in hunger and malnutrition as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Finally, ClimateShot also argues that better and more inclusive dialogue is needed to forge consensus on the evidence of what works, where and how for appropriate public, private and community-led solutions.

The Global Action Agenda for Innovation in Agriculture will be launched on COP26 Nature Day, in an event featuring special guests Idris and Sabrina Elba that's hosted by Times Radio Breakfast presenter Aasmah Mir.

Speaking ahead of the ClimateShot launch Vicky Ford MP, Minister for Africa at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, said:

"The UK is home to world leading agricultural research and innovation. We now need a breakthrough in agricultural innovation across the world in order to improve the livelihoods and resilience of communities worldwide.

Campaigns like ClimateShot can help us do this by bringing allies together to make climate-resilient, low-emissions agriculture the most economically attractive option for farmers, food producers and consumers by 2030."

Also speaking ahead of the launch, Dhanush Dinesh, CCAFS Head of Partnerships and Outreach, said:

“So much of the cash spent on agriculture today is frankly wasted, we need to put it to much better use. We know what works, we just need to be more ambitious and deliver innovation on the scale needed to meet the climate challenge. That's why we need a ClimateShot.

The farming technology and practices used today won’t get us even halfway in reaching the ambitions of the Paris Climate Agreement, particularly when it comes to mitigating the effects of climate change. Innovation can solve that, but only if we spend enough cash to close the innovation gap. COP26 can galvanise our collective will to commit that cash, but it should also be about showcasing all the amazing innovation that’s already happening all around the world.”

Ishmael Sunga, CEO of ClimateShot ally the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU) said:

"Innovation is key to delivering an inclusive and just climate-smart future for farmers around the world, but especially for those across Africa. Temperatures across the continent are rising faster than anywhere else in the world, and so African farmers are particularly vulnerable to the ravages of climate change, so that's why I back ClimateShot."

As CEO of SACAU, an organisation that represents the common interests of 19 national farmers’ associations from 12 countries across Southern Africa, I’m hopeful that COP26 is a moment to galvanize international support in shifting the global agenda and spend on agriculture towards more and better research and innovation outcomes, sowing the seeds for a more resilient, prosperous future for farming communities in Africa.

ENDS

For more information or to arrange interviews with key ClimateShot team members or allies, please contact Rhys Bucknall-Williams on r.bucknall@cgiar.org or call +31 642 51 43 55

NOTES TO EDITORS

The Global Action Agenda for Innovation in Agriculture will be available from 00:00 on Saturday 6 November. It will be available for download at: https://www.climateshot.earth/action-agenda

It will be launched at the COP26 event:

A just transition to sustainable agriculture for people, climate and nature
Saturday 6 November
Second session on innovation: 12:45 - 13:30 GMT
COP26 Blue Zone - Cairn Gorm Plenary Room
For more information about this event, please visit: https://www.climateshot.earth/events

The figures used in the report are based on ‘The Investment Gap Study’ published by the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture Intensification (CoSAI) in partnership with the ClimateShot campaign. The study can be read here: https://wle.cgiar.org/cosai/investment-gap

ABOUT CLIMATESHOT

More information about ClimateShot can be found at www.climateshot.earth

ClimateShot is supported by the government ministries or national agriculture research institutes of 18 countries. ClimateShot has secured more than 160 allies as diverse as the World Bank, WWF, World Food Programme, UN Foundation, Columbia Climate School, Bayer, Rainforest Alliance, World Economic Forum, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, CDC Group, Rabobank and the Environmental Defence Fund.

See the full list of allies at: https://www.climateshot.earth/our-allies

The Global Action Agenda for Innovation in Agriculture is supported by four key initiatives:

The 100 Million Farmers Multi-Stakeholder Platform, led by the World Economic Forum.
The Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) initiative, which brings countries together to find ways to grow more food without growing greenhouse gas emissions.
The new CGIAR organisational structure, research and innovation strategy and portfolio of initiatives.
ClimateShot allies from the impact investment community comprise over 20 investors, funders and initiatives, including innovative funds aiming to mobilise over US$5 billion in financing to transform agriculture for people, nature and the climate

ClimateShot is also informed by engagement with countries through the Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade (FACT) dialogue as well as the Policy Action Agenda for Transition to Sustainable Food and Agriculture.

ClimateShot is aligned to the objectives of the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM4C).

Only 15% of countries in Paris Climate Agreement commit to action on soil carbon in NDCs, new analysis finds

Sadie — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 12:00:00 +0000

BURLINGTON, VERMONT (27 August 2021)

Only 15% of countries in Paris Climate Agreement commit to action on soil carbon in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), according to new analysis by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

As countries finalize their 2021 pledges to the Paris Agreement, the CCAFS analysis shows a gap in ambition in past commitments on soil carbon. Despite soil carbon’s critical role in climate change mitigation and adaptation, only 28 of 184 countries referred to soil carbon, peatlands or wetlands, and only 14 explicitly mentioned soil carbon.

Soil carbon is the largest terrestrial pool of carbon globally and the world’s mineral soils have the potential to sequester 0.4-8.6 gigatons of CO₂eq, which can reduce annual land use emissions by 3% to 71%.

The 2015 Paris Agreement established NDCs as a mechanism for countries to set ambitious, voluntary mitigation commitments and priority actions for adaptation.

Half of the total global soil carbon in the top 30cm of soil is held by only five countries: Russia, Canada, USA, China and Brazil. Yet only China and Canada included soil carbon in the first round of pledges.

Countries that did not include soil carbon in their NDCs explained that they did not prioritize climate change mitigation in this sector, lacked capacity to accurately measure changes in soil carbon or could not provide farmers sufficient incentives to store soil carbon.

“Some countries with high carbon sequestration potential, such as Brazil and the USA, have robust national policies and programs to support soil carbon sequestration, despite not mentioning soil carbon in their NDCs" said Liesl Wiese, lead author of the report.

“The first round of NDCs was not a good indicator of countries’ interest or commitment to soil carbon action” Wiese added.

Lini Wollenberg, CCAFS Low-Emissions Flagship Leader and co-author of the report, said:

“Including soil carbon targets in the NDCs can make it easier to track SOC policy progress, as well as leverage soil carbon-related climate finance, technical support, and capacity building."

To support improved transparency, clarity and ambition, the article’s findings provide guidance for improving ambition in current pledges.

A current CCAFS study to assess the 2021 NDCs, led by Arun Khatri-Chhetri and Sabrina Rose of CCAFS, reports that, as of August 2021, eight of the top ten countries with the highest soil carbon sequestration potentials have updated their NDCs, but only four referred to soil carbon.

Of the 112 new or updated NDCs, 16% (18 countries) refer to soil carbon in agricultural land, of which 10 are targeting SOC for the first time.

“There is still a huge gap between NDCs ambition and their potential” argues Verra's Viridiana Alcantara-Shivapatham, another co-author of the report.

Further information

'Countries’ commitments to soil organic carbon in Nationally Determined Contributions' was led by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and published on 27 August by Taylor & Francis.

For further information, please contact:

Sadie Shelton at Sadie.Shelton@uvm.edu (preferred) or +1-603-306-6220

Climate Bonds Launches Green Criteria for Agriculture Investments: Now Including Livestock

Sadie — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 12:00:00 +0000

Agri-Criteria continues further expansion of green definitions under Climate Bonds Standard

The complete Agriculture Criteria of the Climate Bonds Standard has been formally launched today, marking a major turning point in best practice for climate-aligned and climate-resilient investments in agriculture.

Developed for potential green bond issuers and investors, the new Agriculture Criteria defines and evaluates agriculture projects by encompassing two broad components:

Climate mitigation
Climate adaptation and resilience

What’s in and out of scope?

Perennial & non-perennial crop production - including, alfalfa, fruit trees, oil palm, coffee, tea, cocoa, rubber, oil seeds, cereals, paddy rice, sugarcane, soy and cotton.

Livestock production – Production systems are for cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, dairy, pigs and poultry, their waste (manure) and related grassland or pasture.

Agriculture criteria was first published for crops in 2020 and this update now includes livestock.

What are the eligible use-of-proceeds?

Eligible use-of-proceeds relating to agriculture production systems might include capital and operating expenditure relating to:

inputs (e.g. land, seeds, fertilizer, energy, information),
capital goods (e.g. land, equipment, housing),
crop-based transformation processes (e.g. crop cultivation and planted trees),
agricultural outputs (e.g. grains, vegetables, fibre, meat, dairy products)
waste management (composting, crop residue processing, recycling), and
primary processing and storage before point of sale.

It could also be for supporting activities generated outside of the production system that enable mitigation or climate adaptation and resilience on production systems.

What is the framework of the Criteria?

The Criteria vary according to the bond’s use-of-proceeds as follows:

Use-of-proceeds relate to the whole agricultural production unit.
Use-of-proceeds relate to a component of the agricultural production unit or a specific intervention in the agricultural production entity.
Use-of-proceeds relate to activities outside of a production unit that enable production entities to reduce GHG emissions/ increase sequestration or enhance their climate adaptation and resilience.

Bond issuers should determine which of these categories their use-of-proceeds fall into and use the appropriate Criteria accordingly.

For each of these categories, the Criteria encompass eligibility requirements relating to:

GHG mitigation; and / or
Climate adaptation and resilience.

Why agriculture for green investment?

Agriculture can act as a source and sink for GHG emissions. Agriculture activities and assets are vulnerable to climate change, but also support adaptation and resilience due to their role in rural livelihoods and ecosystem services. The land-use sector receives only 2.5 % of public mitigation finance yet is responsible for up to about 25% of global emissions. 86% of private investment in climate action from green bond issuances is invested in energy and transport, and only 0.9% in land use.

Trends in governmental interventions and business activity indicate that globally, governments and businesses recognise the economic and environmental value of better agricultural management. To transition to a climate-aligned and climate-resilient economy, these stakeholders require significant capital to invest in innovative, effective technologies, techniques and infrastructure that transform the agriculture sector.

The Climate Bonds Initiative sees a role for the $125 trillion bond market in addressing the huge funding needs of the global agriculture sector.

The Agriculture Criteria will assist in creating new capital flows into the sector with a new science-based framework that includes definitions and a screening mechanism for projects, assets, and activities against which both issuers and investors can assess green bonds. The qualifying projects and assets will be eligible for Climate Bonds certification.

Bonds seeking certification must also meet the reporting and transparency requirements of the overarching Climate Bonds Standard V3.0.

Why seek certification for your agriculture green bond?

Climate Bonds Certification allows issuers to demonstrate to the market that their bond meets industry best practice for climate change mitigation and resilience, as well as for management of proceeds and transparency.

Agriculture has not yet become a significant share of the green bond market, and while best-practice standards do exist in the sector, they do not necessarily focus on strong climate measures.

Certification indicates to investors that proper climate due diligence has been carried out on the assets that they are investing in – a robust and credible way for this new asset type to enter the green bond market.

Benefits of issuing a Certified Climate Bond include:

Investor diversification (issuers should find they attract new investors by certifying).
Greater investor engagement.
Investor ‘stickiness’ (investors buying Certified Climate Bonds tend to buy and hold).
Strengthened reputation (certifying shows commitment to delivering low carbon infrastructure).
Freeing-up of balance sheets.

Criteria development process:

To develop the criteria, the Climate Bonds Standards team assembled an Agriculture Technical Working Group (TWG) that consisted of 20 international experts from organisations including Universities, NGOs and consultancies, led by Lini Wollenberg of CGIAR [CCAFS LED] as Lead Technical Consultant.

Launched in February 2019, the Agriculture TWG met monthly throughout the year. The Agriculture TWG developed mitigation and adaptation criteria for agricultural activities. Early drafts were reviewed by an Industry Working Group with representation from industry stakeholders, investors, and issuers to ensure feedback was provided on the usability of the criteria.

The Criteria underwent public consultation from January 2020 to March 2020 and feedback was incorporated into the final Agriculture Criteria. Further revisions in late 2020 and early 2021 to incorporate requirements for livestock (to address animal welfare concerns and provenance of feeds) have enabled the complete criteria to be published.

Lini Wollenberg | CGIAR - Lead Technical Agriculture Consultant: “Climate change is expected to severely affect agriculture, with average crop yield losses of 10-50% by 2030. At the same time, agriculture needs to reduce emissions by at least 20% to help achieve the mitigation goals of the Paris Agreement. The CBI Criteria provide guidance for agricultural investment towards a more climate-aligned future.”

Pedro Luiz Oliveira de Almeida Machado | Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) - Agriculture TWG Member: "I am very grateful and honoured to have joined the TWG in this task. There was a large group of experts in various agricultural systems from different regions. The criteria is a good example of putting science into practice to help finance climate policies."

Mareike Hussels | SAIL Ventures - Agriculture IWG Member: "While there is no doubt about the exposure of the agricultural sector to climate risk and its responsibility for substantial greenhouse gas emissions, the sector also holds important solutions for the climate challenge: reducing deforestation, carbon sequestration, and low-carbon production models. The CBI criteria for agriculture are an important step forward and as an advisor to agricultural projects and investment vehicles, SAIL Ventures supports progress towards a shared understanding of what constitutes climate-friendly and -resilient agricultural production."

Thank you and acknowledgments

The Climate Bonds Standards team extends its sincere thanks to the dedicated TWG and IWG members for their instrumental role in developing the Agriculture Criteria.

Agriculture Criteria Technical and Industry Working Group Members:

TWG Lead Technical Consultant
Lini Wollenberg - CGIAR
TWG	IWG
Amy Dickie - California Environmental Associates	Aarti Ramachandran/Iman Effendi - FAIRR Initiative
Anna Lorant - Institute for European Environmental Policy	Andrew Gazal - ESG Tech
Bob Scholes - Wits University Johannesburg	Ankita Shukla - Sustainanalytics
Brent Matthies - University of Helsinki	Aurélie Choiral Gupta - Credit Suisse
Christine Negra - Versant Vision	Brian Kernohan - Hancock Natural Resource Group
Clare Stirling - CIMMYT	Chang He - CECEP
Debbie Reed - Ecosystem Services Markets Consortium	Dana Muir, Mike Faville - BNZ
Gerard Rijk - Profundo	Francisco Avendano - Climate Policy IFC
Gillian Galford - Gund Institute for Environment	Gustavo Pimentel/Débora Masullo de Goes - Sitawi
Greg Fishbein - The Nature Conservancy	Hamish McDonald - NaturesCoin
Jonathan Hillier - University of Edinburgh	Jacob Michaelsen - Nordea
Kim Schumacher - University of Oxford	John Kazer - Carbon Trust
Ngonidzashe Chirinda - CGIAR	Mareike Hussels - SAIL Ventures
Pablo Fernandez de Mello e Souza - BVRio	Maria De Filippo - Affirmative Investment Management
Pedro Luiz Oliveira de Almeida Machado - Brazilian Agriculture Research Corporation (Embrapa)	Pedro Moura Costa - SIM/Facility
Raylene Watson - ebsadvisory	Pip Best - E&Y
Sam Schiller - Kellogg School of Management	Robert Rosenberg/Mélanie Comble - ISS ESG
Stephen Donofrio - Forest Trends	Roberto Strumpf - Pangea Capital
Tanja Havemann - Clarmondial AG	Rosemarie Thijssens - Rabobank
Timm Tennigkeit - UNIQUE	Scot Bryson – Orbital Farm

Further details on the Agriculture Criteria can be found in three supporting documents available on [the Climate Bonds Initiative's] website:

The Agriculture Criteria Brochure
The Agriculture Criteria
The Agriculture Background Paper

CGIAR & CCAFS Contribution

Lini Wollenberg, Flagship Leader of CCAFS Low Emissions Development was the lead technical agriculture consultant coordinating the development of the Criteria and the writing of the background paper. To develop the criteria, the Climate Bonds Standards team organized an Agriculture Technical Working Group (TWG) comprised of 20 international experts from organizations, Universities, NGOs and consultants, led by Lini Wollenberg.

An initial draft was produced by Claire Stirling, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). Kyle Dittmer, a Research Analyst for CCAFS Low Emissions Development supported data collection and the calculation of the science-based threshold for mitigation.

Originally posted on Climate Bonds Initiative here on June 17, 2021. This press release was written by Liam Jones, Communications and Digital Media Officer at the Climate Bonds Initiative.

Three Priority Intervention Areas to Provide West Africans with Sufficient, Affordable, and Nutritious Food in the Long Term

Dansira — Thu, 20 May 2021 12:00:00 +0000

Washington, May 20, 2021— According to the Food Crisis Prevention Network, a record 18.6 million people are currently in need of food assistance in West Africa. While urgent and immediate humanitarian action is necessary to protect vulnerable populations, a new World Bank and FAO publication offers fresh thinking for dealing with both the challenges and opportunities resulting from accelerating long-term trends including climate change, growing populations, urbanization, changing consumption habits and technological advances.

With its results being collectively owned by key regional institutions, including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Permanent Interstate Committee for drought control in the Sahel (CILSS), the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research (CORAF), and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the report titled “A Blueprint for Strengthening Food System Resilience in West Africa: Regional Priority Intervention Areas” reflects a broad consensus across regional stakeholders.

The report identifies three interconnected priority areas for simultaneous intervention at regional level that are critical to provide West Africans with sufficient, affordable, and nutritious food in the medium to longer term: strengthening the food system’s productive base, by promoting climate smart agriculture at farm and landscape levels; promoting an enabling environment for intra-regional value chain development and trade facilitation, and enhancing regional risk management architecture and farmers’ decision support tools.

For each intervention area, the report proposes a set of regional flagship initiatives, with specified sets of activities, delivery mechanisms, roles for partners and other operational aspects. A highly interactive virtual stakeholder conference bringing together 400 participants from across West Africa critically informed the identification of these initiatives. Selected examples include:

Accelerating the evolution of the regional agricultural innovation system by building on the foundations laid by the West African Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP), by developing regional expertise in cross-cutting areas such as mechanization and natural resources management to complement the existing network of specialized institutions;
Establishing a regionally owned scorecard mechanism on countries’ performance on trade policy implementation within the ECOWAS sub-region to increase countries’ mutual accountability and set incentives to reduce persisting barriers to agri-food trade and expand market opportunities for producers and traders alike; and
Strengthening institutional capacity and public-private engagement to provide farmers with tailored agronomic advice and weather information, by making use of the exploding coverage of digital technologies in the region.

Several flagship initiatives are already earmarked for possible financing through operations currently under preparation, most notably the proposed West Africa Regional Food System Resilience Program (FSRP) to be funded by the World Bank. Other partners are expected to come on board to finance other regional flagship initiatives.

Thanks to a strong track record of regional and international cooperation, West Africa has been remarkably successful in mitigating food crises that weather, health and economic shocks have caused. This said, there is an acute need for dedicating more financial and human resources to address long-term challenges to food security such as rapidly rising food demand, climate change and environmental degradation."

Alain Sy Traoré, Director of Agriculture and Rural Development of the ECOWAS Commission

The spread of digital technology across West Africa has the potential to accelerate the region's progress towards reaching the resilience targets of the African Union. For example, improving digital early warning systems and agrometeorological advisory tools could enable many producers that are currently underserved by the existing agricultural extension systems to better adapt to increasing weather variability."

Dr. Souleymane Ouedraogo, Chief Executive, CILSS/AGRHYMET

An unprecedented convergence of disruptors is increasingly affecting West Africa's food and agriculture sector along the entire value chain. The region faces the double challenge of maintaining its ability to respond to immediate food security needs while also stepping up its efforts to build preparedness for future shocks through sufficient foresight."

Dr. Abdou Tenkouano, Executive Director, CORAF

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed fragilities in West Africa's food system but concerted efforts to promote its recovery provide a unique opportunity for empowering the region's food system to deliver sufficient and nutritious food for all. Key actions include (1) taking advantage of increased food system investments during COVID-19; (2) adopting innovations such as climate-smart agriculture; (3) making regional trade policies more equitable; (4) investing in early warning systems and; (5) ensuring a healthy agricultural workforce."

Dr. Robert Zougmoré, Africa Program Leader, CGIAR/CCAFS

Future interventions should continue to include much needed productive investments at farmer level, but also pay more attention to downstream value-chain segments. Adopting an integrated food systems approach and building on the local knowledge and experience of diverse categories of stakeholders, including small scale farmers and their organizations and Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), will help to achieve more lasting resilience gains."

Alberta Mascaretti, Chief of Africa Service, FAO Investment Centre

Enhancing agriculture productivity and food system resilience is key to mitigate future shocks in the region. This requires: (i) substantial investments in climate-smart agriculture technologies, inputs, and capital; (ii) accelerating the use of digital innovations that can help smallholders to cope with future crises; (iii) developing market infrastructure enabling the region to benefit from production increases; and (iv) increased private capital mobilization to promote agribusiness and drive sustainable long-term sector growth."

Chakib Jenane, World Bank Food and Agriculture Practice Manager for West and Central Africa

Contacts

At the World Bank: Aby K. Toure, (202) 473-8302, akonate@worldbank.org

At the FAO: Investment-Centre@fao.org

Advancing research on climate change: World Bank grants $60 million to help strengthen the resilience of the agricultural sector in Africa

Fatime — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 12:00:00 +0000

This piece was originally published on the World Bank's website.

WASHINGTON (10 December 2020) – The World Bank Board of Directors today approved a $60 million International Development Association (IDA)* grant to help African countries strengthen the resilience of their agricultural sectors to the threat posed by climate change. The grant fulfils the World Bank’s commitment at the 2019 United Nations Climate Summit to increase its support to the CGIAR, a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in research about food security, to help advance agricultural research efforts for the benefit of rural households that rely on agriculture as a major livelihood source, and to increase food security.

Through the new operation—Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa project, AICCRA—the World Bank will support research and capacity-building activities carried out by the CGIAR centers and partner organizations, with the goal of enhancing access to climate information services and validated climate-smart agriculture technologies in Africa. By gaining better access to climate advisories linked to information about effective response measures, farmers and livestock keepers will be able to better anticipate climate-related events and take preventative actions that can help to safeguard productive activities and avoid catastrophic losses.

Mobilizing science and innovation for the benefit of agricultural development is consistent with the commitments made during the Africa Food Security Leadership Dialogue (AFSLD), a multi-partner initiative formed in 2019 to deal with the problem of hunger and vulnerability to climate change on the African continent. The new project responds to the AFSLD call for joint action against hunger in the face of climate change, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has further increased the vulnerability of millions of households.

AICCRA activities will be concentrated in six countries—Senegal, Ghana, Mali, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Zambia—but its benefits will be realized region-wide: “Knowledge generation and technology transfer are deserving of IDA regional support, because the benefits flow across national boundaries and therefore are unlikely to be supported adequately by individual governments acting alone,” says Ms. Deborah Wetzel, World Bank Director of Regional Integration for Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Northern Africa. “CGIAR plays a unique catalytic role in strengthening global, regional and local capacity to combat the effects of climate change, in Africa and throughout the world”.

AICCRA will be administered by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, the lead center for the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS).

* The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), established in 1960, helps the world’s poorest countries by providing grants and low to zero-interest loans for projects and programs that boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve poor people’s lives. IDA is one of the largest sources of assistance for the world’s 76 poorest countries, 39 of which are in Africa. Resources from IDA bring positive change to the 1.6 billion people who live in IDA countries. Since 1960, IDA has supported development work in 113 countries. Annual commitments have averaged about $21 billion over the last three years, with about 61 percent going to Africa.

Tech innovation not silver bullet for addressing climate change or delivering sustainable food systems, says Cornell-led report

Lili — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 12:00:00 +0000

WAGENINGEN, THE NETHERLANDS (14 December 2020) – We must combine social and technological innovation to make the world’s agri-food systems healthy, equitable, resilient and sustainable, according to a new Expert Panel report from the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, published by Nature Sustainability in collaboration with its sibling journal, Nature Food.

The Expert Panel Report brought together 20 business, government, non-profit and scientific experts from around the world to assess research linking agri-food systems, technological and institutional innovations, and society’s future needs.

The panel has outlined seven major recommendations in a 170-plus-page report, with its main recommendation revolving around the combination of social change with technological innovation.

Read the report here

While technological and institutional innovations in agri-food systems over the past century have brought dramatic advances in human well-being worldwide, these gains increasingly appear unsustainable due to massive, adverse spillover effects on climate, natural environment, public health and nutrition, and social justice.

To deflect future world food crises created by climate change and growing consumer demand, the Expert Panel created a roadmap for global agricultural and food systems innovation, reform and sustainability.

As is increasingly widely recognized, the costs that farmers and downstream value chain actors incur and the prices consumers pay understate foods’ true costs to society once one accounts for adverse environmental, health, and social spillover effects.

Inevitable demographic, economic, and climate change in the coming decades will catastrophically aggravate these problems under business-as-usual scenarios. Innovations will be needed to facilitate concerted, coordinated efforts to transition to more healthy, equitable, resilient, and sustainable agri-food systems.

The panel consisted of experts who come from many different continents and who span a wide range of disciplines and organizations—from industry and universities to social movements, governments, philanthropies, institutional and venture capital investors, and multilateral agencies.

The panel synthesized the best current science to describe the present state of the world’s agri-food systems and key external drivers of its changes over the next 25–50 years, as well as tease out key lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic experience this year.

Chris Barrett, the Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Professor in Cornell’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, who leads the project, said:

“By any measure, our world’s food systems are phenomenally productive, responsive and adaptable, as we can now feed almost 5 billion in a healthy way,”

“But that means nearly 3 billion cannot afford a healthy diet. And with inevitable population growth, income growth and the climate change that’s already baked into the food system, our current agricultural gains and methods are not sustainable,” said Barrett.

“Globally, we can’t continue on this path without destroying the planet and imperilling billions of people.”

Philip Thornton, Flagship Programme Leader at the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), was one of the global group of researchers who contributed to the report, focusing on sustainable animal and plant production systems and the impact of COVID-19. He said:

“This report shows unequivocally that we have no hope of addressing climate change without radically changing the way animals and plants are produced to feed a rapidly growing global population.”

“The gains we’ve made over the last decades in eking out more food production with less inputs are diminishing. Our agricultural sectors – and the global food systems they support – are now far too dependent on manufactured and mined fertilizers that are used far less efficiently than they should.”

“The result is environmental degradation, severe risks to our health and negative social and economic impacts on the 1.3 billion people working in the often-perilous agricultural sector.”

“Genetic studies and innovative technology will help – but they are not magic bullets. Nature has an incredible intrinsic ability to renew itself, to recycle the materials it needs to thrive. We're just not tapping into that to solve the climate and nutrition problems we face.”

“We need all of us – consumers, governments, the private sector, investors and even smallholder farmers in remote villages - to embrace a much more diverse approach to food production and consumption, tailoring policy and business practices for unique landscapes.”

“In this sense, the changes we need in food and farming policy are similar to the compelling ideas emerging from the circular economy movement. That means producers, distributors and consumers must be engaged, informed and willing to support the needed transitions with investment and necessary behavioural changes.”

“The UK hosts the COP26 climate summit next year to broker new international commitments on tackling climate change. Around the same time, the UN will host a major summit on Food Systems. The coming year is a perfect opportunity for the UK to build on its new sustainable farming strategy, by putting more sustainable food systems on the global agenda.”

Further information

The report, “Socio-Technical Innovation Bundles for Agri-Food Systems” was funded by the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability and was published Dec. 10 on the Nature Sustainability website, in collaboration with its sibling journal, Nature Food.

The Expert Panel website can be found here: https://blogs.cornell.edu/nature-sustainability/

For further information, please contact:

Rhys Bucknall-Williams
r.bucknall@cgiar.org
+31 642 51 43 55

Identifying climate adaptation measures for Latin American farmers

Lauren — Thu, 06 Aug 2020 12:00:00 +0000

An assessment in four Latin American countries identifies the main vulnerabilities and threats of climate change to the region's agricultural systems.

CALI, COLOMBIA (06 August 2020) - Smallholder farmers are on the frontlines of the climate crisis in the agricultural sector, and at the same time, smallholder farmers feed the world, producing nearly 70% of the total food the world consumes. Providing mechanisms for these farmers to become more resilient, sustainable, and productive remains one of the cornerstones of the response to climate change.

Add-Value joined forces with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (the Alliance), to conduct a climate change technical assessment of a group of smallholder farmers in four Latin American countries. The study was sponsored by the International Climate Finance Accelerator Luxembourg (ICFA), as part of its support to Add-Value and the Small Farmers Climate Adaptation Fund (SMAF).

Through the analysis of a sample of smallholder clients from four rural microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Ecuador, Add-Value, CCAFS and the Alliance conducted a detailed assessment aimed at understanding the main climate vulnerabilities and threats facing agricultural systems and rural smallholder farmers’ households. The most promising adaptation measures have been identified through the assessment to enhance smallholder farmers’ productivity and resilience, and have been coupled with a series of metrics to measure the targets and impacts of the SMAF.

Climate funds for Latin America

This assessment is a major step forward in the development of SMAF, a US$30 million climate adaptation fund aimed at introducing climate adaptation practices to an estimated 20,000 smallholder farmers in seven Latin American countries, including five in Central America, through a group of close to 20 rural MFIs, with medium-term funding and technical assistance.

The assessment concluded that the investment strategy proposed by Add-Value in the design of SMAF is feasible in terms of both its technical implementation approach and socio-economic benefits for the target population. The adaptation practices analyzed in the study are well positioned to tackle the most common effects of climate change facing smallholder farmers in the region.

For CCAFS and the Alliance, this joint work with Add-Value expands the range of research in climate-smart agriculture focusing on rural sustainable finance. The incorporation of cost-benefit analysis complements the extensive technical knowledge on climate-resilient practices and technologies that both CCAFS and the Alliance have built over more than a decade.

Increasing adaptive capacity

These approaches aim to increase productivity and adaptive capacity while reducing the impact on the environment. In addition, this collaboration with Add-Value as an impact fund manager is a critical pathway for achieving impact at scale in Latin America's agricultural sector to enhance resilience to climate change and variability.

The implementation and financing of these practices will provide economic benefits to financial institutions and investment funds, and will also help improve farmers' livelihoods and increase their productivity in the context of climate change, as shown in this study.

In addition, through the application of SMAF's proposed theory of change, it is possible to achieve its long-term objectives of more resilient farms and improved livelihoods for smallholder households, as well as contribute to seven of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

For more information, please contact Lauren Sarruf Romero, Communications Officer for CCAFS Latin America (l.sarruf@cgiar.org).

Funding and partners

The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) contributed funding to this project, which is carried out with support from CGIAR Fund Donors and through bilateral funding agreements. For details, please visit https://ccafs.cgiar.org/donors.

As COVID-19 fractures food systems, global experts issue roadmap to avert post-pandemic food shocks caused by climate change

Leanne — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 12:00:00 +0000

Influential voices from six continents present path to climate-smart, food-secure future in wake of new UN report warning climate stress contributing to COVID “food emergency”

Download the report now

WAGENINGEN, THE NETHERLANDS (25 June 2020) – Influential voices from six continents present path to climate-smart, food-secure future in wake of new UN report warning climate stress contributing to COVID “food emergency”.

With COVID-19 intensifying hunger even in wealthy countries, influential food, agriculture and environment experts from six continents today responded to this bracing wake-up call with an ambitious roadmap for resetting food systems that were already being hit hard by climate change. It offers the most comprehensive global plan to date to rebuild all types of food production around the world—from smallholder farming to large-scale production—that have been rocked by the pandemic but will face even greater challenges from climate change.

The report, “Actions to Transform Food Systems Under Climate Change,” was developed under the guidance of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). It comes close on the heels of a new assessment from the United Nations warning the pandemic could precipitate a “global food emergency.” The UN is especially concerned about food systems in places like sub-Saharan Africa that prior to the pandemic were reeling from a surge in droughts and floods—and where global heating is likely involved in East Africa’s ongoing battle against locust swarms.

“It’s time for all of us to get talking about food and most importantly about food systems,” said David Nabarro, a World Health Organization Special Envoy for COVID-19 and Curator of the Food Systems Dialogue who is kicking off a round-the-world “relay” briefing on the action plan. “That’s all the different elements—from food production to processing to marketing and consumption, and all the steps along the way.”

The report lays out a clear, 11-part plan—and points to a wide number of readily available innovations—that can make food systems far more resilient to both climate and non-climate shocks.

The 11 actions (listed in detail at the bottom of this page) include efforts to sustainably increase food production in developing countries in ways that increase incomes and food security in poor, agriculture-dependent rural communities. Doing so, the report states, could dramatically reduce the need for humanitarian assistance in the coming years, freeing up billions of dollars for investing in social safety nets. The report also offers strategies to avoid expanding food production into carbon-rich tropical forests and explores options that can support healthy, climate-friendly diets.

In addition, the report lays out a policy framework for directing US$320 billion in public and private finance to food systems transformation. And it seeks more support for “youth-centered social movements” committed to building sustainable food systems, noting they can be especially effective agents of change.

“Our work over the last 10 years to address the impacts of climate change on food production, and vice versa, has produced a series of transformative interventions that can energize efforts to ‘build back better’ in the aftermath of COVID-19,” said CCAFS Director Bruce Campbell. “This endeavor is especially important for several hundred million smallholder farmers in the developing world. They were already struggling against climate change before this pandemic hit and will face even greater climate threats long after it has ended.”

Climate change: The slow-moving counterpart to COVID-19

While there are concerns the pandemic could significantly increase hunger and malnutrition in the short-term, the report points to even greater dangers looming in the coming decade as temperatures rise, weather extremes become more common and rainfall less predictable. It cites recent research findings noting that:

By 2050, climate change could displace 200 million people, the equivalent of roughly two-thirds of the population of the United States.
Rain-fed crop production that currently sustains Southern Africa may not be possible in most of the region.
Fish catches will decline by up to 10% in tropical regions.
Droughts, floods and heat waves will become more frequent and intense. Just a small increase in drought severity alone could raise the risk of violent conflict in places like Somalia.
By 2050, the impact of elevated carbon dioxide emissions on crop nutrients could cause an additional 175 million people to suffer zinc deficiency and 133 million to become protein deficient.

Food solutions from around the world present opportunities in time of crisis

At the same time, the report offers an abundance of evidence that farmers and food systems around the world are not destined for disaster—especially if the lessons from COVID-19 awaken action to confront climate impacts. The launch today features more than a dozen farmers and influential food and agriculture voices speaking live in a global “relay” from Ethiopia, Australia, Vietnam, India, Mali, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Colombia and the United States. They will present a wide array of solutions for creating a new era of climate-smart food production. For example:

Imelda Bacudo, Advisor on Food Security and Climate Change for the ten-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), will discuss the how the pact’s efforts to deal with the food challenges caused by the pandemic—including activating established emergency food reserve measures, specifically, rice interventions—is revealing the need for a more comprehensive plan for contending with other food system shocks.

“We felt the effects of this pandemic far earlier than many other regions and quickly moved to mobilize resources and policy changes,” Bacudo said. “It’s clear that dealing with the food impacts of these external shocks requires action far beyond the food and agriculture sector. And that kind of cross-sector collaboration remains a challenge, at the regional and national level.”

Rikin Gandhi, CEO of Digital Green, will show how his groundbreaking company uses videos and digital content delivered via mobile phones to share content and train more than one million farmers in India and 500,000 farmers in Ethiopia every two weeks in practices like Zero-Budget Natural Farming or ZBNF. ZBNF combines the latest in agriculture science with traditional farming practices to help farmers use locally available inputs to sustainably increase crop productivity and adapt to changing growing conditions.

“In Ethiopia and India, with COVID-19 and a desert locust outbreak spreading just as the cropping season is getting underway, digital technologies are enabling extension agents and farmers to stay connected,” Gandhi said. “It means they can share data and insights from the field that can be critical to overcoming these twin challenges.”

Ambassador Seyni Nafo from the Republic of Mali, a guiding force behind the African Adaptation Initiative (AAI) and former chair of the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change, will discuss large-scale, integrated rural agricultural development programs that could have limited the food impacts of COVID-19—and will be critical for coping with climate change. He notes that work is underway in East Africa, facilitated by AAI & Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA), to mobilize at least US$300 million in public and private sector financing to improve access to affordable credit, digital farmer services and sustainable farming technologies like drip irrigation—with all made available to local communities via a single initiative.

“There are many proven approaches to making our food systems far more resilient to external shocks,” Ambassador Nafo said. “But they have not been implemented at an adequate scale to provide rural communities with the support they need.”

Dr. Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, Co-Chair of the Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (GACSA) will discuss the potential of the newly formed African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to increase regional trade in food commodities in ways that can fortify local food systems and encourage greater investments in smallholder farmers. She notes that border shutdowns prompted by COVID-19 have highlighted the important role of imports and exports to maintaining adequate supplies of affordable, nutritious food. She believes AfCFTA could play a crucial role in building resilience to climate change by, among other things, stimulating investments in production and marketing infrastructure that enable local farmers and food companies to supply consumers across the continent.

“Promoting intra-regional trade in agriculture commodities and food products is crucial for Africa’s food security, both in the short and long-term,” Dr. Sibanda said.

Ruben Echeverria, Emeritus Director General of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (known by its Spanish language acronym CIAT), noted the growing practice in the tropics of Latin America—with great chance of spreading to other parts of the global south—of combining crop-livestock-forage systems with trees. These so-called “silvopastoral” systems increase cattle productivity and improve animal welfare—for beef and dairy. They are very different from the industrial “feedlots” and from the extensive low-productivity more traditional livestock production systems and add trees to the landscape, instead of cutting forests for grazing land, all coming together to dramatically reduce emissions.

“If you take into account that two-thirds of the agricultural land on the planet is grazing land, these are the types of systems that should be taken to scale for huge planetary impacts,” Echeverria said.

“The disruptions caused by this terrible pandemic have at least awakened the world to the fact that our food systems are far more vulnerable than many realized,” said Campbell. “Climate change is already compounding these problems, but the solutions we present—which seek bold transformations in everything from farming to trade, diets and government policies—offer an opportunity to pursue a much brighter future for people and our planet.”

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Contact information:

Michelle Geis Wallace, Burness, at mgeis@burness.com | +1 703 371 7861
Saburi Chirimi at Burness, schirimi@burness.com | +254 721 569 369.

Transforming Food Systems Under a Changing Climate is an initiative that brings together leaders in science, business, farming, policy and grassroots organizations to identify pathways for transformation. The initiative is led by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) together with a wide range of partners that aims to realize a transformation in food systems by mobilizing knowledge and catalyzing action.

Four action areas and 11 actions for food systems transformation

Game-changing technologies to transform our food systems

Fatime — Tue, 19 May 2020 12:00:00 +0000

A pipeline of disruptive technologies could transform our food systems, ecosystems and human health, but attention to the enabling environment is needed to realize their potential.

WAGENINGEN, THE NETHERLANDS (25 March 2020) – In the next three decades we will need a 30–70% increase in food availability to meet the demand from an increasing population. And the global food system will need to change profoundly if it is going to provide humanity with healthy food that is grown sustainably in ways that are not only resilient in the face of climate change but also do not surpass planetary boundaries.

Research to date on the future of our food systems has largely focused on incremental changes possible with existing technologies. But even that research finds that incremental change will not be enough—we must radically transform our food systems. Prompted by a conversation with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a new study in Nature Food led by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) offers insights into some disruptive, game-changing technologies that could make the difference for both people and the planet, and the social change needed to realize their potential.

Figure 1.10 innovative technologies for food systems transformation.

Investigating 75 emerging technologies, the study’s authors identify an arsenal of highly promising options, many of them ready or near-ready. Their shortlist comprises technologies that not only contribute to a host of Sustainable Development Goals—climate action, reducing environmental impact, reducing poverty, healthy food—but can also be tailored to a range of institutional and political contexts. The diverse pipeline spans the entire food value chain, from production and processing to consumption and waste management.

Some we are already familiar with, such as artificial meats, 3D printing, drones, “intelligent” materials, and vertical agriculture. Others require a bigger stretch of the imagination: nitrogen-fixing cereals that don’t need fertilizer, spreadable biodegradable polymers that conserve soil moisture, feed for livestock produced from human sewage. While the study focuses on the potential benefits of these technologies, it acknowledges there will be tradeoffs. And not only for the environment and human health—genetic modification of crops is already hotly debated; there is also the risk that unequal access to costly technologies across the globe could increase inequality. Transparency will be key to safeguarding against unintended negative social and environmental impacts, and appropriate policies and regulations are needed to ensure benefits are distributed fairly.

Figure 2. Essential elements for accelerating the systemic transformation of food systems. These accelerators help achieve healthy and sustainable diets, productive agrifood systems and improved waste management—three outcomes necessary to attain sustainable food systems.

Building the social trust necessary for new technologies to take flight will be the foundation of transformative change, say the authors. “New technologies, especially the more controversial ones, require investment and political support to get off the ground. And for real implementation you need public support. Dialogue is the first step to repairing the trust between science and society—this paper aims to open a space for that dialogue” explained Philip Thornton, CCAFS Flagship Program Leader and an author of the study.

“As many tech entrepreneurs see clearly, successful innovation requires a high failure rate. And with a challenge this big and this complex, we will need to attack from all sides. So while many of these technologies could yet fail, investment in their development and testing is crucial to the future of our food systems,” said Mario Herrero, lead author and Chief Research Scientist at CSIRO. “Our research lays out what is needed to create the essential dialogue and the enabling environment that will accelerate the innovation we dearly need.”

For more information, please contact Marissa Van Epp, Global Communications and Knowledge Manager, CCAFS (m.vanepp@cgiar.org).

Funding and partners

The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) brings together some of the world’s best researchers in agricultural science, development research, climate science and Earth system science, to identify and address the most important interactions, synergies and tradeoffs between climate change, agriculture and food security. https://ccafs.cgiar.org

As Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO pushes the boundaries of what is possible in innovation, science and technology. CSIRO delivers impact nationally and globally through collaboration with industry, governments and communities. CSIRO Agriculture and Food takes an integrated gene to plate approach to improve crop quality and yield, develop innovative food processing technologies, create new value-added foods, and grow our livestock, aquaculture and fishery industries. http://www.csiro.au/en/Research/AF

A wake-up call for Latin America’s livestock sector: Emissions reductions crucial to meet SDGs by 2030

Lauren — Thu, 14 May 2020 12:00:00 +0000

A new journal article analyzes the emission reduction practices of the livestock sector in seven Latin American countries and their potential to contribute to the fulfillment of the Paris Agreement goals.

CALI, COLOMBIA (14 MAY 2020) – Despite the importance of the livestock sector for the economies of different Latin American countries, livestock is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the region. According to a recent study, the agricultural sector in Latin America produces 20% of the region's GHG emissions, 70% of which come from livestock. A transformation in livestock production is necessary if countries are to meet the emission reduction goals in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

An analysis of how this transformation can be achieved is the objective of a new journal article in the journal Frontiers "Ambition meets reality: achieving GHG emission reduction targets in the livestock sector of Latin America", by researchers from the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (the Alliance) and a group of experts from different agricultural research institutions in Latin America.

The NDCs of Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Mexico and Peru were analyzed to find out what the countries' goals for reducing GHG emissions are, then these goals were contrasted with the technologies and practices reported to achieve such reduction over a defined period of time. According to the findings, a redefinition of NDCs may be necessary, since researchers identified that the countries could not meet their goals in reality.

The researchers found that—while a range of practices have been increasingly adopted including silvopastoral systems, dietary changes, improved forage quality, improved pasture management, and improvement of reproductive efficiency, among others—the adoption of these practices by livestock stakeholders remains limited.

Solutions exist, but barriers to adoption remain

Latin American countries must define more ambitious goals for GHG emissions reductions, which are necessary to achieve the 1.5°C warming limit defined in the Paris Agreement. These goals should also be raised within the livestock sector to increase the scaling and adoption of practices to reduce emissions.

To achieve this, producers must have access to inputs, capital and information, as identified in the study. "The first can be achieved through the development of formal systems of replication of grass and legume seeds. In Latin America this strategy is still underdeveloped," explains Alejandro Ruden, an author of the article, and Research Associate at the Alliance.

For researchers, a formal, subsidized credit system is essential to scale different practices and technologies. These credits can be granted to small and medium producers through mechanisms such as differentiated pricing for products from environmentally friendly systems or through payments for ecosystem services.

"Access to information can be achieved through efficient dissemination channels, as well as through the strengthening of effective and unified technical assistance and outreach systems," Ruden argues.

Articulate actions among the livestock sector to raise ambition

Ensuring that information generated in scientific and academic circles gets to producers is key to enabling the livestock sector to implement practices to reduce emissions and make their production processes more sustainable.

"It requires the genuine commitment of decision makers at the ministerial level, to put into action in an articulated and efficient way the GHG mitigation strategies, product of scientific research in Latin America," says Dr. Juan Ku-Vera, researcher at the Autonomous University of Yucatan, and co-author of the study.

Sustainable livestock production will contribute to the achievement of SDGs (i) Zero Hunger (SDG 2); (ii) Climate Action (SDG 13), and (iii) Life On Land (SDG 15), if national policies are aligned to improve productivity while reducing emissions intensity.

"It is necessary that the academic, research, business and public policy sectors can support and encourage the changes needed to raise the level of ambition and achieve the SDGs, considering actions from the farm to national scale," concludes Jacobo Arango, one of the authors of the study and leader of CCAFS' LivestockPlus II research project.

Journal article: Ambition meets reality: achieving GHG emission reduction targets in the livestock sector of Latin America