Research Highlights

Major survey of 5000 households finds farmers have tools for climate adaptation

Cecilia — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:31:40 +0000

It is often overlooked that farmers across the tropics already possess much of the knowledge required to adapt to climate change. Photo: P. Casier (CGIAR)

by Patti Kristjanson and Vanessa Meadu

In thinking about climate adaptation, it is easy to overlook the fact that poor farmers across the tropics already possess much of the knowledge required to adapt to climate change. Many are already adapting their agriculture not only to more variable weather patterns but also to more immediate problems such as growing families, health-related challenges, and spiking food prices. And many of these actions also reduce greenhouse gas emissions and/or store carbon.

The Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS) initiative became one of the first new CGIAR Research Programs in 2010. As a first priority it set out to collect baseline data at the household, village and institutional levels from benchmark sites in East Africa, West Africa, and South Asia so as to better understand the status of food secure households, what actions and adaptation strategies farmers have already been pursuing to deal with a variable climate, what information they are getting and how they are using it, and services they have been receiving. This data will also allow the program to track changes in food security and natural resource management practices, assess program outcomes and impacts, and plan community-led trials of agricultural technologies and practices.

Patti Kristjanson, a CCAFS Theme Leader who co-led the baseline surveys, says, “It was a huge challenge to develop survey instruments and approaches that would be implemented across so many countries and diverse agricultural systems.” The household-level surveys alone covered 5,040 households in 252 villages across 36 sites in 12 countries in the three regions.

Carrying these out, alongside complementary village-level exercises focusing on gender, equity and institutional issues, involved joint learning exercises and ‘co-creation’ of appropriate questions with experienced local survey teams and partners from all the sites.

“Building on its strengths as a cross-cutting CGIAR program, CCAFS research theme leaders worked with a range of experts with deep experience in designing and implementing these kinds of surveys, including the International Livestock Research Institute and World Agroforestry Centre joint research methods group and a team from the Statistical Services Group at the University of Reading, UK.

“The level of rigor and documentation introduced by this valuable collaboration has allowed us to share all materials – the survey instruments, the training manuals, the analysis programs – widely within a year,” Patti explains.

The results indicate that households have been testing and adopting new agricultural practices over many years to adapt to increasingly unpredictable conditions. These changes include improved management of crops, soil, land, water, and livestock, and new technologies (e.g. shorter-cycle and drought-tolerant varieties).

Are more innovative households also more likely to be food secure than less innovative farming households? Initial analyses of data from 700 households in 35 villages in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda suggest they are. The implications of this finding – e.g. safety net policies are crucial, and how to identify and target ‘innovators’ – are just beginning to be explored with policymakers, development practitioners and others. CCAFS encourages widespread involvement in this dialogue.

Patti Kristjanson is theme leader on Linking Knowledge with Action and Vanessa Meadu is CCAFS Communications Manager.

Agro-climate tools link farmers with crucial information

Vanessa — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Good climate information can be the most effective tool for adaptation. Photo: J. Hansen (CCAFS)

The way we produce food must adapt to a variable and changing climate. And key to achieving this is to improve the link between climate information and agricultural practices, especially those of smallholder farmers in developing countries. ‘Agro-climate tools’ do just that, and a number of tools are already being used to fill the gaps between climate information and practical action.

The brief, Agro-climate tools for a new climate-smart agriculture (PDF) was jointly published by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). It outlines a number of valuable software tools that are already helping policy makers and farmers make better decisions in the face of climate change. These include ‘Yield Prophet’, an which helps Australian farmers plan their crops according to different possible weather scenarios and soil conditions and Africa RiskView, which translates globally-available rainfall data, crop parameters and livelihood information into food security outlooks.

Jim Hansen, who leads the CCAFS research theme on Adaptation through Managing Climate Risk, notes the at good climate information can be the most effective tool for adaptation, but cutting through swathes of data and making information useful for farm management is a major challenge. “We are drowning in floods of climate information, but starving in a drought of climate knowledge,” he says.

In light of the UN Climate Conference currently underway in Durban, the brief calls on government ministers and donors to consider investing in agro-climate tools as relatively low-cost means to rapidly and effectively improve food security in an increasingly uncertain world.

Download the brief: Agro-climate tools for a new climate-smart agriculture (PDF)

Read more about CCAFS work on Managing Climate Risk

An introduction to Climate-Smart agriculture

Vanessa — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:00:05 +0000

Worldwide, there are opportunities for agriculture to contribute to efforts to adapt to, and mitigate climate change, while also supporting food security and the fight against poverty. To realize the true potential of climate-smart agriculture, international climate change negotiations must take into these opportunities into account, and adopt policies that create incentives for farmers, help finance projects, and fund continued agricultural research. A new booklet from the Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security gives concrete examples of successful climate smart agricultural practices and helps push the agenda forward.

Download it now! Farming’s Climate Smart Future: Placing Agriculture at the Heart of Climate Change Policy

Talking carbon finance with farmers

Vanessa — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:36:17 +0000

It is critical that people working on carbon finance projects effectively communicate with farmers. Photo: W. Foerch (CCAFS).

Story by Kate Langford, World Agroforestry Centre.

Partners from the CGIAR Climate program have been sharing valuable lessons on how to explain the science behind climate change and carbon markets to farmers. These are published in a new World Agroforestry Centre policy brief that will be presented during UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa

To the farmer, being informed you can earn money for something you can’t see, but which exists in the trees you have or are being encouraged to plant on your land, might seem like a far-fetched story.

To the scientist and project managers, communicating information about climate change or the concept of carbon sequestration to farmers is a challenge when these are issues which scientists deal with every day.

Scientists and farmers might operate in two very different worlds, especially in developing countries, but with more and more opportunities emerging for farmers to benefit from carbon payments by improving their agricultural practices or planting trees, these worlds are converging.

Moushumi Chaudhury, Social Scientist with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) explains how it is critical that people working on carbon finance projects effectively communicate with farmers.

“Farmers need sufficient information so they can make informed choices about whether or not they want to participate in a carbon finance project,” she explains. “They also need to be made aware of how the amount of carbon being stored on their land will be measured, monitored and verified.”

Chaudhury and her colleagues found very little information existed that would help someone working in the field with such communication challenges. “When we didn’t find any resources on how to communicate concepts such as carbon finance, we realized we’d have to do it ourselves.”

The CCAFS program brought together 12 people from Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, many of whom work with NGOs and act as brokers between carbon buyers and farmers. They discussed what works when it comes to communicating carbon finance, what doesn’t and what needs to be adapted to specific situations. The result is a policy brief, Improving carbon initiatives aimed at smallholders: Addressing opportunities and challenges through better communication, that has been presented during the UN climate change conference of parties in South Africa next month.

“There are three main issues,” says Chaudhury. “How do we popularize and translate the concept of carbon sequestration? How can we tailor messages to suit different literacy levels, genders, age groups and risk taking attitudes? And how can we support two-way communication between farming communities and external actors.”

Tactics and tools to address each of the issues are detailed in the policy brief together with successful examples. The policy brief highlights how the internationally recognized principle of Free, Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) provides a framework for developing effective communication approaches and tools. FPICs supports the rights of local communities to give or withhold their consent to proposed initiatives that may affect the lands they customarily own, occupy or otherwise use.

Martin Weru from The International Small Group and Tree Planting Program (TIST) says he was surprised to see that most of the challenges faced by people working on different projects in different countries were extremely similar.

“While our approaches to dealing with these problems might be different, the principles we use are quite similar, such as defining carbon sequestration in the local language and context, using different tools for women, the elderly, youth and other groups, and repeatedly sharing the same message because learning such complex concepts takes time,” says Weru

“Some people are using local proverbs or metaphors to explain climate change while others refer to local examples of weather-related events, and most of us use drawing and diagrams.”

While it has a strong focus on East Africa, reflecting the workshop attendance, the broad challenges the policy brief addresses are thought to be the same across the globe and the lessons can be adapted to suit different circumstances.

The policy brief is expected to be of particular use for other carbon project practitioners, agriculture and forestry extension officers, farmers organizations, investors ad national apex climate change organizations.

Download Improving carbon initiatives aimed at smallholders: Addressing opportunities and challenges through better communication

Kate Langford is a Communications Officer at the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.

Action must move ahead of knowledge to buffer agriculture from climate change

Vanessa — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:00:06 +0000

Farmers in Jamnapur village, Bihar, India install an irrigation system to help grow crops in dry periods. Photo: P. Casier (CGIAR).

The CGIAR’s Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security program has published a valuable summary of current knowledge on options to support farmers, particularly smallholder farmers, in achieving food security through agriculture under climate change.

Published in the latest issue of the journal, Environmental Science and Policy, the paper says broad-based action – integrated research, policy and action – is the best strategy to adopt in the face of the uncertainty which exists regarding the direction and magnitude of climate change and its impact on food production, food systems and food security across the globe.

While agricultural production will be dramatically affected by climate change and the expected 2 degrees (or more) rise in temperature by 2100, it also presents untapped opportunities for mitigation, given the large land area under crops and rangeland, and the additional mitigation potential of aquaculture.

“Maximization of agriculture’s mitigation potential will require investments in technological innovation and agricultural intensification linked to increased efficiency of inputs, and creation of incentives and monitoring systems that are inclusive of smallholder farmers,” the authors say.

The paper cites work undertaken by the World Agroforestry Centre on the climate mitigation and adaptation potential of agroforestry.

In relation to adaptation, the paper investigates the two main areas under which action is being taken: progressive climate change over decadal time scales, and better management of agricultural risks associated with increasing climate variability and extreme events.

While no one can predict the full effect climate change will have on agriculture, one thing is clear, and that is, urgent action must be taken.

“Action will need to move ahead of knowledge, with decisions made and reviewed on the basis of emerging research and consensus,” say the authors.

“There is a pressing need to invest in databases and tools to inform policy and practice in the spheres of agricultural risk-management, adaptation and mitigation. Likewise, initiatives to develop capacity to tackle climate- change impacts on farming and food must address not only scientific capacity but also the capacity of users to demand, interpret and apply scientific outputs effectively.”

The paper calls on decision-makers to take a strategic approach that focuses on key dependencies and processes rather than just a holistic view of the system. Applying such approaches across the whole food system and across multi-purpose landscapes, the authors say, is key to assuring future food security.

“Successful mitigation and adaptation will entail changes in individual behavior, technology, institutions, agricultural systems and socio-economic systems. These changes cannot be achieved without improving interactions between scientists and decision-makers at all levels of society.”

The full paper is available online (for subscribers to Environmental Science and Policy): Options for support to agriculture and food security under climate change. Environ. Sci. Policy.

A previous draft of the paper was published in November 2010 as CCAFS Report No. 3. Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change: Outlook for Knowledge, Tools and Action (PDF)

Story by Kate Langford, Communications Specialist at the World Agroforestry Centre. Visit the Agroforestry World blog for more stories about how trees on farms can improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the developing world and benefit the environment.

Zoom in on Climate and Food Security research

Vanessa — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:44:11 +0000

The new map-based platform lets you browse climate data and farmer videos.

The newly released Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Knowledge Network (AMKN) is a map-based online platform that brings climate, agriculture, and socio-economic information together with photos and videos of farmers living at research sites across the tropics. The platform, which was set up in collaboration with the CIAT-led research theme on Adaptation to Future Climate, aims to be an information service and key tool for practitioners, donors, policy makers, and researchers interested in food security and climate change.

The platform displays food security and climate data such as crop adaptation to climate change, drought indexes, and global climate models. Zooming into a region, you can also explore multimedia illustrating how farmers today are coping with climate variability, including almost 40 video testimonials from farmers in the CCAFS regions. A shift towards climate-smart agriculture requires an expanded research agenda that brings knowledge together in new ways, including research on seasonal forecasting for climate-risk management, downscaled climate projections for agricultural adaptation, and a new generation of climate-smart crop solutions. The AMKN will eventually bring all these together along with farm-level stories to illustrate the benefits that climate-smart agriculture can bring to millions of farmers around the world.

The initial sites on the map correspond to the CCAFS benchmark sites in East Africa, West Africa and the Indo-Gangetic Plains, letting users zoom in for a detailed view of our work in the field, or regional activities. New data and information will be regularly added to the AMKN and users are invited to ask questions and make suggestions on improving the tool via the AMKN Community (hit the ‘feedback’ button on the site).

The platform also includes data behind newly released studies on ‘Crop Adaptation to Climate Change’ , which highlights how crop suitability will be affected by climate change and the importance of climate proofing key crops across the tropics. You can read stories about crops such as bananas, beans, cassava and potatoes and hear what farmers are saying about their efforts to adapt to changing conditions.

Visit the Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Knowledge Network (AMKN)

African ministers support climate smart agriculture for improved food security

Cecilia — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:15:00 +0000

Including agriculture on the climate change agenda is crucial for future food security. This was discussed in a reccent minister meeting in South Africa. Photo: P. Casier (CGIAR)

The world will suffer dire consequences if food security was not placed on the agenda at November's COP17 climate-change meeting in Durban according to South Africa’s Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Tina Joemat-Pettersson, a strong advocate for confronting the climate change threats to agricultural development. With a backdrop of continued famine in the Horn of Africa and impending climate change challenges to agricultural productivity in Africa, Ms. Joemat-Pettersson invited Africa’s agricultural ministers to the "African Ministerial Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture” held in mid-September, on the theme “Climate-Smart Agriculture: Africa - A Call to Action”.

The purpose of the meeting was to share experiences and to develop a common understanding on how to advance climate-smart agriculture, as well as to raise awareness of the importance of including agricultural adaptation and mitigation in any outcomes of the upcoming COP 17, hosted by South Africa in Durban later this year. The meeting was hosted by the South African Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, with the support of the World Bank, the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

CCAFS co-authored the background paper (PDF) for the conference, which argued that Africa's poverty alleviation and food security goals will not be reached without measures to adapt food production to climate change challenges.

Gerald Nelson, who leads the CCAFS research on policy analysis for decision making attended the event and held informal discussions with participants on hotspots of climate induced food insecurity in the tropics and concrete actions needed to halt deforestation and promote climate-smart agriculture (PDF).

The Outcome of the Minister Conference

The agricultural ministers concluded the conference by releasing the Johannesburg communiqué (PDF), which underscores the need to put climate-smart agriculture high on the political agenda. The communiqué recognizes that food security, poverty and climate change are closely linked and should not be considered separately, and urges African countries to invest in facilitating adaptation and climate-smart agriculture. It also recognizes that climate-smart agriculture offers integrated approaches to green growth, food security, adaptation and mitigation, and is important in building resilient landscapes and communities’ adaptive capacity.

For COP17, the ministers urged for an establishment of agriculture Programme of Work that covers adaptation and mitigation and for the Green Climate Fund to be designed in a way that recognizes adequate financing for agricultural adaptation and mitigation. The communiqué also stresses the importance of approaching and conducting the negotiations at COP17 in the context of sustainable development.

Said Nelson: “This meeting is very timely. By coming together with one voice, the agricultural ministers and their delegates are signalling a strong position in Durban, one that will not let agriculture be the missing word in any COP17 outcomes.”

Climate Change Emissions and Livelihoods at the Forest-Farm Frontier

Lini — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:11:50 +0000

Rice paddies at the forest frontier, Bangladesh. Photo: T. Sunderland/CIFOR

Managing emissions that lead to climate change and doing so in a way that allows improvements in incomes and enables sustainable development to continue are among the greatest challenges of the coming century. Better scientific knowledge about the relationship between carbon emissions and livelihoods is becoming available, but it is limited, patchy, and based on limited empirical evidence.

Research sponsored by the Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS) program of the CGIAR, in collaboration with the University of Michigan’s International Forestry Resources and Institutions Program is showing how new institutions, property rights arrangements, and agricultural technologies can enable synergistic improvements in livelihoods and reductions in emissions.

The papers prepared under the auspices of the joint CCAFS/IFRI program were presented at a conference hosted by the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington DC on August 26. The presenters included leading researchers from around the world.

The conference, coordinated by CCAFS partner Arun Agrawal at the University of Michigan, included participants who examined institutional mechanisms that maintain the forest-farm boundary and contain agricultural expansion into forests; showed the importance of tenure arrangements and effective enforcement mechanisms in achieving positive development and climate outcomes; and identified how tropical deforestation can be reduced. Such research is critically necessary to achieving and maintaining sustainable development – it provides key lessons for policy making and decision makers across the political spectrum.

Featured Papers (click to download)

REDD sticks and carrots in the Brazilian Amazon. Assessing costs and livelihood implications
Jan Börner, Sven Wunder, Sheila Wertz-Kanounnikoff, Glenn Hyman, Nathália Nascimento

The Viability of Cattle Ranching Intensification in Brazil as a Strategy to Spare Land and Mitigate Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Avery Cohn, Maria Bowman, David Zilberman, and Kate O’Neill

Overcoming tenurial constraints to carbon forestry projects in Africa
Edward B. Barbier and Anteneh T. Tesfaw

Swidden, Rubber and Carbon. Can REDD+ work for people and the environment in Montane Mainland Southeast Asia?
Jefferson Fox, Jean-Christophe Castella, Alan D. Ziegler

Does secure land tenure save forests? A review of the relationship between land tenure and tropical deforestation
Brian E. Robinson, Margaret B. Holland, Lisa Naugton-Treves

More information

Download the meeting agenda

View the meeting presentations on Slideshare.

Profitability in carbon projects for smallholder farmers usually too low

Cecilia — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:00:00 +0000

Tackling existing barriers within agricultural investment could release potential mitigation from agriculture states new working paper from CCAFS. Photo: P. Casier (CGIAR).

The newly released CCAFS working paper number six ‘Financing mitigation in smallholder agricultural systems: Issues and opportunities’ investigates obstacles to financing mitigation in smallholder agricultural systems and gives recommendations on how to overcome these. It emphasizes how smallholder agricultural finances overlaps with carbon finance. The working paper concludes that existing carbon finance approaches, with their complex procedures, unpredictable and often long payback periods are worsened by existing agricultural finance barriers such as lack of investments and resources. Many of the barriers to smallholder carbon credit mitigation projects are general issues associated with investing in smallholder agriculture, rather than carbon finance per se. The working paper also concludes that existing agricultural investment barriers are fundamental to the livelihoods of many, and go far beyond carbon finance issues, although significant overlap is acknowledged. By tackling these barriers, it may be possible to release some of the potential mitigation from agriculture.

Issue on how to quantify mitigation presents a barrier to generate carbon credits

Smallholders can generate carbon credits through energy and land use practices. Although sales of carbon credits could be a valuable addition to smallholder incomes, a number of barriers have prevented this. One barrier has been a lack of accepted standards with methodologies to quantify mitigation from agricultural practices. Other barriers to both energy and LU agricultural mitigation projects involving smallholders include:

Small size of benefit per smallholder: projects require significant spatial scale to be economically viable, given the transaction costs of monitoring, measuring mitigation achieved;
The informational complexity faced by the smallholder during the carbon credit registration and issuance processes.
The sizeable up-front cost of project development;
Uncertainty of cash flow ex-ante; Projects using a voluntary carbon standard can be difficult to value, as Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCMs) are relatively un-transparent and illiquid.

Profitability in carbon projects for smallhold farmers usually too low

Agricultural mitigation finance could result in win-win situations for smallholders. However, the profitability of pure agricultural carbon projects involving smallholders is often too low to be of interest. It may therefore be necessary to design carbon finance in such a way that it helps to bridge the gap until the project becomes economical. A few of the Working Paper’s recommendations to various groups for developing win-win approaches that address smallholder financing(and carbon finance) barriers are given below:

Governments, multilaterals and donor agencies

• Support infrastructure development that improves smallholders’ access to financial inputs (e.g. credit bureaus, weather stations);

• Support controlled productivity gains e.g. access to input through broad coinvestment subsidies.

Companies, including investors and banks

• Test the application of carbon as an additional revenue stream in existing smallholder production systems;

• Develop new products that can be used by smallholders to overcome barriers, e.g. MPESA, the Kenyan mobile payment system;

• Test the use of new forms of collateral e.g. carbon credit purchase contracts.

NGO and research organizations

• Explore opportunities for adding a mitigation element to existing private and public extensions services (e.g. piggybacking on PepsiCo’s Indian distribution system);

• Develop and test instruments to help farmers overcome barriers, e.g. risk mitigation instruments, securitization of future carbon revenues.

CCAFS working paper number six is released as an output for CCAFS Research Theme 3:Pro-poor Climate Change Mitigation, and was produced by Tanja Havemann. To read all the recommendations and the rest of the working paper please follow this link.

Climate services in East Africa fail to effectively adress farmer's demands

Cecilia — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 06:57:00 +0000

Receiving and understanding climate information is vital for food security. Photo: James Hansen (CCAFS).

Countries in the East African region still struggle to receive and disperse climate information which would enable them to more effectively adapt to climate change effects. They also face unforeseen fluctuations in food production and market prices due to increasing climate variability and change, which seriously affects their food security. Climate information products and services, supported by applied research, could contribute greatly to the development of appropriate adaptation strategies to climate change states the newly released working paper from CCAFS ‘The State of Climate Information Services for Agriculture and Food Security in East African Countries’.

After the drought and famine in the early 1980s several East African countries did develop climate services, as well as regional and national food security outlooks and famine early warning (FEWs) systems. The FEWs has improved the region’s ability to deal with food crisis and famine. Despite the availability of relatively reliable climate information and products farmers seldom use these, due to lack of accessibility, adaptability to local conditions and sometimes difficulty in understanding the language and format that the climate service information is dispersed through. CCAFS working paper number five therefore assesses existing climate products and services in Eastern Africa as a contribution to better define and undertake research to support climate risk management in the agriculture and food security sector. It also sets out to narrow the gap between actual output and usage through inventorying the climate information types, format and how they are disseminated from various regional and national actors in the East African region.

Several constraints in climate information services

The paper found that there is a strong interest in the use of climate information and particularly seasonal forecast information in agriculture and food security, but the following constraints were noted:

Communication failures,
Limited access to information,
Mismatch between farmers needs,
Scale, content, format or accuracy of available information.

As a way to improve and address these constraints, and improve climate information production and use, climate outlook forums and users capacity building workshops have been organized in the region. Through these the interactions between producers of climate information, researchers and different categories of decision makers have been enhanced. The dialogue has contributed significantly to the development of regional and national adaptation strategies focusing on agriculture, food security and water resources management the paper reports.

One outcome of the working paper was the realization that the livestock sector has not fully made use of satellite-based information (NDVI) for pasture monitoring. There is therefore a need to relate NDVI and climate information with a view to developing pasture yield models. A well-functioning pastoralist system is seen as key to managing drought states a report by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), thus improving ways to foreseen climate change effects and weather for pastoralist will be vital for food security in the region.

Mobile phones important for information dispersion

The paper also found that the food security sector in the region would substantially benefit from more accurate food production estimates to better assess food risks well in advance and implement measures. In most cases today in the region, food crisis are not anticipated well in advance and costly response measures are applied such as international emergency food aid. Research also found mobile phones playing a crucial role in information dissemination. Read more on how telephones can be used in agricultural development.

The problem is still dissemination of information to farmers where more than half of farmers in countries are not yet exposed to research and extension services. Also, where available, the climate services do not usually address effectively the demands of farmers either. As a way forward there is a need to improve farmer’s capacity to articulate demands for agricultural services, build partnerships between farmers and information service providers and build the providers capacity to respond to the farmer’s demands. Efforts are therefore required to make future outlooks and assessments more relevant and adequate to inform strategies, policies, plans and practices in the agriculture and food sector, the report states.

CCAFS working paper number five is released as an output for CCAFS Research Theme 2: Adaptation through Managing Climate Risks and was authored by Mohammed Kadi, Leonard Njogu Njau, John Mwikya and Andre Kamga. The project paper refer to CCAFS region countries: Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia. To read the project paper please click here.

Climate information services still poorly utilized in West Africa

Cecilia — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 22:00:00 +0000

Learning how to interpret seasonal rainfall forecasts. Photo: James Hansen (CCAFS)

Timely provided climate information can assist farmers in developing countries to prepare for climate change effects. The main challenges with the current climate information services in West Africa are the lack of adaptation to local conditions, accessibility and the format that is used, which can be difficult for farmers to understand. The result is that even though relatively reliable climate information and products have been available since late 1990s, farmers seldom use the products for farm-level decision-making. This was reported in CCAFS newly released working paper ‘The State of Climate Information Services for Agriculture and Food Security in West African Countries’. It is essential that climate services and information are made locally accessible to the neediest communities, with full ownership by the relevant communities, so that they can successfully manage climate risks and improve their livelihoods.

The working paper sets out to inventory the current types and formats of climate information used in West Africa, while at the same time assesses the climate services used, investigating how such services are disseminated and applied by various regional and national actors. The paper also makes recommendations on measures that could be taken in order to better satisfy climate information needs in the agriculture and food security sector. Apart from bridging the gap between producers and users of climate information and products, the report produces relevant knowledge, identifies promising initiatives, and clarifies areas where CCAFS may be involved in adding value.

Internet becoming the main media channel for climate information

The results of the working paper are that the provision of Early Warning Systems (EWSs) has improved the region’s ability to deal with food emergencies and famine. It was also found that the National Meteorological Services and Hydrological Services (NMHS) at the national level does provide climate information, which includes observation analysis and forecasts at short-range, and long-range for various sector decision-making. In addition to this, the most basic types of climate information regularly used by most stakeholders were found to be:

- Raw data, particularly rainfall at specific locations;

- Historical rainfall and other agro-climatic datasets;

- Rainfall, humidity, temperatures minimum and maximum;

- Wind seed direction and direction are needed to monitor locust invasion, application of fertilizer and spray of pesticides.

The working paper also concludes that websites are becoming the main media of communication of the climate information, instead of receiving the information via radio, TV or newspaper.

Recommendations to improve climate services in the region

In order to improve climate information services, the researchers make a set of recommendations. A few of the recommendations are listed here:

Capacity building to develop joint climate agriculture research group to support operational interdisciplinary working groups, expand climate information interpretation and use to all countries of the region, improve understanding, packaging, quality and communication of information is required;

Agriculture and socio-economic modelling communities are encouraged to develop, improve, or adapt existing food-system models so that they can take advantage of climate information as input;
Agricultural development planners should further mainstream climate variability and change into agriculture and food security development programmes at national and regional levels;
Specific climate information for the agriculture and food security sectors should be developed and disseminated via farmers’ association journals;
Improved Internet connectivity and procurement of computers for efficient downloading of data and information as well as for processing and timely dissemination of climate information products and early warning information;
Capacity building to develop joint climate agriculture research group to support operational interdisciplinary working groups, expand climate information interpretation and use to all countries of the region, improve understanding, packaging, quality and communication of information is required.

CCAFS working paper number four is released as an output for CCAFS Research Theme 2:'Adaptation through Managing Climate Risks’ and was produced by Kadi, Mohammed, Njau Njogi Leonard, Mwikya, John and Kamga Andre. Countries included in the paper are CCAFS research region countries: Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Ghana. To read all the recommendations and the rest of the working paper please follow this link.

Final report: Mapping Hotspots of Climate Change and Food Insecurity in the Global Tropics

Vanessa — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:02:16 +0000

A rice farmer in Guarayos, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, prior to a huge storm. Photo: N. Palmer, CIAT.

The final report is now available for the CCAFS study "Mapping Hotspots of Climate Change and Food Insecurity in the Global Tropics". This study was coordinated by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) to identify areas that are food insecure and vulnerable to the impacts of future climate change, across the priority regions for the CGIAR centres. The research was undertaken by a team of scientists from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

The study matches future climate change “hotspots” with regions already suffering chronic food problems to identify highly-vulnerable populations, chiefly in Africa and South Asia, but potentially in China and Latin America as well, where in fewer than 40 years, the prospect of shorter, hotter or drier growing seasons could imperil hundreds of millions of already-impoverished people.

The researchers pinpointed areas of intense vulnerability by examining a variety of climate models and indicators of food problems to create a series of detailed maps. One shows regions around the world at risk of crossing certain “climate thresholds”—such as temperatures too hot for maize or beans—that over the next 40 years could diminish food production. Another shows regions that may be sensitive to such climate shifts because in general they have large areas of land devoted to crop and livestock production. And finally, scientists produced maps of regions with a long history of food insecurity.

This report is an update to the advance version released in May 2011, which was reported by international media including BBC, TIME, and Nature.

A model for building collaborative actions and common understanding on agricultural GHG mitigation

Vanessa — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:42:09 +0000

A farmer in Burkina Faso protects the trees on his farm needsin order to conserve the nutrients in the soil and water. Photo: P. Casier (CGIAR)

Agricultural climate change mitigation has been limited globally by fragmented knowledge and weak capacities. Networks can accelerate the sharing of information and enhance shared learning and collaborative action to more rapidly mobilize knowledge and action for mitigation.

A new CCAFS Working Paper provides an overview of three interelated initiatives for GHG mitigation that have facilitated communication and information sharing among US scientists, policy makers, and farmers to systematically build knowledge and stimulate action for mitigation.

The Coalition on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (C-AGG) is an open-tent umbrella initiative focused on developing agreement to promote progressive policies to incentivize GHG emissions reductions from the agricultural sector. C-AGG spawned the formation of two related initiatives – the Technical Working Group on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (T-AGG), which assembles technical experts to develop scientific and analytical works to underpin policy development; and the Market Mechanisms for Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (M- AGG), which focuses on the development of the market access tools and methodologies necessary for agriculture to participate in carbon markets. Working together, the initiatives have successfully engaged diverse perspectives to find common ground, and forge new areas of progress to advance agricultural GHG mitigation opportunities and efforts. Similar networking approaches may be effective for accelerating progress in developing countries.

Download

CCAFS Working Paper no. 3
C-AGG, T-AGG and M-AGG
A model for building collaborative actions and common understanding on agricultural GHG mitigation

by Lydia Olander, Debbie Reed, Daniella Malin, Karen Haugen-Kozyra

Emerging techniques for soil carbon measurements

Vanessa — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:37:55 +0000

A farmer in Kisumu, Kenya. Photo: P. Casier (CCAFS).

Soil has the capacity to sequester carbon from the atmosphere, and therefore offers the possibility for climate change mitigation. In order to understand how soil carbon behaves and which agricultural practices lead to increases in soil carbon stocks, scientists need the ability to collect and analyze quantitative data of soil organic carbon.

Traditional techniques for measuring soil carbon are expensive and labour intensive, and must be completed in a lab. Luckily, recent advances in portable tools and techniques allow scientists to conduct in situ analysis to get prompt, low-cost results in the field. This increased ease of obtaining timely data will allow for more accurate soil carbon modeling and a better understanding of the complex dynamics involved in soil carbon fluctuations. A new CCAFS working paper, Emerging techniques for soil carbon measurements, provides an overview of these emerging techniques, based on research done at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) National Centre for Instrumentation.

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CCAFS Working Paper no. 2
Emerging techniques for soil carbon measurements
by Debora MBP Milori, Aline Segnini, Wilson TL da Silva, Adolfo Posadas, Victor Mares, Roberto Quiroz, Ladislau Martin-Neto

Climate Information Crucial to Help Reduce Risk and Limit Disaster Damage

Cecilia — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:06:30 +0000

Washington, USA (21 JUNE 2011) - Forecasts can play an invaluable role when used properly in helping humanitarian agencies and governments plan for and prevent disasters, according to a new report launched today at the American Red Cross Headquarters in Washington D.C.

Climate and weather disasters, from the massive floods in Pakistan, Australia and Colombia, to the devastating drought in Niger, have claimed thousands of lives and caused billions of dollars in damages in the last year. According to statistics from the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, these types of disasters have risen significantly in the last few decades. Scientists expect changes in climate will make extreme events more frequent and intense in the future.

Governments and humanitarian organizations, such as the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) are placing greater emphasis on trying to prevent and minimize the impact of disasters by making earlier and better informed decisions ahead of time. The new report, called A Better Climate for Disaster Risk Management, is the latest in the Climate and Society series produced by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). The IRI published the report in partnership with OCHA, IFRC, WFP, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The report details ways in which disaster risk managers can improve their decision making by integrating climate information into their operations. Monthly, seasonal and long-term climate forecasts typically provided by national meteorological agencies and expert institutions such as NOAA and the IRI can guide contingency planning, logistical preparations, and resource-allocation decisions. At the same time, information about how the climate is likely to change in coming decades helps disaster managers evaluate how investments made today will stand up to future extremes.

“What we are able to show in the report is that climate information providers and humanitarian actors can effectively communicate and develop useful working relationships,” says the publication’s director, Molly Hellmuth. “And when they do, there is great potential to save lives and reduce the impacts of disasters–which is a real motivation to both groups."

In 2008, IFRC issued its first-ever international emergency appeal based on a seasonal climate forecast, using this forecast to develop contingency plans, preposition stocks, and train volunteers to respond to floods in West Africa. When floods occurred in Togo, Senegal, Ghana and the Gambia, national Red Cross societies were ready and able to distribute emergency supplies within 48 hours. The previous year, without the climate forecast, responding to floods took 40 days and cost three times as much per beneficiary.

A Better Climate for Disaster Risk Management (PDF) details this and 16 other examples including: integrating rainfall and hurricane forecasts into planning in post-earthquake Haiti; using climate information to increase long-term food security in Kenya; and using games to help humanitarian workers better understand how to use complex climate information. The key lessons and recommendations in the report include:

Weather and climate information, especially seasonal forecasts, can be used to help reduce the impacts of disasters by informing preparedness, disaster prevention, and emergency response.

Partnerships between climate scientists and disaster risk managers are essential to develop trust and create actionable information. “The best, actionable climate information arises out of a dialogue between climate scientists and disaster risk managers–it can’t be a one-way process,” says Maarten van Aalst of the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre, one of the report’s authors. “This requires investing in a relationship that promotes knowledge sharing, trust and creativity.”

Climate information needs to be integrated into existing decision-making platforms to ensure disaster managers can use it in their daily activities and that it helps generate concrete action.

Immediate gains can be made to improve disaster risk management in areas of the world where seasonal forecasts are more reliable, and where better-informed humanitarian decisions can provide relatively strong and immediate returns on investment.

Better funding mechanisms linked to climate early warning are needed. Governments, humanitarian organizations and donors should provide stronger support for preparedness and prevention measures, including more systematic funding for early action based on relevant climate information.

“We recognize that preventing and managing disasters is extremely complex and goes beyond just using climate information,” says IRI Director-General, Steve Zebiak. “However, in our partnership to save lives with the IFRC, we have seen the tangible value of improved preparedness when climate informs disaster-risk management.”

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More information

For more information on this process, please visit: http://iri.columbia.edu/csp3

Download the full report: A Better Climate for Disaster Risk Management (PDF - 5 mb)

Download the Policy Brief: A Better Climate for Disaster Risk Management (PDF - 1.5 mb)

Click to learn more about CCAFS work on managing climate risk