Best Practice

The information in this guide to making and using compost has been developed from working with Ethiopian smallholder farmers since 1996, particularly in the dry and degraded highlands of northern Ethiopia. It is based on the Tigrinya booklet by Arefayne Asmelash (1994 EC/2002 GC), the ISD Project Of cer based in Mekele, Tigray. It is hoped that smallholder farmers and local agricultural experts in many parts of the world, and particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, will be able to identify and use the most appropriate and applicable method for making compost in their own areas.

Overview of Integrated Manure Management Integrated Manure Management is the optimal handling of livestock manure from collection, through storage and treatment up to application (crops and aquaculture). Through this process it is possible to prevent nutrient losses to a large extent under the site-specific circumstances. Healthy soils produce more food and are more resilient to climate change. Manure contains nutrients and organic matter essential for good soil fertility and soil health. Manure is a valuable resource of crop fertilizer, soil amendment and renewable energy. Manure is not a waste; not properly using manure is a waste.

Genetics makes use of natural variation among animals. Selecting preferred animals as parents can yield permanent and cumulative improvements in the population. More efficient animals can greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and feed costs. Breeding, including cross-breeding between indigenous and imported species, can also improve resilience to diseases and heat stress and increase reproductive performance.

Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is an approach to address the interlinked challenges of food
security and climate change, and has three objectives: (1) sustainably increasing agricultural
productivity, to support equitable increases in farm incomes, food security and development;
(2) adapting and building resilience of agricultural and food security systems to climate
change at multiple levels; and (3) reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture
(including crops, livestock and fisheries). This paper examines 19 CSA case studies, to assess
their effectiveness in achieving the stated objectives of CSA, while also assessing other cobenefits,
economic costs and benefits, barriers to adoption, success factors, and gender and
social inclusion issues. The analysis concludes that CSA interventions can be highly effective,
achieving the three CSA objectives, while also generating additional benefits in a costeffective
and inclusive manner. However, this depends on context specific project design and
implementation, for which institutional capacity is key. The paper also identifies serious gaps
in data availability and comparability, which restricts further analysis.

This brief focuses on the challenges in making climate-smart agricultural production work for the poor, who will be the most vulnerable to climate impacts. It offers recommendations to overcome constraints, as even small management changes can have significant income and livelihood benefits.

This edition of The State of Food and Agriculture addresses Women in agriculture: closing the gender gap for development. The agriculture sector is underperforming in many developing countries, and one of the key reasons is that women do not have equal access to the resources and opportunities they need to be more productive. This report clearly confirms that the Millennium Development Goals on gender equality (MDG3) and poverty and food security (MDG1) are mutually reinforcing. We must promote gender equality and empower women in agriculture to win, sustainably, the fight against hunger and extreme poverty. I firmly believe that achieving MDG 3 canhelp us achieve MDG 1.

Climate finance fundamentals present short introductory briefings on various aspects of international climate finance, designed for readers new to this critical area. In light of the fast pace of developments in climate finance, the briefs allow the reader to gain a better understanding of the quantity and quality of financial flows going to developing countries. 

Climate finance remains central to achieving low-carbon, climate resilient development. The global climate finance architecture is complex and always evolving. Funds flow through multilateral channels – both within and outside of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Financial Mechanism – and increasingly through bilateral, as well as through regional and national climate change channels and funds. Monitoring the flows of climate finance is difficult, as there is no agreed definition of what constitutes climate finance or consistent accounting rules. The wide range of climate finance mechanisms continues to challenge coordination. But efforts to increase inclusiveness and complementarity as well as to simplify access continue.

Climate-smart agriculture seeks to increase productivity in an environmentally and socially sustainable way, strengthen farmers' resilience to climate change, and reduce agriculture's contribution to climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon storage on farmland. Climate-smart agriculture includes proven practical techniques-such as mulching, intercropping, conservation agriculture, crop rotation, integrated crop-livestock management, agroforestry, improved grazing, and improved water management-but also innovative practices such as better weather forecasting, early warning systems and risk insurance. Climate-smart agriculture fully incorporates attention to climate risk management. Climate-smart agriculture offers some unique opportunities to tackle food security, adaptation and mitigation objectives. African countries will particularly benefit from climate-smart agriculture given the central role of agriculture as a means to poverty alleviation and the major negative impacts that climate change is likely to have on the African continent.

The ILO’s Impact Insurance Facility is enabling the insurance sector, governments, and their partners to embrace impact insurance to reduce households’ vulnerability, promote stronger enterprises and facilitate better public policies.

The Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) is a dedicated World Bank Group's program that facilitates access to finance for smallholder farmers, micro-entrepreneurs, and microfinance institutions through the provisions of catastrophic risk transfer solutions and index-based insurance in developing countries. Funded by the European Union, the governments of Germany, Japan, and the Netherlands, GIIF has facilitated more than 3 million contracts, with $392 million in sums insured, covering approximately 15 million people, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.