Case Study

Agriculture can work in concert with other sectors to produce faster growth, reduce poverty, and sustain the environment. In this Report, agriculture consists of crops, livestock, agroforestry, and aquaculture. It does not include forestry and commercial capture fisheries because they require vastly different analyses. But interactions between agriculture and forestry are considered in the discussions of deforestation, climate change, and environmental services.

Weather is a key factor in agricultural productivity, despite many technological advances. Climate change, however, is leading to changes in global and regional climates and more extreme weather events which have severe impacts on the growth of key crops such as rice, maize, millet, sorghum, and coffee as well as on socio-economic activities associated with agriculture and distribution of food.
In view of this, the impact chain approach analyses and highlights the consequences induced by climate stimuli (see climate stimuli chart). In a second step, it shows the related biophysical and socio-economic impacts and identifies key adaptation measures to counteract the relevant stimuli (see impact chain).

Data presented here are the result of an analysis of the adaptation and mitigation contributions of the 162 INDCs (representing 189 Parties) submitted to the UNFCCC as of 28 April 2016, and then revised using information submitted through 31October 2016.

Analysis of agriculture in countries’ climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies finds: Most Parties to the UNFCCC include agriculture in their mitigation targets (80%) and adaptation strategies (64%); Non-annex 1 Parties note the need for international financial support to implement their INDCs and raise the ambition of their contributions; For countries to meet their targets, climate finance will need to address agriculture.

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is being widely promoted as a solution for food insecurity and climate change adaptation in food systems of sub-Saharan Africa, while simultaneously reducing the rate of greenhouse gas emissions. Governments throughout Africa are writing policies and programs to promote CSA practices despite uncertainty about the ability for practices to meet the triple CSA objectives of CSA. We conducted a systematic review of 175 peer-reviewed and grey literature studies, to gauge the impact of over seventy potential CSA practices on CSA outcomes in Tanzania and Uganda. Using a total of 6,342 observations, we found that practice impacts were highly context (i.e. farming system and location) specific. Nevertheless, practice effect across CSA outcomes generally agreed in direction. While our results suggest that CSA is indeed possible, lack of mitigation data precludes a more conclusive statement. Furthermore, the inclusion of potential adoption rates changes the potential of CSA practices to achieve benefits at scale. Given the uncertainty and variable impacts of practices across regions and outcomes, it is critical for decision makers to prioritize practices based on their desired outcomes and local context.

 ‘Climate-smart agriculture’ (CSA)—agriculture and food systems that sustainably increase food production, improve resilience (or adaptive capacity) of farming systems, and mitigate climate change when possible—has quickly been integrated into the global development agenda. However, the empirical evidence base for CSA has not been assembled, complicating the transition from CSA concept to concrete actions, and contributing to ideological disagreement among development practitioners. Thus, there is an urgent need to evaluate current knowledge on the effectiveness of CSA to achieve its intended benefits and inform discourse on food, agriculture, and climate change. This systematic review intends to establish the scientific evidence base of CSA practices to inform the next steps in development of agricultural programming and policy.

This information note discusses the findings from CCAFS submisssion to the UNFCCC SBSTA on Impact of climate change on African agriculture: focus on pests and diseases.

The pilot projects of the Mitigation of Climate Change in Agriculture (MICCA) Programme of FAO in Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania have promoted climate-smart agriculture (CSA) and have been integrated into ongoing development programmes. The objective of the pilot projects was to show that smallholder farmers can improve their livelihoods and increase their productivity and contribute to climate change mitigation at the same time. The approach was to develop packages of climate-smart agricultural practices based on participatory assessments and expert consultations, implement the selected practices using a variety of extension methods and evaluate their effects on yield, food security and their potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on farms and throughout the landscape. Farmers who participated in the MICCA pilot projects reported that the main bene ts of CSA were higher yields, greater farm income and increased food availability. This is an indication that smallholder farmers can be an effective part of the response to climate change and make a meaningful contribution to reducing GHG emissions. Bringing sound, up-to-date evidence into decision-making processes can help shape policies that support CSA.

There is a growing consensus that climate change is transforming the context for rural development, changing physical and socio-economic landscapes and making smallholder development more expensive. But there is less consensus on how smallholder agriculture practices should change as a result. The question is often asked: what really is different about ‘climate-smart’ smallholder agriculture that goes beyond regular best practice in development? This article suggests three major changes:

• First, project and policy preparation need to reflect higher risks, where vulnerability assessments and greater use of climate scenario modelling are combined with a better understanding of interconnections between smallholder farming and wider landscapes.

• Second, this deeper appreciation of interconnected risks should drive a major scaling up of successful ‘multiple-benefit’ approaches to sustainable agricultural intensification by smallholder farmers. These approaches can build climate resilience through managing competing land-use systems at the landscape level, while at the same time reducing poverty, enhancing biodiversity, increasing yields and lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

• Third, climate change and fiscal austerity are reshaping the architecture of public (and potentially private) international development finance. This calls for: (i) new efforts to enable smallholder farmers to become significant beneficiaries of climate finance in order to reward multiple-benefit activities and help offset the transition costs and risks of changing agricultural practices; and (ii) better ways to achieve and then measure a wider range of multiple benefits beyond traditional poverty and yield impacts.

IFAD is actively helping developing countries make these changes according to their differing needs and circumstances. These changes underpin IFAD’s various new policy and institutional frameworks, such as the Environment and Natural Resource Management Policy, the Climate Change Strategy, the initiative on climate finance for smallholder farmers (Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme) and the IFAD Strategic Framework 2011-2015.

The objective of the Toolbox is to support programme designers and field practitioners in doing gender sensitive and socially inclusive research.