Youth Marker 3

This report talks about the global challenge in terms of climate change and agriculture in the World. It particularly focuses on the climate projections and the related challenges interms of agriculture in Africa. Feeding people in decades to come will require ingenuity and innovation to produce more food on less land in more sustainable ways. Climate change will exacerbate already tight resourceconstraints by making weather more extreme and variable and by decreasing average yields worldwide. In countries where the economy is heavily based on agriculture, development of the agricultural sector is the most efficient poverty reduction measure. Yet agricultural expansion for food production and economic development which comes at the expense of soil, water, biodiversity or forests, conflicts with other global and national goals. This report highlights few country examples as follows : (i) improving hillside productivity in Rwanda; (ii) natural regeneration of agroforestry systems in Niger; (iii) greening Ethiopia; (iv) linking weather risk management with social protection in Ethiopia; (v) conservation farming in Zambia; (vi) restoring Vietnam’s mangrove buffer; (vii) community managed sustainable agriculture in India; (viii) using weather index insurance to improve relief efforts in the event of drought in Mexico; (viii) erosion control in China (ix) the three rivers in China, sustainable grazing and carbon credits; (x) cooking with biogas in China; and (xi) silvopastoral approaches in costa rica and Nicaragua. The report concludes with the following findings : (i) early action is needed to identify and scale up best practice, to build capacity and experience and to help clarify future choices; (ii) considerable finance will be needed to rapidly implement proven programs and support poverty alleviation and food security goals in a changing climate; and (iii) Durban offers a unique opportunity for Africa to shape the global climate agenda and establish an agriculture work program that is informed by science and covers adaptation and mitigation.

Conservation agriculture is an approach to agricultural management based on three principles:

1. Minimum soil disturbance
Zero tillage is ideal, but the system may involve controlled tillage in

which no more than 20 to 25% of the soil surface is disturbed.

2. Retention of crop residues or other soil surface cover
Many de nitions of CA use 30% permanent organic soil cover as the

minimum, but the ideal level of soil cover is site-speci c.

3. Use of crop rotations

Crop rotation helps reduce build-up of weeds, pests and diseases. Where farmers do not have enough land to rotate crops, intercropping can be used. Legumes are recommended as rotational crops for theirnitrogen- xing functions.

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.

This working paper synthesizes knowledge within CGIAR on adaptation measures in agricultural systems, for the benefit of parties and observers preparing submissions to the UNFCCC SBSTA. Experience from CGIAR and partners indicate that adaptation measures covering policy, technological, financial, institutional, and research interventions are being tested and applied in agricultural systems in low-income and middle-income countries. Lessons include the need to ensure context-specificity when designing adaptation measures, engaging farmers in decision-making, and combining indigenous and scientific knowledge. Adaptation measures in agricultural systems are able to generate various added benefits in addition to adaptation benefits. These include enhanced food security, environmental benefits including mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, and positive outcomes for gender and social inclusion. However, good design and implementation of these measures is important, for which capacity enhancement and technology transfer are essential functions.Climate change adaptation; agricultural systems; adaptation measures

This latest Module of the Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook entitled Gender in Climate-Smart Agriculture provides development agencies and practitioners, policy makers, civil society, research and academia, as well as the private sector with tested good practices and innovative approaches and technologies for gender mainstreaming in climate-smart agriculture (CSA). Gender equality is equal participation of women and men in decision making, equal ability to exercise their human rights, equal access to and control of resources and the benefits of development, and equal opportunities in employment and in all other aspects of their livelihoods. Gender equity is fairness of treatment for women and men, according to their respective needs. Equity and equality both need to be considered in designing CSA interventions. This module is a joint product of the World Bank Group, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

This paper aims to provide adaptation and development practitioners with a practical framework for developing Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems that can track the success and failure of adaptation initiatives in the development context.

This document shows a successfully designed climate change strategies and made  innovative and effective contributions to climate change adaptation and mitigation actions designed by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)  together with its partners.

The objective of this pilot project was to support communes in their efforts to identify, plan and implement climate adaptation measures that will help increase their resilience to climate change.

The objective of this pilot project was to support communes in their efforts to identify, plan and implement climate adaptation measures that will help increase their resilience to climate change.