Wendy Mann

Second FAO Knowledge Event on Climate-smart Approaches to Agriculture

Doha, Qatar, 1 December 2012

Climate-smart Approaches to Agriculture:

lessons from recent experience

Background

Funder: European Community

Duration: 1 January 2012 - 31 December 2014.

Partner countries: Malawi, Vietnam and Zambia

Type of project: country readiness to scale-up

climate-smart approaches to agriculture through

capacity strengthening

1

Climate Smart agriculture

Project building evidence-based sustainable agricultural

development strategies, policies and investment frameworks to:

1. sustainably increase agricultural productivity and

incomes,

2. build resilience and the capacity of agricultural and

food systems to adapt to climate change,

3. seek opportunities to reduce and remove GHGs,

compatible with achieving national food security and

development goals.

4. encourage holistic approaches to FS, Ag. Dev and

CC

Climate smart approaches to agriculture:

mitigation and carbon markets not central focus

no blueprint for diverse contexts and capacities

1

a policy environment &

and agricultural

investments to improve

food security and provide

resilience under climate

uncertainty

OUTPUTS PROJECT COMPONENTS NEEDS

POLICY SUPPORT COMPONENT

Identifying where policy alignment/coordination at the national

level is needed and how to do it

Facilitating national participation/inputs to climate and ag

international policy processes

Project Framework

Evidence Base

Strategic Framework

Investment proposals

Capacity Building

2

What are the barriers to adoption and risk profiles of these practices

What are the policy levers to facilitate adoption, risk reducing tools, and what

will they cost?

What are the synergies and tradeoffs between food security, adaptation and

mitigation from ag. practices?

RESEARCH COMPONENT

Building

Blocks

Are CSA practices being adopted? If not, why not?

How do Benefits & Costs of practices

compare?

Policy Levers for Adoption

Investment proposals

CSA Strategy:

Technical, Institutional, and

Economic Priorities

Risk Management

Analysis

Test input, institutional,

information and financial constraints

Benefits: Food Security, Adaptation,

and Mitigation

Costs

Understanding Barriers to Adoption

Guiding Investment

Building Coherent Policies

Risk-reducing tools: safety nets,

insurance, diversification

What are relevant practices in country that increase returns to farmers, reduce vulnerability to CC & emissions growth

Identify synergies and tradeoffs of

relevant practices

Assessing the situation

Define the baseline to determine benefits of

these practices

Managing Climate Risk

Role of information under a changing climate

Risk profile of relevant CSA practices

Financing

A key feature: building strong links across

research, policy and investment for

policymakers and farmers

• The analytical tools used, depend on question being addressed.

• One approach is participatory scenario building:

• Develop a storyline or narrative for scenarios

• Identify key outcomes of interest

• Quantify scenarios

• Combine narrative scenarios with policy simulations

4

Issues addressed by countries

Malawi and Zambia:

• Conservation agriculture/agro-forestry/livestock/soil & water conserv.

• Diversification of production (dairy, legumes)

• Smallholder irrigation management (Malawi)

• Safety nets and risk management (Malawi)

• Input use efficiency

• The role of agriculture as a driver of deforestation (Zambia)

5

Vietnam (Northern Mountains) • Agro-forestry systems/land management practices to address

deforestation and unsustainable maize systems in uplands (erosion, land

landslides, loss of carbon from soil) and barriers to their adoption,

• Diversification of productive activities into perennial crops (such as

coffee and tea) with potential multiple benefits.

Emerging Evidence: Zambia Practices: Conservation agriculture (CA), i.e. planting basins/zero tillage

Adoption: Preliminary econometric analysis of barriers to adoption of CA

indicates that:

(1) Adoption remains very low: ~5-6% (sample size 4,187) and

~90% of CA adopters in 2004 abandoned it in 2008

(2) Adoption intensity is significantly higher for smallholders

(3) Strongest determinants of adoption are:

variable rainfall

Access to extension information on CA

Suggestive evidence: farmers adopt CA as a variability reducing (yield

smoothing?) practice

Further work is needed to understand better why these patterns occurred.

6

Emerging Evidence: Malawi

Practices: improved maize varieties, inorganic and organic

fertilizers, legume intercropping, and agro-forestry (e.g.

Faidherbia albida)

Adoption: Important determinants:

– Land tenure positively correlate with OF,LI, AF

– Drought proneness positively correlate with AF&LI

Yields:

– Improved seed, legume intercropping & agro-forestry

positively correlate with productivity

– Significant synergies among all three practices

7

Malawi: Building the evidence base on marginal costs of agricultural-based mitigation

9

-300

-250

-200

-150

-100

-50

0

50

100

150

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000

$/t

CO

2e

t CO2e abated/year

1. agronomy_dry

2. Integrated nutrient

management _dry

3. Tillage/residue

mgmt_dry

4. Integrated nutrient

management_moist

5. Tillage/residue

mgmt_moist

6. agronomy_moist

7. agroforestry_dry

8. agroforestry_moist

9. water mgmt_dry

10. water mgmt_moist

How will Capacity be strengthened?

1. Research institutions and universities; support for MSc and PhD

students

2. Local institutions: extension, land tenure, traditional systems

3. National institutions:

planning, inter-ministerial

Ag, Env, Fin - dialogues

(participatory scenario

building tool)

4. Policy frameworks (CAADP,

ASWAp, NCP, Action Plan on

CC Response of Ag. and RD)

5. Ag Ministry staff attend

attend UNFCCC Talks

6. Stakeholder consultation,

interactive web-based

platform 10

Thank you! Thank you