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CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND

AFRICAN AGRICULTURE GRANTEE CONVENING

24-25 February 2011

Project title: Strengthening ISAR’s Capacity to Develop

Climate Change Adaptation Interventions and Policy

Recommendations that Ensure their Adoption

Grantee: Institut des Sciences

Agronomiques du Rwanda (ISAR)

Presenter : Dr. Daphrose Gahakwa

Time allocated – 10 minutes

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Brief Background of the Institution

ISAR is a public institution, established in 1962 with a

mandate to carry out research in agronomy, livestock and

environmental sciences.

Mission:

To generate and develop demand driven technology to

increase agricultural productivity for food security and

improved incomes while conserving natural resources base.

Vision: Enhance food security, economic growth and

integrated agric research for development

ISAR has got 14 research stations in different agro

ecological zones

http://www.isar.rw/

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Your other projects/programs on climate

change adaptation

• None directly implemented by ISAR

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Objectives of the Rockefeller

Foundation Grant

• Mainstream awareness and understanding of CCA

concepts throughout Rwanda in order to prepare ISAR

staff to be a champion for climate change adaptation

• Deliver agro-meteorological data analyses to customers

and develop policy recommendations that address CCA

at the organizational, local, national and regional levels

in order to facilitate the passage of policies that promote

food security and well being for the region’s population

• Capture demand of farmers and other stakeholders

and translate their needs into the development of relevant

interventions in order to increase uptake of effective

climate change adaptation technologies

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Key Activities Related to the Grant

• Establish a National Steering Committee on Climate Change Adaptation at ISAR

• Create a community of climate change adaptation champions within each research

program;

• Capacity development (Automatic Weather Station acquisition and postgraduate

training in agro-meteorology, climate science and modeling skills);

• Organize short-term training in agro-meteorology, climate science and modeling

skills—using train the trainer approach;

• Assess success of technologies through field surveys at the start (baseline) and end

of the project and document lessons learnt;

• Develop a competitive grant scheme that funds field testing for climate change

adaptation technologies;

• Contract a climate change research expert for improving local capacity.

• Contract an expert in policy to undertake policy analyses and recommendations

on climate change adaptation in Rwanda

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Highlight on the Progress to date

Creation of the National Steering Committee of the CCA Project; 9 institutions involved Acquisition and Installation of 10 AWS at 10 ISAR stations; One MSc student at Nairobi University Create a community of climate change adaptation champions within each research program: 34 Heads of Research programs committed; A competitive grant scheme that funds field testing for climate change adaptation technologies has been developed and launched; Field surveys at the start (baseline) to assess successful technologies;

Logistics: Transport and computers facilities Vehicle (Toyota 4x4 double cabin); Laptop (4) and Desktop Computers and accessories (2);

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Early Findings (optional)

• Meteorological data collection:

197 WS up 1994 with complete climate data,

only 20 WS are operational to date

Data gaps from 1994-1999

Complete data for Kigali city

• Baseline Survey have been conducted: Farmers in the

eastern province have changed cropping patterns due

to drought, in the north frequent floods;

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Temperature trends

• Annual average temperature in Rwanda has increased

gradually from 1971 to 2007, increase of 0.9 C in 27 years

• Average value was 19.8 °C in 1971 and 20.7 °C in 2007.

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Années

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péra

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(°C

)Early Findings (optional)

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Key Challenges

• Meteorological Data gaps between 1994-2000 at most of

the stations;

• Skilled personnel:

– in using current models such GCM, LEAP, DSSAT,

APSIM, IMPACT, etc;

Weak involvement of climate change aspects in

different research programs and institutions

• The contractual experts not readily available;

• Draw strategies to make a two years climate change

adaptation research for development project sustainable;

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Lessons Learnt

• Farmers are aware on climate change phenomenon

• Determining the impact of climate change on livelihood

requires skills;

• Climate change is affecting rain-fed agriculture;

• Determining and predicting the impact of climate

change on agricultural sector and population livelihood

requires multidisciplinary skills

• climate change impacts alone are difficult to separate

them from impacts of soil fertility changes, technologies

changes, land area change

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Emerging Opportunities for Collaboration

• ISAR Participates in the Elaboration of National Communication

relative to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change at REMA

2 new projects in Rwanda coordinated by REMA

• Supporting Integrated and Comprehensive Approaches to Climate

Change Adaptation in Africa – Building a comprehensive national

approach in Rwanda

Supported: Gov. of Japan, 1 year (ending with 2011)

• Reducing Vulnerability to Climate Change by Establishing Early

Warning and Disaster Preparedness System and Support for

Integrated Watershed Management in Flood Prone Areas

Donor: GEF, 4 years (2010-2014)

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Next steps

• Analyze long-term climate data from established

climate stations and mobilize funds for Climate

Change adaptation and resilience based on results

• Provide two small grants to projects that will test the

success of technology linked to climate change

adaptation;

• Contract experts in climate modeling and policy

formulation in relation to climate change adaptation

and resilience

• Sensitize agricultural researchers to include climate

change in their research agenda