by Cecilia Schubert
After attending a thought-provoking climate conference session convened by the World Bank last week, we have one question on our minds: “Can we assist smallholders adapting to climate change while reducing agriculture’s damaging effects, without taking into account other sectors such as forests, grasslands and degraded soils?” Read more »
by Cecilia Schubert
How can you contribute to climate change mitigation? This is a strange question, especially if you were to ask a smallholder farmer in Africa.
But if farmers could benefit from carbon market funds through mitigation activities in agriculture, and also make changes that supported livelihoods, increased food production and enhanced climate resilience, then they might want to engage in low emissions development.
So, what is required to ensure that farmers get financial compensation for mitigation-related activities? And, in addition, what is needed to ensure countries can plan and implement low emissions development linked to agriculture? Read more »
With agriculture being a major contributor to climate change, schemes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture need to involve smallholder farmers in developing countries. Smallholder farmers in Africa are already engaging in projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and boost carbon stocks, but many farmers have yet to fully benefit.
A new policy brief How can small-scale farmers benefit from carbon markets? summarises lessons from six carbon market projects in East Africa involving poor farmers, and assesses what is needed to ensure projects are more successful, equitable and sustainable. The brief is published by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and EcoAgriculture Partners, with contributions from project developers across East Africa. Read more »
by Timm Tennigkeit and Andreas Wilkes
While there is significant potential for climate change mitigation in the agricultural sector, our recently released research report finds that reducing emissions is also cost competitive.
Many developing countries are actually beginning to recognize low emissions development strategies as a promising pathway to pursue sustainable growth, while protecting their natural capital. Some of them have already prepared low-emission policies and measures in the agricultural sector. Read more »
by Mariana Rufino
An example of how CCAFS and its partners are moving from the research desk to action on the ground while supporting local communities is ”the SAMPLES approach”. Systems Analyst Mariana Rufino recently discussed how the ‘Standard Assessment of Mitigation Potential and Livelihoods in Smallholder Systems’ - the SAMPLES approach- help address pro-poor mitigation challenges in developing countries.
Smallholder activities impact, and are impacted by, the constraints of their surroundings. Understanding these cross-scale interactions, between agriculture and the environment, could help generate a range of ecosystem services for which smallholders’ livelihoods depend. Read more »
By Emily Boone and Cecilia Schubert
CCAFS is currently exploring ways to improve women’s role in climate change mitigation activities and decisions. In the light of this, our Pro-poor mitigation research theme has released a Working Paper, “A Gender Strategy for Pro-Poor Climate Change Mitigation”, which examines gender-related problems and opportunities associated with low emissions agricultural development. Read more »
By Peter Newton
We are standing in knee-deep, tea-colored water. “Pekerjaan kami di sini”, smiles Pak Tukul, “our work is here”. He and his colleague Pak Maryanto have led my colleague Lini and me to this spot in the flooded peat-swamp forest, wading through pools and clambering across roots and over fallen trunks. We are here to see a research plot where they have been working.
They explain that the two of them have helped to painstakingly identify and measure every tree, sapling and seedling in this 25m x 25m plot, and to measure the depth of the peat, in order to estimate the carbon contained in this patch of forest. It took us an hour by canoe, and a 15-minute wade to get to this site: they tell us that this is the most accessible of the 200-plus plots that they have surveyed.
Why all the hard work? The site is part of an innovative REDD-like project, covering a vast 204,000 hectare (Mauritius-sized) tract of forest in Central Kalimantan, just east of the regional capital of Sampit. Read more »
by Cecilia Schubert
In Kenya, the government recently made a list of agricultural technologies, such as agroforestry and conservation tillage, that they believe could reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while building resilience. At the same time, Peru is planning a nationwide program that will scale up agricultural waste-to-energy initiatives.
A bit further up north, Costa Rica, is developing a mitigation strategy for its coffee sector, responsible for about 25 per cent of their agricultural GHG emissions. As a step towards their goal to become carbon neutral by 2021, the country is suggesting to apply nitrogen fertilizers more efficiently and establish coffee agroforestry systems.
So, what do these mitigation activities have in common? Read more »
by Meryl Richards
Even though rice farmers in Bulacan province in the Philippines are quite concerned about the changing climate, they are even more concerned about water.
Surplus in the irrigation reservoir that provides water for the area has been steadily decreasing over the past 30 years, due to droughts and increasing water demand from the nearby capital of Manila. Since Filipino law prioritizes domestic use over agricultural irrigation use, when allocating water, this sometimes leaves farmers without enough water to irrigate their rice paddies during the dry season.
CCAFS researchers at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), have been working together with the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), the National Irrigation Administration, and local irrigator’s associations to test a solution that reduces, not only water demand, but also greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in rice paddies. This can be done through so called alternate wetting and drying (AWD). Read more »
by Emily Boone
A new focus issue of the journal Environmental Research Letters explores the current state and near-term potential for improved quantification of agricultural greenhouse gases. Together the articles in this issue provide a vision for an improved system for quantifying greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in agriculture, with special attention to the needs of smallholder agriculture in developing countries.
The world’s population is growing rapidly: an estimated eight billion people by 2030, nine billion by 2050. Feeding the world sustainably requires balancing a growing population’s food and nutritional needs while limiting the greenhouse gases released by agriculture—a growing contributor to climate change. We cannot make informed decisions to achieve this balance without accurate data on agricultural greenhouse gas emissions at the local, national and international level. Read more »
CCAFS Coordinating Unit - University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Science, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Rolighedsvej 21, DK-1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark, phone +45 35331046; Email ccafs [at] cgiar [dot] org, EAN 5790000279012
Lead Center - International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)