FAO in action

Working with farmers to identify and implement

climate-smart agriculture

Event: Climate-smart agriculture advantage –better returns for smallholdersUNFCCC, SBSTA 9 June 2015

Kaisa Karttunen

Outline

1.Climate-smart agriculture: What it is?

2.Case studies and evidence from the field

3.Conclusions and key messages

Global concept, local actions

• CSA is an approach, not an agricultural practice or

system per se.

• CSA is location-specific: Identifies and combines the most suitable and sustainable practices and solutions for the local economic, environmental and social circumstances.

• CSA applies across scales: From national to local level, and from farmers to policy makers.

• CSA is cross-sectoral: Including all agricultural sub-sectors (crop and livestock production, fisheries and aquaculture, and forestry).

• CSA implementation and upscaling need a suitableenabling environment, including policies and support structures.

FAO Field Projects

MICCA: Work with smallholder farmers in Kenya & Tanzania

Key aspects

• Conducting participatory situation analysis with farmers to identify the potential CSA practices

• Testing how smallholders can contribute to climate change mitigation while improving their food production, resilience and livelihoods.

• Linking research, practice and policy for effective planning and upscaling of CSA.

In Kenya

Improving productivity in integrated crop-livestock farming system improved fodder, pasture management, agroforestry and biogas to increase productivity and reduce the climate change “footprint” of dairy production.

In Tanzania

Combining conservation agriculture practices withagroforestry, improved cook-stoves, and soil and water conservation to reduce burning and erosion, decrease deforestation and improve livelihoods.

MICCA: CSA Practices in Kenya & Tanzania

MICCA: Analysis by CSA objective

Food security

Crop yieldFarmer

livelihoods

AdaptationRainfall

use efficiency

Yield stability

MitigationGHG

emissions

Carbon in biomass and soil

Land use changes

Synergies

Ethiopia: Toward climate-smart agriculture

• Identification, testing, demonstration and dissemination of locally relevant sets of adaptation practices through land and water management

• Rehabilitation of degraded lands, reforestation, water harvesting, water use efficiency, livelihood diversification and capacity building

• Implemented through the government on low and high lands

• 1 000 households benefited with impacts on food security, soil fertility improvements, better water management and increased resilience.

Projects for climate resilience of farmers and pastoralists in Africa

• In 7 countries: Mali, Angola, Mozambique, Niger, Burkina

Faso, Uganda and Senegal

• Planning and monitoring climate change adaptation activities with farmers based on agroecosystemapproach integrating crop, livestock, natural resourcesmanagement and policy work.

• Using the self-evaluation and holistic assessment of climate resilience of farmers and pastoralists (SHARP) tool

• Holistic

• Farmer and herder centred-approach

• Focus in participation, flexibility and learning

www.fao.org/agriculture/crops/thematic-sitemap/theme/spi/sharp/

Agroforestry system in KilimanjaroBy building on indigenous knowledge of local people

• Food and income: improved via conversion to certified organic coffee farming; introduction of vanilla as a high value cash crop; and introduction of trout aquaculture along the irrigation canals

• Adaptation: Rehabilitation of the irrigation system to reduce water loss and to cope with longer dry seasons due to climate change; training in sustainable land management.

• Mitigation: Sustainably managed “Kihamba” system increases carbon storage.

China: Sustainable grazing for better livelihoods

• Improving moisture and nutrient retention in soils also increases productivity and builds resilience to climate change.

• Complementary measures – improved feeding, winter housing, post-farm processing and marketing activities –provide economic returns to smallholder herders and generate additional benefits.

• Restoration of degraded grasslands resulting in substantial carbon sequestration: 3 tCO2 per hectare of grassland each year over the next 20 years

Conclusions and key messages

Conclusions from the field 1. Selecting CSA practices based on

• Agroecological and socio-economic situation analysis

• Farmers’ participation in the identification process

• Site-specific assessments of the productivity, adaptation & mitigation benefits, adoption barriers & incentives, and effects on food security, income and livelihoods.

2. CSA works in practice

• Often more synergies than trade-offs between food security, adaptation and emission reductions and removals.

3. Implementation and up-scaling of CSA practices considering

• Biophysical and socio-economic factors

• Farming systems and climate impact and risks

• Availability of and access to labour, land and water

• Institutional and policy environment

• Incentives and support for up-front investment costs.

Key messages

1. Farmers must receive food security and livelihood benefits of CSA – merging climate change and development goals

2. Adoption of CSA practices is highly influenced by trainings and farmer-to-farmer learning – sustainable extension and information sharing approaches are key

3. Important for adoption: Incentive mechanisms, addressing barriers and involving local decision makers

4. CSA needs a supportive policy and institutional environment

5. CSA has a gender dimension.

Coffee shrubs and banana treesin the Kihamba layered vegetation, Tanzania

© FAO/D. Hayduk

Thank you!

www.fao.org/climate-smart-agriculture