A report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published last month, entitled “Identifying opportunities for climate-smart agriculture investments in Africa” looks at how CSA is being applied to Africa. Africa’s population has just passed 1 billion and is due to double by 2050. As a consequence, the FAO has estimated that Africa will need to provide adequate food supplies for over 20 million additional people each year and improve the nutritional status of  more than 239 million people. Increasing food production in Africa is essential, but are current farming processes in Africa climate smart?

The governments of 14 African countries (Benin, Ethopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo and Uganda) have put into place “National Agriculture and Food Security Investment Plans” (NAFSIPs) in order to adapt to slow-onset climatic change and extreme events, and mitigate climate change. The report has assessed these plans to identify investment needs and options for climate-smart agriculture financing in Africa.

Key findings of the report:

Of the National Agriculture and Food Security Investment Plans in African countries examined…

• 60 percent are expected to generate climate benefits in terms of slow-onset climate change

• 18 percent are expected to generate climate benefits in terms of adaptation to extreme events

• 19 percent are expected to generate climate benefits in terms of climate change mitigation

Gambia and Malawi lead the African countries in terms of number of projects that address slow onset climate change as well as climate change mitigation, whereas Liberia and Niger ranked higher in terms of number of projects that address adaptation to extreme events.

In an assessment of the potential for quick deployment of climate-smart agricultural practices, Ghana and Kenya were both ranked as having a high potential, whereas Senegal, and Benin were ranked as low.

The results of the analysis highlight that NAFSIPs already include many climate-smart activities, however there is the need to consolidate and integrate these findings by providing country-specific inputs such as:

• analyzing the most promising CSA agricultural investment options and estimating their cost-effectiveness also considering the expected climate benefits
• outlining investments needed to transform ongoing and planned programmes, activities and  projects into proper climate-smart interventions, also identifying the corresponding (public and private) financing sources
• analyzing the profitability of the investments in order to determine the type of finance required
• leveraging existing financing instruments in agriculture with innovative climate financing mechanisms
• designing result-based monitoring and accounting procedures and national registries related to identified financing option

To read the full report click here

Find out more about Farming First’s principles on climate change

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Currently, over 1 billion people – about 15 percent of the world – are hungry. Smallholder farmers are unable to produce enough food to feed their families and lack the support to work themselves out of poverty. In his letter, Gates highlights the responsibility developed countries have to not only invest in agricultural aid, but in agricultural research. Between 1987 and 2006, agricultural aid fell from rich countries from 17 percent to just 4 percent.

At the same time, demand for food is increasing because of population growth and economic development, with the world’s population set to hit 9 billion in 2050. Supply growth has not kept up, leading to higher food prices and climate change threatens farmers’ ability to produce enough food to meet the growing demand.

Agricultural innovation, Gates argues, is a vital way forward. During the ‘Green Revolution’ of the 1960s and 1970s, new seed varieties for rice, wheat, and maize were developed that helped many farmers greatly improve their yields. In some places, such as East Asia, food intake went up by as much as 50 percent. Globally, the price of wheat dropped by two-thirds. The same process can happen again:

We can be more innovative about delivering solutions that already exist to the farmers who need them. Knowledge about managing soil and tools like drip irrigation can help poor farmers grow more food today. We can also discover new approaches and create new tools to fundamentally transform farmers’ lives. But we won’t advance if we don’t continue to fund agricultural innovation, and I am very worried about where those funds will come from in the current economic and political climate.

He also stated that agricultural research is ‘chronically underfunded’.  Climate change is becoming an increasing threat; studies show that the rise in global temperature alone could reduce the productivity of the main crops by over 25 percent. Climate change will also increase the number of droughts and floods that can wipe out an entire season of crops. Increased investment in agricultural research can unveil new seed varieties that can survive extreme weather conditions, as well as combat plant diseases that destroy crops.

Click here to read Bill Gate’s 2012 Annual Letter letter in full. Follow the debate on Twitter with the hashtag #BillsLetter.

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The following list was taken from e-agriculture.org and is based on activity levels during the year.

1) Impact of ICT4ag projects: The Community recognizes that “ICT will only become an effective, mainstream tool for agricultural development if the proponents of ICT for development can provide more rigorous evidence, strategies, benchmarks, indicators, and promising practices that are directly relevant to the core poverty-reduction and development priorities of developing countries and their international partners.” (Read more about Capturing Impact)

2) Agricultural Value Chains: The critical role and potential of ICTs in agricultural value chains continues to be important to the Community. With different types of ICT having different strengths and weaknesses when applied to particular interventions, the impacts of ICT are diverse and markets are influenced in different ways. People and institutions are as recognized as the essential elements in this system. (Read more about Agricultural Value Chains)

3) Mobile technology: Some have called 2011 the “year of the mobile”. As an affordable and accessible means of communication, rural communities and development workers are realizing the potential of mobile telephony to create economic opportunities and strengthen social networks. The Community continues to seek and share new applications of this technology and to monitor its limitations. (Read more about Mobile Telephony)

4) Improving access to ARD: The potential of ICT to make information from agricultural research and development more available, accessible and applicable is growing in recognition. To further understanding and successes in this area, the Community joined with the CIARD community to explore the issue in detail this year. (Read more on access to ARD)

5) Youth, agriculture and ICT: An agriculture sector able to meet the world’s needs without depleting its resources will only become a reality if young professionals are actively engaged in shaping the sector’s future. ICTs are a vehicle through which young people are attracted to and can find a place within the agricultural sector. The Community made a special effort this year to reach out to its younger members as well as raise awareness through YPARD. (Read more about Youth, agriculture and ICTs)

6) Gender and ICT: If gender is missing from rural and agricultural ICT initiatives, then an opportunity to improve the socio-economic conditions of women, who are the largest and most active component of many agricultural populations is missed. The Community realizes that ICTs have the potential to benefit women in agricultural production and to challenge existing gender imbalances in rural livelihoods only if there is sufficient understanding of women’s status and gender roles and responsibilities in society. (Read more about Gender and ICTs)

7) Water and ICT: As the population increases and development calls for increased allocations of water for agriculture and other uses, the pressure on water resources intensifies. ICTs provide wide ranging opportunities for the management of water as a resource, and for the management of information about water. As with other subject, ICTs are being used to manage critical information resources about water, making these readily available, and accessible. (Read more about water and ICTs)

8 ) Knowledge Base: The Knowledge Base is home to valuable resources related to ICT in Agriculture and Rural Development. These resources are submitted by Community members covering experiences and outcomes through case studies and reports, ICT statistics, examples of government e-agriculture programmes and policies, and other relevant information. We invite you to submit materials relating to e-agriculture.

9) Members: As with any network, getting to know more about fellow members and expanding professional networks is an important activity. The Community’s Member Profiles were very popular.

10) Sourcebook: With the launch of the “ICT in Agriculture” Sourcebook, a multi-author resource on the use of ICT in the field, the World Bank established one of the preeminent resources in the Community’s area of interest. Becoming available near the end of the year, it just made the top10 list. No doubt with more discussions on the Sourcebook planned in 2012, it will remain high on the agenda of the Community. (Read more about the Sourcebook)

Read more about Farming First Principle 2 and the importance of access to information for rural farmers.

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Deepa Bachu, Director of Emerging Market Innovation at Intuit sought a solution to this problem. The research she carried out in Karnataka back in 2008 found that 40% of the time, farmers were accepting lower prices in order to sell perishable goods and up to 100% of the farmers she visited were unsure of whether the prices they were charging were correct.

As a solution, Deepa developed a free SMS based product called Intuit Fasal that connects rural farmers with buyers and provides them with real-time price information via mobile phone. It is described as ‘a basic supply and demand calculator’. Farmers register for updates by calling a toll free number and will then receive three text messages daily from the service. These messages are tailored to the farmer’s crop and location, thus helping them chose the right market to target in order to get the best price.

The service currently has more than 500,000 users who earn an average of 20% more income thanks to the technology.

Mobile technology has been used increasingly to enhance agricultural productivity. Access to up-to-date market pricing information is essential if farmers are going to increase their profitability, and in turn, increase production rates. (Farming First Principle 5)

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As global demand for food is expected to double by 2050, agricultural productivity will need to increase significantly. Climate change presents a further challenge as more frequent and extreme weather events affect our food supply, our infrastructure and our livelihoods. The report explains how scientific innovation offers the best solution to increase agricultural productivity:

Modern, science‐driven farming including genetically modified crops represents our best chance of generating the increases in agricultural productivity necessary to feed our future.

The paper explores agricultural productivity strategies in the past, present and future as well as detailing the wealth of technological advancements available to combat world hunger, which are deemed “critical” by editor Calestous Juma, Director of the Science, Technology and Globalization Project at Harvard Kennedy School.

It also outlines the challenges science-based approaches to global agriculture face, most notably the lack of universal acceptance of genetically modified crops and the precautionary regulatory regimes in both Europe and low-income, developing countries that are inhibiting the research, development, and use of genetically modified crops.

The report argues that the challenge to food security can be met by enhanced agricultural productivity, provided there is greater investment in agricultural research, more innovation and investment friendly regulatory regimes, and enhanced global and regional networks for knowledge and technology transfer.

Read the full report

Read more about Farming First’s views on the responsible use of science and technology for improved productivity

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The report, Drinking Water Equity, Safety and Sustainability, by the UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, says between 1990 and 2008, the proportion of the world’s population with access to improved drinking water sources increased from 77% to 87%. This represents an increase of almost 1.8 billion people worldwide and puts the world ever closer to reaching the MDG drinking water target of 89%.

However, despite good progress being made, at the current rate, 672 million people will still not have access to improved drinking water sources in 2015. We have seen the world’s population increase by almost 1.5 billion people since 1990 with 94% of this growth occurring in developing regions. Some countries are failing to increase access to improved drinking water sources in line with this population growth. For example, 12 countries, the majority of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa, have each seen an increase of more than 1 million people in the absolute number of people without access since 1990, despite making significant progress in providing drinking water to millions more people and seeing increases in proportional coverage between 1990 and 2008.

In addition to population growth, the process of rapid urbanization presents a further challenge to increasing access to improved drinking water. In 2008, 50% of the world’s population lived in urban areas – an increase of 7% since 1990. As a result we have seen the growth of informal settlements and poor environmental sanitation, which together hinder efforts to increase access to safe drinking water in urban areas. Climate change is also likely to lead to increased water stress as extreme weather events threaten water infrastructure.

The report found that the gap between the richest and poorest in the use of drinking water sources differs significantly by region and country. However, in all developing regions access to improved drinking water sources increases with wealth, and access to piped water on premises is much higher among the richest 20% of the population.  As well as social disparity, there is also gender disparity as for almost three-quarters of households without access to drinking water on premises; women and girls have the primary responsibility for collecting water. In some countries the proportion is more than 90%, creating a significant burden.

The report also says that even when there is access to water, it is often not safe for drinking. Water quality surveys show that many improved drinking water sources—such as piped supplies, boreholes and protected wells—do not conform to WHO guidelines. On average, half of all protected dug wells may be contaminated, along with one-third of protected springs and boreholes.

Read the report in full here.

Read about the Farming First principles to increase water efficiency.

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To coincide with CFS, Farming First organised a side-event on “Partnering for Sustainability”, in partnership with the International Agri Food Network. Guest speakers at the event gave presentations on public-private and private-private partnerships and the important role they play in building a more sustainable and stable food system.

Franklin Moore, USAID began the event with his opening remarks before Thomas Lyall, from Dow AgroSciences spoke about how sustainable beef production in Brazil is being achieved through multi-stakeholder collaboration. In Brazil, the Sustainable Livestock Initiative is working to increase the productivity and profitability of pasture whilst at the same time preventing deforestation. This is being achieved through the recovery of degraded areas and building the capacity of local producers and technicians through field visits, lectures and training.

Stephen Wilkinson from the International Zinc Association later gave a presentation on zinc and how it is an essential nutrient for human health. With a third of the global population deficient in zinc, it is crucial that adequate levels of zinc intake are achieved. Globally, 800,000 people die each year from zinc deficiency – 450,000 of which are children under the age of five – and many of who live in developing countries.  Zinc is a growth-limiting nutrient, which means that inadequate intakes can cause growth retardation or stunting in children. Wilkinson spoke about how the International Zinc Association has launched a partnership program with UNICEF with a goal of raising $3 million from zinc industry. “One sustainable solution to zinc deficiency is applying zinc to crops” said Wilkinson at the event. “Farmers using zinc fertilizer can increase their profitability whilst at the same time growing more nutritious food that contains higher levels of zinc”. HarvestZinc, a program under HarvestPlus, has shown that proper zinc fertilizer use can double the zinc concentration in cereal grains.

The final presentation at the event was given by Patrick O’Quin from Danone who spoke about private-private partnerships and gave an introduction to three Danone funds: The Danone Ecosystem Fund, The Danone Livelihood Fund and the Danone Communities Fund.  The Danone Ecosystem Fund is designed to support, strengthen and develop the activity of Danone’s “ecosystem”, meaning all stakeholders whose activities are impacted by Danone and who act closely with its local subsidiaries on economic, social and territorial matters. Through cooperation with 29 partners, the fund finances 36 projects around the world.

The Danone Communities Fund was created to fund and develop social enterprises that create social and economic value, locally. Alongside social entrepreneurs, this support is provided through investment and technical advice via a network of committed experts. The Danone Livelihood Fund is a carbon investment fund that helps poor rural communities by generating financial resources for projects with high social and environmental value. Since its creation in 2008, Danone has invited companies such as Crédit Agricole, Schneider Electric and CDC Climate to join the Livelihood fund. Fund partners receive top-grade certified carbon credits in proportion to their investment, and can use the credits to offset their carbon emissions. Read more about the Danone Livelihood Fund in our previous blog.

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At his keynote presentation on Saturday 3rd December at the third Agriculture and Rural Development Day (ARDD), President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Kanayo F. Nwanze urged that “negotiators must recognize the critical importance of enabling smallholder farmers to become more resilient to climate change and to grow more food in environmentally sustainable, climate-smart ways.”

Later in the day, Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda opened up a side event on behalf of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) which focused on how we can build the resilience of African smallholder farmers in a changing climate. The event highlighted the work of smallholder farmers in Swaziland and how they are coping with the impacts of climate change.

Back in 2002, Swaziland was hit hard by drought. Many smallholder farmers in the region saw their crops destroyed and their livelihoods threatened due to changing weather conditions. Happy Shongwe, a mother of two from Maphumulo in the Lubombo district of Swaziland, was on-site at the event to discuss her experiences as a smallholder farmer who watched her food reserves run dry due to the drought and was left impoverished. Shongwe and others in her community were helped with food vouchers and knowledge on how they could best respond to the drought.

Shongwe realised that planting maize and raising broiler chickens were not viable ways of coping with a changing climate and instead she began planting legumes which proved to be drought resistant. Starting with just one hectare of land, she quickly increased yields and was able to plant three hectares the following season.

Since then, her fate has changed. Shongwe has since registered Hlelile Investments (Pty) Ltd, a company that produces and markets seeds and is now a certified seed producer through the Seed Quality Division of the Ministry of Agriculture. “I now have my own business and have been able to afford to buy a tractor – I have come along way over the past ten years”, said Shongwe at the event.

Sibanda highlighted the importance of labelling and certification from the government:

For a region to be food secure, it needs to be seed secure. We believe in our own farmers; if given the necessary knowledge, they can grow more food. However, there is still a great need for research, technology and to mobilise funding for smallholder farmers in Swaziland, and other regions across Africa.

Measuring the vulnerability of rural households to external shocks

Today, few tools exist that can effectively measure the impact of shocks and stressess on the lives of the poor. By intermittently measuring the livelihood assets owned by a household over a period of time, researchers can determine household vulnerability and provide evidence to inform investment decisions around the design of policy responses and programme interventions aimed at strengthening household resilience.

Along with World Vision, FANRPAN has developed the Household Vulnerability Index (HVI) to measure the vulnerability of rural households to external shocks such as disease outbreaks, extreme weather and other stresses such as food insecurity. Through this approach, households are categorized into three levels of vulnerability, namely low, moderate and high vulnerability. Based on this more targeted classification system, development response packages are formulated to assist the most vulnerable households at the root causes of their vulnerability.

Following the successful piloting of the HVI tool in three countries in Southern Africa (Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe), FANRPAN and World Vision have shared their perspectives on the importance on developing and updating livelihood databases to benchmark livelihoods and provide data for modelling projected changes in livelihoods as a result of climate change.

Speaking at the learning event, Dalton Nxumalo, a Knowledge Management Officer with World Vision Swaziland (who provide funding for the project) noted,

This tool is meant to be a community based tool. The HVI assesses a household’s access to five livelihood assets; natural; physical; financial; human; and social assets and a total of 15 variables are then assessed together and a statistical core is calculated for each household.

Read more about the other learning events at Agriculture and Rural Development Day on its blog.

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The call to action was announced at this year’s annual Agriculture and Rural Development Day, which took place on Saturday 3^rd December in Durban in parallel with the COP17 climate change negotiations. The all-day event brought together more than 500 agricultural experts, including policymakers and negotiators, journalists, farmers and scientists to discuss priorities to boost agricultural production while supporting adaptation and mitigation to climate change.

Dr. Bruce Campbell, Director of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) said:

It is astonishing that agriculture remains excluded from a global agreement on climate change.  This year’s conference offers a unique opportunity for this omission to be addressed.

Professor Sir John Beddington, Chair of the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, outlined a seven-point plan for urgent action for achieving food security in the face of climate change in his keynote presentation. These included integrating food security and sustainable agriculture into global and national policies, raising the level of investment in sustainable agriculture and food systems over the next decade and sustainably intensifying agricultural production whilst reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

A number of key learning events took place during the day, which looked at the successes in agricultural adaptation and mitigation. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) led a learning event that looked at the tools and policies required to bring food security, adaptation, and mitigation together and shared best practice. At the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) learning event on building the resilience of African smallholder farmers in a changing climate, Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, Chief Executive of FANRPAN highlighted the importance of research, technology and mobilisation of funding for smallholder farmers in Swaziland, and other regions across Africa. Many other side events on the day provided agricultural organisations with the opportunity to share knowledge on examples of best practice in early action on agricultural adaptation and mitigation that deliver economic and livelihood benefits  – the triple wins we need for climate smart agriculture.

Other high-level speakers at the event included, Rachel Kyte, Vice President for Sustainable Development at the World Bank and Chair of the CGIAR Fund Council, Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Dr. Mary Robinson, Chair of the The Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice (MRFCJ) and Former President of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner and Tina Joemat-Pettersson, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Republic of South Africa

In the afternoon, there was a high level panel discussion, facilitated by Laurie Goering, Editor of Reuters Alertnet Climate, and included prominent participants such as Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State for the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). As the panel discussed taking agricultural productivity and food security into a new era, Spelman put forward the UK’s position on climate-smart agriculture saying:

Coping with climate change is a matter of extreme urgency. There are no simple, one-size-fits-all solutions but rather a rich diversity of approaches used around the world. Climate-smart solutions require smart finance.

Agriculture possesses huge uptapped potential to reduce poverty, bolster food security, adapt to climate change, reduce pressure on natural resources, and in many places lower greenhouse gas emissions. To realise this potential, farmers, fishers, and pastoralists must urgently become “climate-smart”, especially in the developed world, which is being hit hardest by climate change impacts. As the open letter endorsed by the 19 agricultural organisations reads:

Whilst agriculture is a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, it has significant potential to be part of the solution to climate change. Preserving and enhancing food security requires increasing agricultural productivity whilst at the time adapting to and mitigating climate change. It also requires a shift towards building farmers’ and vulnerable communities’ resilience to climate shocks, and related food price volatility.

You can read more about the open letter in our previous blog: “Agriculture: A call to action for COP17 climate negotiators”.

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Our world faces formidable challenges. The global population has now crossed the seven billion mark and is projected to reach nine billion by mid-century, requiring at least a 70 percent increase in agricultural production to meet increased demand.

The world’s resources are under more strain than ever before as global demand for water, energy and food is on the rise. At the same time, climate change threatens farmers’ ability to produce enough to meet growing demand, and poor communities’ ability to access nutritious food.

More frequent and extreme weather events are affecting our food supply, our infrastructure and our livelihoods. Last year, Russia suffered its worst drought in more than 100 years, triggering forest fires and destroying millions of hectares of crops. This year we have seen the Horn of Africa face its worst drought in 60 years as more than 13 million people requiring emergency food aid and pastoralists losing a third of their livestock. Recent flooding in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Cambodia has also impacted livelihoods and worsened food insecurity.

The most vulnerable regions of the world – developing countries – are disproportionately affected by climate change, despite contributing little to carbon emissions. People in developing countries depend heavily on agriculture for their livelihoods, yet are increasingly challenged in their ability to produce sufficient food for their families and for markets.

Whilst agriculture is a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, it has significant potential to be part of the solution to climate change.

Preserving and enhancing food security requires increasing agricultural productivity whilst at the time adapting to and mitigating climate change. It also requires a shift towards building farmers’ and vulnerable communities’ resilience to climate shocks, and related food price volatility.

More productive, sustainable and resilient agriculture requires transformations in how rural people manage natural resources and how efficiently they use these resources as inputs for crop production. For these transformations to occur, it is essential that the world’s farmers, scientists, researchers, the private sector, development practitioners and food consumers come together to achieve climate-smart agriculture.

Yet the agricultural sector remains astonishingly underfunded. As a percentage of total investment, agriculture has dropped from 22 percent in 1980 to approximately 6 percent today. In absolute terms, this constitutes a drop to roughly half of the funding allocated thirty years ago.

At the upcoming climate change negotiations in Durban, we call on negotiators to recognise the important role of agriculture in addressing climate change so that a new era of agricultural innovation and knowledge sharing can be achieved. Specifically, we ask that they approve a Work Programme for agriculture under the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) so that the sector can take early action to determine the long-term investments needed to transform agriculture to meet future challenges.

You can see the full list of signatories on the Agriculture and Rural Development Day website.

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