Resources for Theme 'Agriculture, fisheries and food security'

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• Documents

  Adapting agriculture through local knowledge: AfricaAdapt policy brief

  

  jnnam | 2012-05-15 | 1.3 MB | details

  This policy brief presents key findings and policy recommendations fron an electronic discussion among members of the AfricaAdapt network on the impacts of climate change on smallholder farming and how farmers are coping with or adapting to these impacts.

• Key messages extracted from the online discussion led by AfricaAdapt Network on Local seeds, GMOs, Food Security and climate change

  

  admin | 2012-05-04 | 84.0 KB | details

   AfricaAdapt initiated an online discussion in February on Local seeds, GMOs, Food Security and Climate Change. The online discussion has enabled to distinguish, among more than 200 contributors local/indigenous seeds users/defenders, and those who support GMOs as a means to cope with climate change issues.

  A more detailed summary and a policy brief from the online discussion will follow soon

• AfDB/IFPRI report on biotechnology in Africa

  

  admin | 2012-03-08 | 122.3 KB | details

  AfDB/IFPRI report on biotechnology in Africa "the safety record of the technology suggests that the process of genetic modification, by itself, poses no significant risk to human health or the environment" and "the level of misinformation about biotechnology in African countries is extraordinarily high"

• Summary of AfricaAdapt Dgroup "Agriculture and climate change: Testimonies on the observed impacts and recommendations for policy action"

  

  admin | 2012-03-06 | 907.9 KB | details

  Testimonies of the impacts of climate change on smallholder farming: the voices of local communities - “What are the impacts of climate change on small holder farming and how are farmers coping or adapting to these impacts“

  What recommendations and expectations of small-scale farmers to the attention of African and international policy makers?

  What political arrangements at local, national and international levels, to promote smallholder farming in the context of climate variability and change?

• Clinate-smart agriculture for food security in Africa

  

  jnnam | 2012-02-07 | 762.1 KB | details

  This edition of Joto Afrika, using Kenya as a case study, identifies some of the prerequisites for developing and diffusing climate-smart agriculture to improve food security.

• The future of pastoralism in a changing climate

  

  jnnam | 2012-02-07 | 731.9 KB | details

   

  This issue of Joto Afrika provides case studies of local knowledge in action across Africa, and success stories from research to showcase various ways of climate adaptation by pastoralists . It also provides key messages and recommendation to key stakeholders.

• Symposium - Call for papers

  

  admin | 2010-12-05 | 154.5 KB | details

  The deadline for submitting proposals for Symposium consideration is January 3rd 2011. Proposals should be submitted as an abstract – maximum 300 words. Please e-mail abstracts and/or questions by e-mail to: symposium@africa-adapt.net.

• Symposium flyer

  

  admin | 2010-12-05 | 216.6 KB | details

  A one page flyer to download. You can print off or email to let others know about the symposium.

• Kenya: Villagers get skills on sunflower

  

  wamuthoni | 2010-11-02 | 60.5 KB | details

  As local communities in Kenya continue to depend on natural resources for their day to day activities, the resources will become depleted with time. The depletion will lead to other environmental disasters like drought. Tree Is Life's intervention is working with groups to seek other alternative sources of livelihood other than the non-renewable natural resources. I met a local women’s group that locally produces oil and soap from the sunflower plant. The group receives technical skills from the Tree Is Life Trust's field officer Mr. Simon on such innovative income generating activities. The group plants sunflower, squeezes oil out of the seeds, makes soap out of the oil and the seed residue is used to feed their group's poultry. The group is reaping the benefits of the project as they sell the produced oil and soap. It also operates a poultry farm. Tree Is Life trust also taught them on group formation and organization. The trust has also worked with many other groups on income generating by giving them training and small grants to support their projects. Other projects have included fish farming, bee keeping, the growing of fruits and working with environmental resource centers. This income generating activities lessen the dependence on the natural resources and acts as an alternative to the other incomes generated from the destruction of the resources like charcoal burning.

• Food Insecurity and Climate Change Adaptation in NIGER

  

  moussa-na-abou | 2010-10-12 | 281.4 KB | details

  This document is a power point presentation made during the 4th International Conference on Community Based Adaptation in Dar Es Salam - Tanzania. The document highlights some of the coping strategies undertaken by communities in Maradi (Niger) in the event of food insecurity caused by climate changes. Policy makers can then build any adaptation strategy on these existing coping mechanisms to insure involvement and appropriation by communities.

• Integrating meteorological and indigenous knowledge-based seasonal climate forecasts for the agricultural sector

  

  admin | 2010-10-01 | 454.2 KB | details

  Lessons from participatory action research in sub-Saharan Africa

• Responding to a changing climate: Exploring how disaster risk reduction, social protection and livelihoods approaches promote features of adaptive capacity

  

  josephinelofty | 2010-08-30 | 868.9 KB | details

  This paper reviews how aspects of disaster risk reduction, social protection and livelihoods approaches may act in contributing to the various features of adaptive capacity in the context of climate change.

• Research to Policy for Adaptation - Case Study Summaries

  

  larson | 2010-08-11 | 197.1 KB | details

  A series of case study summaries

• Africa Adapt newsletter: July 2010 (English version)

  

  admin | 2010-07-30 | 3.6 MB | details

  This is the AfricaAdapt newsletter for July 2010.

• Report from Research Review Workshop, Lilongwe, April 2010

  

  admin | 2010-06-15 | 2.3 MB | details

  Report from a workshop held in Lilongwe 26-28 April 2010, the main aim of which was to share and review draft findings from the RPA project case studies, undertaken in the three project countries Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania. The workshop brought together RPA project researchers with client CCAA programme researchers from the three project countries, IDS researchers, as well as DFID and IDRC staff.

• Adaptation to Climate Change for Smallholder Agriculture in Kenya

  

  admin | 2010-06-10 | 2.1 MB | details

  Community-Based Perspectives from Five Districts

• AfricaAdapt Newsletter Vol. 3 - EN

  

  admin | 2010-04-13 | 453.6 KB | details

  Third edition of the network newsletter

• Collecting Narratives

  

  narradapt | 2010-04-02 | 2.3 MB | details

  Quick notes and tips on how to collect narratives, what to ask and for what purposes

• System wise practical solutions for the Adaptation to Climate Change and orientations for partnerships

  

  admin | 2010-03-28 | 121.5 KB | details

  Adaptation is a matter of internally organized and/or externally driven transition of agriculture in the face of climate change: from Vulnerability to Resilience; from Adaptation to Mitigation; from piece meal adaptation to Transformational Process. Diagnosis of conditions hampering progress should identify the components for remediation and should support sets of proposals for addressing the issues, mobilizing the resource, organizations, attitudes. This diagnosis brings to the identification of necessary partnerships. Adaptation to Climate Change is a matter of internally organized and/or externally driven transition. Three components are actually agreed upon for a transition of agriculture in the face of climate change: from Vulnerability to Resilience; from Adaptation to Adaptation and Mitigation; from piece meal adaptation to Transformational Process. A diagnosis of conditions hampering progress should identify the components for remediation and should support concrete and organized sets of proposals for addressing the issues at the scale they would affect the people, mobilizing the adequate resource, organizations and attitudes. This diagnosis brings to the identification of necessary partnerships. The actual components hampering the development of Sub- Saharan African agriculture are very much intricate. The vulnerability of farmers should be perceived within the considerable shift that happened for 20 years in production systems and markets and within the growing scarcity of access to resource.. Intensification of farming systems is a key word for facing the growing demand for agricultural products while access to natural resources is dwindling. Poverty is the most limiting factor for reducing vulnerability and for addressing Adaptation to Climate Change. Any transition in agriculture requires investment. The productivity of labor is an essential lever for getting out of poverty and for mitigating risks. Improving the productivity of the land through inputs use is another lever if inputs are affordable to people. The weak development of irrigation results from poor governance, lack of institutional development, lack of coherent budget allocation, lack of investment in farming and poor market development. It contributes to the actual vulnerability of people. Public support to agriculture declined in most countries during the last 30 years. Changing trends for national budget allocation so that at least 10% would be allocated to agriculture as decided in Dar Es SALAM in 2004 is a pain-stacking exercise. Markets development is the most powerful instrument for developing income in rural areas and reducing poverty. Production to consumption chains should become more competitive r to better serve domestic markets and to conquer markets for exports. Giving to farmers a better share of the added values for their products is a critical component in the policy agenda. The actual lack of support from the financing system to agriculture is part of the actual crisis situation in agriculture in Africa. Social nets and security food stocks are insurances at state level for the poorest. The role of poor governance at country level on the vulnerability of people, on the lack of competitiveness and on the wastage of natural resource is documented. Inadequacy of local governance for adequately developing the land, harnessing risks and investing in value chains is part of the actual situation in most countries. There is an urgent need for institutional development that would promote low carbon based development in rural areas. The transformational process required to face climate change should be system -wise conceived, inclusive and participative and should heal the main defaults and plagues of the current social and economic systems. Climate change is adding a dimension for risks management that has not been perceived so far at the right dimension. The transformational process needs an integrated action plan backed by adequate policies to support tools for development. It should combine investments, market support. It should improve access to resource for farmers and provide incentives for more appropriate agricultural practices that would empower organized rural societies. Generating and sharing accurate information is a crucial component. The development of information systems assisting the adaptation to climate change should be system-wise and provide for the promotion of local visions for a transformation process. It should encompass meteorological information; Information about inputs and outputs markets; information about the public organization of food security stocks and transparency about conditions for contributing to and accessing those stocks for farmers. It should consider information about access to land and to natural resource and about the development of systems and infrastructures harnessing natural resource. Information and organization should secure people, crops and livestock from emerging diseases, outbreaks of pests and epidemics. The transformational process should address changes that would seriously affect agriculture. It should provide resilience to accrued temperature through the sheltering of crops by trees and through a coherent set of windscreens. It should provide resilience to the vagaries of rains through the combination of drought resistant cultivars, crops with shorter cycles and more resilient multi-cropping and multi-storey systems. Water harvesting at field level should be developed through no tillage systems and conservation agriculture, reservoirs and ponds and rain-fed systems assisted through complementary irrigation should be developed. There is a need to revisit the rationale of the location of agricultural activities in relation to the circulation of water in watersheds related to abnormal rains. Water flows should be harnessed in the watersheds. It requires combined actions for greening the land, for improving water infiltration in cropped soils and for storing run-off water at different levels in the watersheds as well as well monitoring normal and abnormal water flows in the drainage system. There is an urgent need for the development of integrated financial systems combining credit, insurance, reinsurance and design of natural disasters involving public support to farmers to ease adaptation to climate change. There is a need for arranging buffer systems in the hands of farmers that would protect them against vagaries of market prices and also contribute to secure the food system. There is a need to design the relationships between district level security systems for food and provincial and national ones and to tie the system to imports in case of national shortages. There is also a need, possibly through regional trade, to organize the consumption of surpluses to normal consumption plus replenishment of security stocks in case of bumper yields. Considerable efforts are needed to invent accurate policies associating farmers’ organizations to solutions. Capacity should be provided for decentralized innovation while reinforcing capacity for centralized innovation. The promotion of farmers’ organizations for facing new challenges related to climate change should be the corner stone for any climate change adaptation strategy. The need for partnerships is thus complex and requires organization from the national level to the provincial level and district level. It requires the combination of public initiatives with the contribution from the professional sector and from the private sector.

• Met Presentation: Hadley Centre

  

  admin | 2010-03-01 | 528.4 KB | details

  WMO activities to strengthen framework/tools for seasonal forecasting: the Global Producing Centres for long-range forecasts (GPCs)

• Background Presentation: Zimbabwe- UZ

  

  admin | 2010-03-01 | 968.1 KB | details

  Lack of resilience in African smallholder farming: Exploring measures to enhance the adaptive capacity of local communities to pressures of climate change.

• Met Presentation: Semazzi

  

  admin | 2010-03-01 | 511.3 KB | details

  Regional Climate Modeling Research at CLIMLAB

• Summary of final publication

  

  admin | 2010-03-01 | 279.2 KB | details

  Overview of the proposed structure of the synthesis report from the forum.

• Background Presentation: Tanzania-Malawi - IRA

  

  admin | 2010-03-01 | 94.3 KB | details

  Climate information supply chain analysis: Experiences from strengthening local agriculture innovation system to adapt to climate change in Tanzania and Malawi

• Background Presentation: Benin - PARBCC

  

  admin | 2010-03-01 | 605.1 KB | details

  Usability of Seasonal Forecasts for climate change adaptation : experiences of Benin ACCA Project (PARBCC)