Blog

May 2011

Climate change adaptation: What we can learn from Emily Marigu, a farmer in Kenya

Submitted by Peter on 30th May 2011
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Oh how sweet those potatoes can be! Faced with changing climate, Kenyan farmer E

Anyone doubting the effect of climate change, and how farmers can adapt continuously to changing weather patterns, should talk to Emily Marigu Ireri.

We met Emily, near Meru, eastern Kenya, where she farms a five acres plot, 1,500 meters high on the steep slopes of Mount Kenya.

She describes how, in recent years, the rains are more erratic. At the beginning of the rainy season, often it would only rain for a few days, and then stop, sometimes for weeks. “Often seeds would start to sprout during those first rains, but then they would dry up”, Emily explains. She takes us to the bottom of the valley just below her fields. “By this time of the year, this small stream would normally be a river, but now, it hardly irrigates the fields around it. A few miles from here, the river is dead, water is just absorbed by the soil.”

 “But it is not only the erratic rains that makes the life of farmers difficult“, Emily explains. “Here, so close to Mount Kenya, we also used to get misty drizzle in May and June. From the time of my father’s fathers, we used that moisture for a crop in the middle of the year. Now that drizzle does not come anymore. I don’t know why, but nowadays, we can only get one harvest a year, in the rainy season. Now is the time for the rain to come." Read more »

We have a plan! Climate-proofing crop improvement

Submitted by Vanessa on 27th May 2011
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Bean farmers in Kisolo, Uganda. Pic by Neil Palmer (CIAT).

Article by Andy Jarvis, CCAFS Theme Leader. Originally posted at the CIAT Blog

I remember someone once stating in a presentation that there is no single silver bullet to climate change adaptation – we have to throw everything at the problem.  In CCAFS Theme 1 on Adapting to Progressive Change we see that adaptation in production systems requires a hard look at reducing the yield gap and effectively managing existing knowledge about suitable practices and technologies to adapt to the future, but we also need to raise the bar by supporting crop improvement to deliver farmers with varieties that can stand up to the many challenges of the future.  In DAPA and CCAFS we hope to play an important role in the development of science-based guidance on appropriate crop improvement strategies for a dynamic climate.   Read more »

Report from Brazil: Climate Commissioners at work

Submitted by Vanessa on 27th May 2011
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Pic by Neil Palmer (CIAT). Aerial view of the Amazon Rainforest, near Manaus, th

Since its official launch in March 2011 the CCAFS-convened Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change has been hard at work. On May 10th, the Commission held its second meeting in Brasilia, Brazil, where Commissioners were briefed on a review of evidence from major assessment reports. Individual Commissioners presented on topics related to three overarching questions:

  1. What are the major components and drivers of the current food system and what will this system look like in the future?
  2. What does an alternative future food system look like and how can this system be brought into being?
  3. What investments (technical, political, financial, social) are essential to an alternative future food system and who can make them?

Read more »

"Agriculture and the Green Economy"

Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on 26th May 2011
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Farming First, a coalition group promoting sustainable agricultural development, recently released a 6-part infographic on "Agriculture and the Green Economy." The infographic aggregates interesting and sometimes surprising statistics regarding agriculture, and weaves a sort of "story" about the importance of the sector for worldwide poverty alleviation, economic growth, and environmental health. It offers short, tweet-ready statements (e.g., "Growth in Africa is the most powerful force for reducing poverty"), as well as accompanying embedable charts and graphs, to enable readers/users to easily spread the word. 
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Rainfall patterns can help reveal climate impacts on agriculture

Submitted by Vanessa on 9th May 2011
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Flooded sugar cane fields near Colombia's third largest city, Cali, in the depar

Good climate data (long‐term temporally homogeneous time series with good spatial coverage) is critical for assessing climate‐related risks, understanding climate change in a long-term context, understanding the impact of climate on different socioeconomic activities, and producing useful climate atlases. CCAFS partners are working on downscaling data to shorter time periods and smaller geographical areas, in order to make climate data more useful for agricultural decision-makers. The conventional source of climate data has been measurements at weather stations. However, the number and quality of weather stations in Africa, Latin America and other regions has been declining. Read more »

Climate roundup - 1-6 May 2011

Submitted by Vanessa on 9th May 2011
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Climate news roundup

Each week we bring you the climate change stories that sparked our attention during the week, many of which have significant implications for agriculture and food security.

Including: Agriculture on the climate agenda, corruption and climate change; and traditional approaches to adaptation.

Feedback and suggestions are welcome, please leave a comment below or via twitter to @cgiarclimate

Read more »

More money, less food? The Indian food security puzzle

Submitted by Vanessa on 4th May 2011
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Farmer in Jamnapur Village, Bihar, India. Photo: P. Casier.

by Charlotte Lau

India is one of the great food security puzzles of our age. By all accounts, the country’s economy is growing rapidly, incomes are reaching historical highs, and between the 1980s and 2005 food prices declined relative to the prices of other goods—yet people are eating less.

Per capita calorie consumption and nutrient consumption in India have declined over the last couple decades, a pattern that began precisely when relative food prices were falling. Indeed, people spend less on food today than they did thirty years ago, but not because they're eating enough. Child nourishment is poor, anemia is rampant, and body-mass indices are among the lowest in the world, leading 20% of children to be so skinny they would be classified by the WHO as “wasting.”

What is going on? Read more »