November 2012

by Simon Bager

Climate change has and will have an enormous impact on what we can grow and eat. Conversely, the global food system—from production, to transportation and refrigeration to disposal—is responsible for up to 29% of human-generated greenhouse gases. With so much information about climate change available, it’s difficult to know what the key facts are. To make up for this, we’ve scoured the literature for the latest research to identify the best and most current scientific knowledge at the intersection of agriculture, climate change and food security.

The result is “Big Facts”, a set of need-to-know facts that represents the latest and most authoritative research on topics ranging from undernourishment and dietary changes to agricultural mitigation practices and climate finance. Read more »

by Cecilia Schubert

“Why is action on agriculture needed now?” This was the opening question by Alexander Mueller of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, at a side event at the Doha climate talks. The answer can very easily turn into a long elaborative list of “becauses”, but in short, and without doubt, climate change is already affecting smallholder farmers and multiplying the challenges they already face. Even if the time to act was yesterday, there is still little time to create a food secure, sustainable future. This makes COP18 in Doha an important opportunity to agree on action - now.

Achieving food security under impending climatic change and growing populations is a difficult task. One way of dealing with it is through climate-smart agriculture approaches (CSA). But despite progress, in research and commitments, few farmers are benefitting by CSA to date. This was one of the main discussion topics at the FAO-led side event “How can climate smart approaches help build resilience to food security and agriculture” on 27 November. Read more »

By Helena Wright

Farmers in Bangladesh have to adapt their livelihoods both to a changing environment and to changing markets. Our recent working paper "Understanding Adaptive Capacity: Sustainable Livelihoods and Food Security in Coastal Bangladesh" analysed the results of survey data from 980 households in coastal Bangladesh. It was found that there were high levels of food insecurity, with 15 per cent of households reporting they faced food shortages for over half the year.

Market and economic reasons were more often given as reasons for changing agricultural practices than climate-related factors. 54 per cent of households gave yield and price as reasons for changing crops. Climate-related factors were also frequently mentioned. 25 per cent of households mentioned higher soil salinity and around 20 per cent pointed to increasing cyclones and floods.

Insights from the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach Read more »

By Leigh Winowiecki

Land degradation is seen as one of the causes of low agricultural yields as well as loss of biodiversity. Increasingly, researchers are also linking land degradation to poverty. Looking at ecosystem and soil health, we see that there are many different drivers of land degradation, which vary across ecoregions and climatic zones. Identifying these drivers and developing improved management strategies are further compounded by the changes in climate. This complexity calls for an interdisciplinary approach that links the socio-economic factors affecting everyday life of rural farmers in East Africa with systematic assessessments of soil and ecosystem health. This is especially relevant in order to develop appropriate climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Therefore the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), together with the Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia (CIAT-Soils Program based in Nairobi, Kenya), are together supporting a new project: “Playing out transformative adaptation in CCAFS benchmark sites in East Africa: When, where, how and with whom?”. Read more »