Cecilia's blog

Equal access to climate information between men and women farmers? Study suggests no

Submitted by Cecilia on 7th March 2013
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Listening to women in an agricultural context is crucial for climate adaptation

by Cecilia Schubert

A recent article by the New York Times reminds us that women in developing countries are increasingly left behind to sustain family farms,  as the men migrate to cities in search for work. But discrimination, gender stereotypes and women’s low social status limit their access to fertilizer, seeds, credit, technical assistance and membership in cooperatives and unions. Therefore, there is a great risk that any adaptative response to communities affected by climate change is not complete if gender is not considered.

The need for a gender-focus in adaptation work was also discussed in one of our more recent Working Papers, “Using a gender lens to explore farmers’ adaptation options in the face of climate change” originating from the researchers investigating gender in the context of climate change, food security and agriculture.

Getting to grips with gender in a food and farming context Read more »

Participatory videos in Nepal: Voicing women’s perceptions on climate change

Submitted by Cecilia on 7th March 2013
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Video project in Nepal showcasing women's reality dealing with climate change

by Floriane Clement

International climate change debates are often based upon simplistic assumptions of how men and women perceive and address risks and uncertainty. For instance, women are commonly portrayed as a homogenous group who are always more vulnerable than men to climate change simply because they are women. Yet the relationship between gender, poverty and vulnerability is neither straightforward, nor universal (Arora-Jonsson, 2011).

Just to illustrate, in some areas of Nepal it was found that poor women from landless households are more likely to attend community meetings and speak up because they feel less constrained by social norms than women from higher class and caste (Agarwal, 2010). They have therefore a higher capability to influence community decisions that might affect their vulnerability. Read more »

High-resolution satellites could improve crop yield forecasts

Submitted by Cecilia on 4th March 2013
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armer can obtain more accurate yield forecastings if using satellite imagery.

by Wilco Terink, Futurewater

Crop growth models play a major role in sustaining the world-wide food security. These models are used to simulate crop growth during the growing season, and the final crop yield at the end of the growing season, given the farmers’ management practices. At a more strategic level, these crop growth models play an important role to decision makers to take timely decisions regarding food import and export strategies.

The simulation accuracy of crop growth models relies on the quality of the input data. Since crop yield forecasting applications are often applied over large areas that rely on a spatially distributed crop growth model, the uncertainty in the spatial variation of the input data increases. Read more »

How will your forest grow? Climate Analogues provides clues for pine plantation adaptation

Submitted by Cecilia on 1st March 2013
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Climate Analogues can be used to visualize the future of a pine plantation

By Caity Peterson

Forestry isn’t generally thought of as a game of chance. That designation is usually reserved for cards, horse races, and Parcheesi tournaments. But, when one throws in the volatile variable of a changing climate, the process of tree caretaking becomes an intimidating gamble.

Christoph Leibing, a PhD candidate at the University of Hamburg Centre for Wood Science and Technology, Hamburg, Germany, presented his work last week, February 5, 2013 at the IUFRO Breeding for Value in a Changing World Conference in Jacksonville, Florida. The paper, “Selection of provenances to adapt tropical pine forestry to climate change on the basis of climate analogues,” represents the first published example of the CCAFS Climate Analogues tool in use — a landmark achievement. Read more »

National mitigation actions in agriculture put under microscope in new brief

Submitted by Cecilia on 27th February 2013
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New CCAFS brief puts national mitigation activities (NAMAs) under a microscope

by Cecilia Schubert

In Kenya, the government recently made a list of agricultural technologies, such as agroforestry and conservation tillage, that they believe could reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while building resilience. At the same time, Peru is planning a nationwide program that will scale up agricultural waste-to-energy initiatives.

A bit further up north, Costa Rica, is developing a mitigation strategy for its coffee sector, responsible for about 25 per cent of their agricultural GHG emissions. As a step towards their goal to become carbon neutral by 2021, the country is suggesting to apply nitrogen fertilizers more efficiently and establish coffee agroforestry systems.

So, what do these mitigation activities have in common? Read more »

Taking the lead: Partner organisation officially carbon neutral

Submitted by Cecilia on 25th February 2013
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Carbon neutrality has been achieved by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)

by Kristi Foster & Daisy Ouya (ICRAF)

As of January 2013, the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya is officially carbon neutral. The Nairobi base was certified by The CarbonNeutral Company as a CarbonNeutral® office, setting an example that it hopes other offices and institutions will follow in addressing the challenge of our time – climate change. Prior to offsetting its emissions, ICRAF Headquarters published a detailed account of its 2011 carbon footprint. The findings of this assessment, the first in the Centre's history, are already informing actions to reduce carbon emissions at the headquarters, with the ultimate goal of achieving carbon-neutrality for its operations around the globe. Read more »

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