CCAFS Program News
Climate change research hub opens in Vietnam
Hanoi, 7 May 2013 A new international research hub has opened in Hanoi, Vietnam, to develop climate-smart farming technologies that reduce the impact of climate change on food production in Vietnam and across Southeast Asia.
The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS) Southeast Asia regional office in Hanoi will support the work of many contributing international and Vietnamese research and development partners as they work toward providing solutions to ensure climate-smart agriculture in the region. Read more »
Register Now! Climate-Smart Agriculture on a Journey to Durban
Agriculture possesses huge untapped 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 realize this potential, farmers, fishers, and pastoralists must urgently become “climate-smart,” especially in the developing world, which will be hit hardest by climate change impacts.
Registration is now open for the third annual Agriculture and Rural Development Day! The event will highlight options by which rural people can achieve that end. To be held in parallel with the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the event aims to inspire both high-level commitment and grassroots action. Read more »
Save the Date for Agriculture & Rural Development Day 2011
Now it's time to mark your calendars for CCAFS Agricultural and Rural Development Day (ARDD) on 3 December 2011 in South Africa. ARDD will be held parallel with the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). The event aims to inspire both high-level commitment and grassroots action.
This is the third Agriculture and Rural Development Day that CCAFS will organize. Agriculture possesses huge untapped 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 realize these potential, farmers, fishers and pastoralists must urgently become 'climate-smart', especially in the developing world, which will be hit hardest by climate change impacts. Africa is a hotbed of climate-smart innovation, providing an ideal setting for this year ARDD.
New CGIAR research programs target global food security
This week, the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers (CGIAR) approved six new global research programs covering a range of agriculture, food and natural resource issues. As with the CGIAR climate program, these programs will work across all 15 CGIAR centers bringing together top researchers with national agricultural research systems, non-governmental organisations, advanced research institutes, civil society organisations, farmer organisations, and the private sector.
The six programs focus on sustainably increasing production of wheat, meat, milk, fish, roots, tubers and bananas; improving nutrition and food safety; and identifying the policies and institutions necessary for smallholder producers in rural communities, particularly women, to access markets.
Bruce Campbell, Director of CCAFS, welcomes the new programs:
"We are happy to see the approval of the new CGIAR programs, and look forward to collaborating with the scientists working on them. All facets of farming and food systems are going to be impacted by climate change, so all of the programs have some elements that are key to the success of CCAFS, and vice versa. Concrete collaborative mechanisms have already been put in place with two of the already initiated programs – a shared staff position between CCAFS and the rice systems program (GRiSP), and joint work for the next UN Climate Conference (COP17) with the forests and trees program."
Read more:
PRESS RELEASE: Global Research Coalition Approves Six New Cutting-Edge Agriculture, Food and Natural Resource Programs to Sustainably Boost Food Security Worldwide. 21 July 2011.
2010 CCAFS Annual Report now available
From mid 2009 through 2010, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) initiated the Challenge Program (CP) on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security.
Almost immediately the change process in terms of the new CGIAR research programs was initiated and one of two fast-tracked CGIAR Research Programs was also entitled Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). The CP team spent a good portion of 2010 preparing for the new program by leading the drafting of the proposal and conducting a number of stakeholder meetings for input into the research design.
Many research activities were conducted on the CP in the period 2009–2010 and these now form an essential part of the start-up of the new program. The new program, some six-times the size of the CP, started in January 2011.
The 2009-10 report for Challenge Program is now available for download, along with financial statements.
CCAFS outlines new 10-year plan
A new proposal for the CGIAR Research Program Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) has just been sent to the CGIAR Consortium Board.
By 2020, CCAFS will contribute to increasing the incomes and well-being of millions of poor people dependent on rural livelihoods, contribute to a reduction in hunger, and contribute to climate change mitigation by enhancing carbon storage and reducing green house gas emissions. The vision of success for CCAFS includes being recognised, together with the partners, as the foremost global source of relevant research that leads to strategies for tackling food insecurity in the face of climate change.
CCAFS will become a hub that facilitates collective action across multiple CGIAR centers and other CGIAR Research Programs. The outcomes planned include: technical and policy support for agricultural management strategies that buffer against climate shocks and enhance livelihood resilience in at least 20 countries; key agencies dealing with mitigation in at least 20 countries promoting new institutional arrangements and incentives that favor resource-poor farmers, particilarly vulnearbale groups and women. CCAFS will make a lasting difference through a strategic focus on capacity enhancement.
Download:
There is no climate security without food security and no food security without climate security
This statement is a summary of Agriculture and Rural Development Day (ARDD) held in parallel to COP16 on Saturday 4th December in Cancun. It describes the key issues and outcomes of the Day as well as messages to the UNFCCC on how to take forward agriculture in the negotiations.
A Call for Action on Agriculture and Climate Change
ARDD was convened by over 19 leading organisations from the UN, governments and development agencies, civil society, farmers groups, research community, private sector and the media to show how agriculture can contribute to a low emission future while adapting to climate change and enhancing food and nutrition security.
More than 400 policymakers (including Ministers and UNFCCC negotiators) farmers, members of civil society, private sector and scientists attended ARDD. The day was hosted by the Mexican Ministry for Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, Rural Development and Food (SAGARPA), and the Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security Programme (CCAFS), and the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development (GDPRD).
The Challenge: Feeding 9 billion people by 2050 in an increasingly harsh climate
Agriculture faces the challenge of nearly doubling food production to feed a population expected to reach 9 billion by mid-century while mitigating emissions and providing a livelihood to 75% of the poor in developing countries. Agriculture will have to adapt to increasingly variable and unpredictable growing conditions. This year we had a glimpse of the future. The Pakistan floods were a major human disaster with a massive impact on agriculture and food production. Mexico experienced the heaviest rainfall in its history in July causing severe floods. In Niger drought and failed harvests put over half the country’s population of 14 million at risk from famine. Drought in Russia contributed to higher global food prices. Latest research from IFPRI predicts that without action by 2050 food prices could rise by up to 131% for maize; 78 % for rice, and 67% wheat.
Agriculture emissions and sequestration: Part of the problem and the solution
Over a third of direct global emissions is due to agriculture and other land use change and are projected to increase in coming decades. However, using our existing knowledge on better land practices and husbandry we know how to sequester carbon into soils and plant biomass. It is estimated that agriculture has the potential to sequester up to 90% of agriculture’s total emissions. ARDD heard how Mexico is taking action to achieve a reduction of almost 3 million tons of C02 in 2012, for example by promoting sustainable livestock grazing in 5 million hectares coupled with a state of the art monitoring and verification systems. Read more »
A Bold and Concerted Response to Climate Change
Amidst growing alarm that climate change could deal a catastrophic blow to farming in the developing world, the CGIAR officially launched today a major new initiative to cope with its impacts on agriculture and to avert dire consequences for global food security.
By 2020, the effort aims to reduce poverty by 10 percent in targeted regions, lower the number of rural people who are malnourished by 25 percent and help developing country farmers contribute to climate change mitigation by enhancing carbon storage and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by an amount equivalent to 1,000 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over a decade, compared with a “business-as-usual” scenario.
The program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, or CCAFS, brings together strategic research carried out by the CGIAR, the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) and their respective partners in an innovative collective effort to be coordinated by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). Read more »
Winning proposal on future analogue climate
'Using agriculturally meaningful measures of climatic similarity to identify present and future analogue climates' led by the University of Reading
We received 10 highly competitive proposals that followed a two rounds evaluation process. In the second round specific questions made to the lead authors. The final decision was taken by the evaluators based on the following set of criteria:
- Clear methodology
- Flexibility in inputs and knowledgeable of need to deal with differences in seasonal timing
- Computational scalability
- Inclusion of the web interface development and easy implementation
- Requirements to operationalise the tool and ensure full web functionality in Phase 2
Other relevant points highly appreciated were the clear knowledge of both agriculture and climate science of the team and the use of multiple similarity methods.
Nairobi conference highlights: Building food security in the face of climate change
Leading scientists and development experts met in Nairobi to give input into plans for a collaborative global research program led by the CGIAR and partners to confront the enormous challenge of sustainably feeding more people in a climate-constrained world.
The purpose of the Nairobi meeting was to build a consensus amongst partners of the overall framework for action in the years ahead.
The program will provide diagnosis and analysis for inclusion of agriculture in climate change policies and identify and develop pro-poor adaptation and mitigation practices that will benefit poor farmers, the urban poor, and provide global environmental benefits.
In its initial phase, the program, “Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security,” will focus efforts in three regions: Indo-Gangetic Plains, West Africa, and Eastern Africa, but in years to come it will identify and expand to other priority regions.
“Our partnerships with national meteorological systems, civil society, private sector, regional organizations, and research institutes involved in climate related work will guide project implementation,” said Bruce Campbell, director of the Program.
A reaction from Pramod Aggarwal of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute:
Watch more videos from the conference
CCAFS Coordinating Unit - University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Science, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Rolighedsvej 21, DK-1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark, phone +45 35331046; Email ccafs [at] cgiar [dot] org, EAN 5790000279012
Lead Center - International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)