Best of 2017: The year in climate change, agriculture and food security research
Lili Szilagyi(CCAFS)
2017 was an important year for CCAFS to advance research on climate change, agriculture and food security. Join us to revisit the highlights!
In the spring, our Program Management office moved from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) to Wageningen University and Research (the Netherlands). At the launch of the new CCAFS Program Management Unit office, Martin Kropff, Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) highlighted:
Scientific excellence, partnerships and capacity building, are the three crucial components for achieving impact, and the CCAFS-WUR partnership seeks to bring these components together.”
In May at the SBSTA climate talks in Bonn, we set out an ambitious vision for accessible insurance for farmers across the developing world against weather-related losses. At the event, Bruce Campbell, director of CCAFS, emphasized the importance of partnerships and research:
Insurance not only compensates smallholders to avoid catastrophic losses, it also allows them to invest and adapt, even when they don’t receive a pay-out. But we need all key players to engage in order to reach more farmers. This is why events like those at the SBSTA climate talks in Bonn are so important. By bringing the insurance industry together with climate change and agricultural researchers, we can develop truly global solutions."
To strengthen the role of partnerships, at the UNFCCC COP23 climate talks in Bonn, CCAFS co-hosted the Agriculture Advantage event series that put forward a vision and action agenda for transforming agriculture under climate change. For the COP23 climate talks, CGIAR scientists, led by CCAFS, have developed the 10 best bet innovations for adaptation in agriculture, to serve as a supplement to the UNFCCC NAP Technical Guidelines.
Bruce Campbell delivers his presentation on a vision for agricultural transformation under climate change. Photo: M. Major (Crop Trust)
During the year, CCAFS hosted and participated in various conferences, workshops and webinars, produced research outputs such as reports, journal articles and case studies, and continued to work across 5 regions on the ground to help smallholder farmers cope with climate change.
HERE ARE SOME OF OUR MOST POPULAR STORIES FROM THE CCAFS FLAGSHIP AND REGIONAL PROGRAMS IN 2017:
Lili Szilagyi is the Communications Consultant for the CCAFS Program Management Unit and CCAFS East Africa.
