Projects

Project description

This project generates knowledge on how adoption, outscaling and upscaling of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) facilitated through proof-of-concept sites established using participatory, farmer-centered and community based tools and approaches. This project is designed to deepen the understanding of indigenous and research-derived knowledge in increasing the adaptive capacities and food security of smallholder farmers through climate-smart and gender-sensitive sustainable intensification approaches.

Research activities include:

• Two action research sites were established in Vietnam and Philippines for comparative studies (incl. evaluating methodologies) and that are used to facilitate CSA adoption, outscaling and upscaling.
• Climate change vulnerabilities and risks have been evaluated.
• Indigenous and research-derived CSA technologies and practices are being compiled into a portfolio of practices.
• Learning alliances and innovation platforms are set up at sub-national levels for CSA upscaling. 
• Social learning methods are used to demonstrate community-based approaches to climate change adaptation and mitigation, which will also deliver food security, nutrition and livelihood outcomes within the communities where they are implemented.
• Two years into the project, knowledge products and other research outputs are starting to influence agricultural planning and programming of local governments and development agents at these levels.
• The research will extend from the village level, to sub-national levels: administrative region (for Philippines) and province (for Vietnam).

Outcomes

The adoption of CSA practices will be enhanced province-wide (Philippines) and commune-wide (Vietnam) as a result of their promotion by village committees, informal groups and local governments. Participating municipal government and local authorities with improved capacities are beginning to incorporate CSA, climate adaptation and related disaster risk reduction principles into development programming and local governance systems. Private and public support mechanisms needed to sustain community-based CSA approaches are identified and widely promoted to policy-makers, NARS, civil society and farmers groups.

At the national level, the project is expected to influence a number of major organizations to incorporate CSA practices into their national development agenda. In the Philippines, those organizations include the Department of Agriculture, Department of Interior, Local Government, National Economic Development Authority and Climate Change Commission. In Vietnam, those organizations include the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

At global level, it’s expected that UN agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), as well as other international organizations, such as the International Development Research Center (IDRC), are beginning to use knowledge products derived from this project for designing their own initiatives.

Expected Impacts

The project expects to reach around 500,000 farmers in the Philippines and Vietnam, 40% of whom are women. The research aims to help these farmers to adopt various CSA practices through training and extension work conducted by partners in both public and private networks.

Outputs

• Community Information, Education and Communication campaigns on CC vulnerabilities and risks
• Viable CSA options developed through field-testing with farmers for a range of (interrelated) sub-systems across landscapes
• Participatory innovations / technology development for local adaptation/mitigation and incentives for CSA adoption
• Methodologies and strategies for scaling-out/up, identified and tested
• Knowledge exchange during multi-stakeholder and policy advocacy dialogues on CSA
• Extension-communication materials

Partners

The World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) leads the overall project management and implementation and also takes the lead in conducting adaptive/action research. It manages research activities in the Vietnam site in My Loi CSV. The International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) is the main NGO partner and social learning resource institution for this project. ICRAF provides the overall on-site research management and guidance for the action research, and IIRR leads the action research activities in the Philippine research site and facilitates cross-site technical support and mentoring to the Vietnam CSV.

Other key partners include:

Philippines: Local Government Unit of Guinayangan, Quezon Province, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Department of Agriculture;

Vietnam: Commune People’s Council of Ky Son commune, Ky Anh District, Ha Tinh province, and Farmers' Union.

Gender

The research conducts gender-disaggregated analyses, including on  participation in CSA activities during implementation. By the end of the project, women in the Climate-Smart Villages will have identified ways and means for themselves to increase membership and participation in existing groups, organizations and institutions. Women groups are trained in participatory planning, implementation and analysis of CSA and community-based adaptation.

Location

This project is implemented in the following Climate Smart Villages: My Loi Central Vietnam and Guinayangan, Quezon Province, Philippines. In Philippines also referred to as AMIA village.

Further information

For further information, please contact the project leader, Delia Catacutan, World Agroforestry Center Vietnam (d.c.catacutan@cgiar.org)