Bringing Climate Smart Agriculture to Scale: Some successes and their success factors

Institutions and policies for scaling-out climate smart agriculture, Hotel Hilton, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2-3 December 2013

Bringing climate-smart
agriculture to scale:
Examples and factors of success

Robert Zougmoré, RPL-CCAFS West Africa
Sonja Vermeulen, Head of Research, CCAFS

2013

1

Food
security

GHG CO2-eq tonne per
capita
25
20
15

10
5
0

US

Adaptation

Malawi

Environmental
footprint

What is “climate-smart agriculture”?

2

Guidance on CSA principles
and practices
FAO (2010). CSA is ‘agriculture that
sustainably increases productivity,
resilience (adaptation),
reduces/removes GHGs (mitigation),
and enhances achievement of
national food security and
development goals.’
http://www.climatesmartagriculture.org

3

Farm and
community:
climate-smart
practices,
institutions

National and
regional:
enabling policies,
extension, support,
research, finance

Climate-smart agriculture happens
at multiple levels

Global: climate models,
international agreements, finance

4

Examples of
Successful CSA

2013

5

Bringing back the Sahel’s
‘underground forest’
o 1980’s loss of trees led to severe soil
infertility, crop failure, famine.

o Land restored through farmer-managed
natural regeneration (FMNR).
o FMNR encourages farmers to regrow
indigenous trees.

Success at scale

o 5 million ha of land restored, over 200
million trees re-established.
o FMNR spreading across southern Niger,
Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal.

Benefits for food production,
adaptation and mitigation
o Food production:
 additional half a million tonnes of grain per year.
 improved food security of 2.5 million people.
 yields of millet from 150 kg/ha to 500 kg/ha.
o Adaptation :
 improved structure and fertility of the soil.
 water more accessible.

o Mitigation:
 sequestration of carbon in soil, tree roots and wood

.

Herbicide-tolerant crops
contribute to climate change
resilience and mitigation
o Herbicide-tolerant (HT) and pest-resistant crops
reduce need for ploughing, fuel consumption,
and pesticides.
o Improves soil quality.

Success at scale
o Reduced fuel consumption.
o Reduced use of pesticides.
o Higher yields, lower costs, greater returns for
farmers.
o HT canola – grown under reduced tillage in Canada.
Reducing fuel use by 31,000 tonnes per year, and
sequestering 1 million tonnes of carbon in soil.

o Food production:
 higher yields.
o Adaptation:
 increasing resilience of farming systems.
 reducing vulnerability to wind and water erosion.
o Mitigation:
 reduced fuel and pesticide usage.
 build up of organic matter in soil leading to
carbon being sequestered.

Weather-based insurance helps
farmers evade the poverty trap
o Smallholder farmers trapped in poverty – no
resources to invest in inputs to generate surplus.
o 2003 Weather-Based Crop Insurance Scheme
(WBCIS) – uses a weather index, pay-outs
triggered automatically.

Success at scale
o 12 million farmers insured.
o More small-scale farmers taking out insurance.
o Reduces the risks farmers take in investing in
inputs.

adaptation, mitigation
o Food production:
– allows farmers to access fertilizer and better
seed.
– raising productivity of cropland.
o Adaptation:
– allows farmers to take risks with new farming
methods.
o Mitigation:
– reduces pressure to bring more land under
cultivation.

Paying for ecosystem services is good
for the environment and people
o By 2009, 38% of China’s total land area
considered badly eroded.
o 2 billion tonnes of silt entering the Yangtze and
Yellow rivers each year.

o ‘Grain for Green’ programme designed to
reduce erosion in river catchments and
alleviate poverty.
o Farmers paid to set aside land and plant trees.

Success at scale

o 2.5 million households participated.
o Converted 2 million ha of cropped hillside
to forest or grassland.

o Sequestered over 700,000 tonnes of
carbon.
o Soil erosion reduced by 26%.

o Food production:
 farmers able to increase yields on
remaining fields.
o Adaptation:
 adapting cropped hillside to forest –
reducing erosion.

o Mitigation:
 carbon production and soil erosion
decreased.

Water harvesting boosts
yields in the Sahel
o Sahel – Droughts common and farming
difficult with sparse rainfall.
o Changes in land management – stone
bunds and zai pits.

Success at scale
o Contour bunds established on
200,000 to 300,000 ha.
o Yields double those on unimproved
land.
o Tree cover and diversity increased.
o Groundwater levels rising.

o Food production:
 predicted that the improved land will
produce enough to feed 500,000 to 750,000
people.
 increased diversity of food, health benefits.

o Adaptation:
 contour bunds able to cope with changing
weather.
o Mitigation:
 land management prevents further
worsening of soil quality.

Safety net programmes boost
food security and climate
change resilience
o Increasing frequency of drought depleting
asset base of smallholder farmers.

o 2005 Productive Safety Net Programme
(PSNP).
o Household Asset Building Program
(HABP).

Success at scale
o Both programmes reduce the ‘hunger gap’.
o Child nutrition and food security increased.

o Increase in livestock holdings.
o Those enrolled in both programmes
produced 147 kg more grain.

adaptation, mitigation
o Food production:
 improved the immediate food security of
households.
o Adaptation:
 strengthened resilience to droughts and floods.
 increased ability to adapt to longer-term climate
change.
o Mitigation:
 adopted agricultural practices likely to increase
carbon sequestration.

Reducing Danish agriculture’s
contribution to climate change
o Denmark agricultural sector contributes
17% of emissions.
o 2009 Agreement on Green Growth.
o Measures to promote organic farming, reestablish wetlands, reduce pesticides.
o Efficiency in resource and energy use.

Success at scale
o 1990 – 2009 emissions declined by 28%.
o 31% reduction in nitrous oxide emissions –
improved use of manure, 40% reduction in use
of inorganic fertilizer.

o Emissions could be cut by a further 50-70%.

o Food production:
 emissions cut without reducing food production.
o Adaptation:
 adapting agricultural practices to become more
energy efficient.
o Mitigation:
 target to use half of all manure produced to
create biogas by 2020.
 will reduce methane production from manure
and reduce dependence on fossil fuel.

Persuading Brazil’s farmers to
adopt low-carbon agriculture
o Agriculture second largest source of greenhouse
gases.
o 2010 Low-Carbon Agriculture (ABC) Plan – aims to
promote sustainable agriculture while increasing
efficiency.
o Provides low-interest loans for sustainable
agricultural practices.

Success at scale
o Ambitious goals.

o 2011 – 2000 projects approved, total value
US$ 251 million.
o Uptake constrained by a number of factors.

o Food production:
 restoration of pastures could increase beef
yields six fold.
o Adaptation:
 promotes sustainable agricultural systems.
o Mitigation:
 reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
 increase carbon sequestration.
 prevent further expansion into the Amazon
region.

Kenyan farmers sell carbon
credits to BioCarbon Fund
o 2010 – Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project (KACP).
o Helping farmers adopt sustainable agricultural land
management.
o World Bank’s ‘Adoption of Sustainable Land
Management’ methodology.

o Bottom-up approach to monitoring.

Success at scale

o 15,000 farmers and 800 farmer groups
have adopted sustainable practices,
applied to 12,000 ha of degraded land.
o Target – to enrol 60,000 farmers on 45,000
ha by 2016.
o Would result in reducing greenhouse gas
emissions by over 60,000 tonnes.

o Food production:
 Improved land management.
 Increasing crop yields.

o Adaptation:
 reducing vulnerability of farmers to
climate change.
o Mitigation:
 restoring degraded land.

‘Plan Maroc Vert’ gets climate
change makeover
o 2008 ‘Plan Maroc Vert’.
o 2011 ‘Integrating Climate Change in the
Implementation of the Plan Maroc Vert’
project.

o Measures proposed could reduce emissions
by 63.5 million tonnes over 20 years.

Success at scale
o Increased production – citrus production
20% increase, cereal 52%, dates 45%, red
meat 45%.
o Could further reduce greenhouse gas
emissions.

o Food production:
 increased agricultural yields.
o Adaptation:
 financing climate change adaption
measures.
o Mitigation:
 could reduce emissions through
sequestration of carbon in soil.

LESSONS LEARNT
Five key lessons for future interventions and global negotiations:
1. Trade-offs between CSA aligned initiatives and current food security
and development priorities can be avoided, at least in the near-term
and over limited spatial scale
2. Cost-effective and comparable indices for measuring GHG fluxes and
adaptive impacts realized through CSA
3. Strong government support is crucial for large-scale success, both
from a policy perspective as well as in elaborating scaling up
frameworks that most effectively utilize the comparative advantages
of the local partners involved
4. Upfront costs are usually substantial in such large initiatives, but can
be met from multiple sources
5. An iterative learning approach in large-scale initiatives with
investment in capacity strengthening of the partners involved is critical

CONCLUSIONS

• Case studies demonstrate the
potential of agriculture to adapt to a
changing climate.
• Cases meet the three-part goal.
• Challenge to promote widespread
adoption of climate-smart agricultural
interventions around the world.

To download this publication visit
ccafs.cgiar.org/publications

2013

38

Bringing Climate Smart Agriculture to Scale: Some successes and their success factors

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