Livestock development and climate change: The benefits of advanced greenhouse gas inventories

Livestock development and climate change outcomes can support each other. More productive and e cient farm systems generally produce food at much lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per unit of product. However, many countries use simple (Tier 1) methods for estimating livestock emissions in their GHG inventories. Tier 1 methods are unable to capture the reductions in emissions intensity that result from improvements to livestock farming. This booklet shows how advanced (Tier 2) inventory methods can support climate change and productivity goals and help broaden countries’ policy options

Putting food in the driver’s seat: Aligning food-systems policy to advance sustainability, health, and security

Food is a basic need, but seldom a basic policy area. Food systems are widely governed by disconnected policies distributed across a range of sectors including agriculture, education, health, environment, economy, and security. Failure to align food system strategies often results in these disparate policies operating at cross-purposes. Conventional food production and consumption practices contribute to biodiversity decline and climate change, cause diet-related health problems, are associated with worker exploitation, and create national security risks. Drawing on agroecology for cohesive national food strategies can provide benefits across all these sectors: supporting public health, environmental sustainability, economic stability, social cohesion, and national security and sovereignty

Adapting Green Innovation Centres to climate change: analysis of value chain adaptation potential. Potato and dairy value chains in North West and Central West Tunisia

The present report aims to provide a climate and vulnerability analysis of the Green Innovation Centres (GIC) target commodity value chains. Herein we identify climate change- related vulnerabilities, hazards, and opportunities for adaptation to the same. Ultimately, our goal is to foster awareness of risks and adaptation priorities in the selected value chains and inform climate investments and planning through the recommendations on priority innovations to manage climate risks

Improving Cocoa sector Climate-Smart Awareness and decision-making

The cocoa sector recognizes climate change and weather volatility as direct threats to their businesses, and some are acting to incorporate climate smart practices into their programs in West Africa. This case study shares cocoa companies’ perceptions regarding the usefulness of the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)-led Consortium’s research and onvening on climate smart cocoa (CSC) in Ghana, also in connection to the USAID Feed the Future Climate Smart Cocoa Program, led by the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF). While a large cross section of the industry has attended the CCAFS and CSC meetings and had access to the materials, this document focuses on four of the companies engaged. Included are company-specific case studies which describe how Touton, Ecom, The Hershey Company (Hershey), and Olam have leveraged the decision-support tools produced by CCAFS, namely climate suitability maps, the science underpinning the Climate Smart Cocoa Manual with recommendations by impact zone, and various climate-smart agriculture (CSA) Apps. We share also companies’ constructive feedback on remaining gaps and opportunities, and conclude with potential future directions for CCAFS and USAID for effective partnership with industry. The case was developed by the Sustainable Food Lab, in collaboration with IITA, in July-September 2018 and draws from extended qualitative interviews with four cocoa companies and several project participants

MRV Tools and Resources

Agriculture contributes around 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, agricultural emissions are significant at national levels; agriculture contributes an average of 35% of emissions in developing countries and 12% in developed countries. Technical mitigation potential in the agricultural sector is high; there are many low and no-cost options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including by improving the efficiency of production. Just over 100 countries include agriculture in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement and are working to identify and implement mitigation solutions. However, many countries cannot document emission reductions achieved through productivity gains and more efficient farm management because national greenhouse gas inventory reporting systems and supporting data are insufficiently developed. Countries need more robust MRV systems for agricultural greenhouse gas emissions to accurately reflect their national circumstances and transparently demonstrate mitigation. Tools and resources to help countries tailor MRV to their production systems and policy priorities are critical. The Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) are working together to produce a range of resources to help strengthen MRV systems for agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation actions

CLIFF-GRADS workshop summary report

The Climate, Food and Farming - Global Research Alliance Development Scholarships (CLIFF-GRADS) is a joint initiative of the CCAFS Low Emissions Development Flagship and the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA). The CLIFF-GRADS Programme builds capability in early-career PhD scientists from developing countries to conduct applied research in agriculture and food loss and waste emission quantification and mitigation. Since 2011, nearly 100 students have received grants and moved into leadership positions in research institutions and governments all over the world

Summary Report: International Conference on Agricultural GHG Emissions and Food Security – Connecting research to policy and practice

Summary Report From September 11th-13th, 2018, approximately 300 scientists and stakeholders from government, public administrations, industry and farmer organizations from over 50 countries gathered in Berlin for the “International Conference on Agricultural GHG Emissions and Food Security – Connecting research to policy and practice” to discuss the central question: What are the options and longer term visions to mitigate greenhouse gases and enhance carbon sinks in the agricultural sector while ensuring food security? The conference was sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) and organized jointly with the Ministry, the Joint Programming Initiative on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change (FACCE-JPI), the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and the Thünen Institute, the German Federal Research Institute of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery. In parallel to the scientific conference, the 8th annual council meeting of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases present took place

Modelling the impacts of agricultural management practices on river water quality in Eastern England

Agricultural diffuse water pollution remains a notable global pressure on water quality, posing risks to aquatic ecosystems, human health and water resources and as a result legislation has been introduced in many parts of the world to protect water bodies. Due to their efficiency and cost-effectiveness, water quality models have been increasingly applied to catchments as Decision Support Tools (DSTs) to identify mitigation options that can be introduced to reduce agricultural diffuse water pollution and improve water quality. In this study, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was applied to the River Wensum catchment in eastern England with the aim of quantifying the long-term impacts of potential changes to agricultural management practices on river water quality. Calibration and validation were successfully performed at a daily time-step against observations of discharge, nitrate and total phosphorus obtained from high-frequency water quality monitoring within the Blackwater sub-catchment, covering an area of 19.6 km2. A variety of mitigation options were identified and modelled, both singly and in combination, and their long-term effects on nitrate and total phosphorus losses were quantified together with the 95% uncertainty range of model predictions. Results showed that introducing a red clover cover crop to the crop rotation scheme applied within the catchment reduced nitrate losses by 19.6%. Buffer strips of 2 m and 6 m width represented the most effective options to reduce total phosphorus losses, achieving reductions of 12.2% and 16.9%, respectively. This is one of the first studies to quantify the impacts of agricultural mitigation options on long-term water quality for nitrate and total phosphorus at a daily resolution, in addition to providing an estimate of the uncertainties of those impacts. The results highlighted the need to consider multiple pollutants, the degree of uncertainty associated with model predictions and the risk of unintended pollutant impacts when evaluating the effectiveness of mitigation options, and showed that high-frequency water quality datasets can be applied to robustly calibrate water quality models, creating DSTs that are more effective and reliable

Adapting Green Innovation Centres to climate change: analysis of value chain adaptation potential. Rice, soybean, and poultry value chains in Alibori, Borgou, Collines, and Zou Departments, Benin

The present report aims to provide a climate and vulnerability analysis of the Green Innovation Centres (GIC) target commodity value chains. Herein we identify climate change- related vulnerabilities, hazards, and opportunities for adaptation to the same. Ultimately, our goal is to foster awareness of risks and adaptation priorities in the selected value chains and inform climate investments and planning through the recommendations on priority innovations to manage climate risks

Adapting Green Innovation Centres to climate change: analysis of value chain adaptation potential. Maize and rice value chains in the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Eastern and Volta regions, Ghana

The present report aims to provide a climate and vulnerability analysis of the Green Innovation Centres (GIC) target commodity value chains. Herein we identify climate change- related vulnerabilities, hazards, and opportunities for adaptation to the same. Ultimately, our goal is to foster awareness of risks and adaptation priorities in the selected value chains and inform climate investments and planning through the recommendations on priority innovations to manage climate risks