CSA Practices for Sustainable Cocoa Farming Systems

Climate change will shape the future production of cocoa and requires mutual cooperation amongst sector stakeholders to tailor responses to its differentiated impacts. Identifying and prioritizing climate smart agriculture (CSA) responses requires integration of multiple objectives and managing trade-offs between food security, adaptation and mitigation. Impact of future climates on growing regions is needed to select locally appropriate CSA practices. Zones of adaptation needs in Indonesia are identified and the ‘why?’ and ‘how?’ of tailored CSA practices are illustrated in an accessible guidebook format

Carbon assessment for cocoa cropping systems in Lampung, Indonesia

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) production plays a key role in the economics of Indonesia, the world’s fourth largest cocoa bean producing country. With more than 1.6 million hectares of land planted with cocoa, small improvements in emissions efficiencies or carbon sequestration opportunities can have a relatively large mitigating effect on emissions from agroforestry and land use. The carbon assessment in Lampung, Sumatra was done to evaluate environmental impacts of cocoa as a commodity through estimation of carbon stock and carbon footprint, GHG emissions during the cultivation of cocoa in different cropping systems. Segmentation of cropping systems along density of intercropping, inputs use intensity and residue management practices identify opportunities for climate smart practices tailored to each segment

Carbon assessment for Robusta coffee production systems in Vietnam: a case study in Dak Lak

Carbon assessments have proliferated to identify climate friendly practices in Arabica producing systems, though little attention is given to Robusta. In this study, we evaluated the climate impact of Robusta production via quantification of carbon stock and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the intensive shaded and unshaded coffee farms of the world’s largest Robusta producing region, Vietnam’s Central Highlands. We find due to the linear relationship between fertilizer use and yields, emissions from input use on a per unit product basis are not significantly different between the intensive and less intensive systems. However, when accounting for carbon sequestered in shade and coffee trees, the less intensive systems are carbon positive (sequestering more than they emit) per unit of green coffee bean produced

Climate service value chain towards end users

With the purpose of contributing to the development of agro-climatic research and services in Vietnam, within the framework of cooperation between the Vietnam Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Climate Change (IMHEN) and CARE International in Vietnam, a technical and national workshop on “Agro-Climate Services: Needs and Opportunities” was organized to review the current status of climate information services in agriculture, as well as the needs, challenges and opportunities to develop climate information services in the sector. CARE, ICRAF and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT have put together a presentation to further introduce the climate service value chain and its stages and how it relates to the needs of the end users of information, primarily, smallholder farmers. Several cases and experiences at different levels were presented during the workshop highlighting the lessons learned from Ha Tinh province and initial findings from the Mekong River Delta

Smart adaptation to climate through adoption of agro-climatic services

The National Agricultural Extension Center organized a training course "Methods and skills for transferring technical advances to production organizations" on 23-28 November 2020 for 60 agricultural extension officers at provincial and district levels of five northern mountainous provinces and 9 Red River Delta provinces. One of the modules was on climate services for agriculture with ICRAF and CIAT served as resource speakers, introducing the concept of climate information and how it can be applied and support the crop planning and decision-making especially in the midst of climate variability. The training focused on solutions towards smart agriculture adapted to climate change (including effective use of climate information) in order to achieve the benefits of food security which includes reducing labor, inputs for production, creating new smart adaptation products to increase productivity, income, nutrition and product diversity. Adapting to damaging cold, hot winds, drought, heavy rains, saltwater intrusion, hurricanes, landslides, soil erosion and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, fertilizer use, methane emissions, reducing fossil fuels/ using renewable energy and minimizing soil erosion were also discussed during this event