International agricultural research and climate change: A focus on tropical systems

Global awareness and recognition of climate change has grown significantly over the past several years. Recent reports have pointed to the fact that, whilst there will be some winners, in general developing countries will suffer most from the negative impacts of climate change (IPCC, 2007 and Stern, 2007). It has become obvious that the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol will not be sufficiently effective to halt the increase of atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations, and we must now accept that the primary drivers of climate change are not going to stop. Mitigation efforts directed at these primary drivers will therefore only provide a partial softening of the effects of climate change. Local climates and terrestrial ecosystems will change, in many cases threatening human livelihoods. Yet, even as climate changes, food and fibre production, environmental services and rural livelihoods in developing countries must improve, not just be maintained. The status quo in the developing world is not acceptable. Developing countries are currently faced with urgent needs for development to improve food security, reduce poverty and provide an adequate standard of living for growing populations. Addressing these urgent and current development priorities must now be combined with a consideration of the impact of a changing climate on development policies and innovation

Adaptation to Climate Change through Sustainable Management and Development of Agroforestry Systems

This paper describes the potential role of agroforestry systems in the adaptation to expected changes in climate by smallholder farmers in the tropical regions in general and in sub-Saharan Africa in particular. There is enough scientific evidence to conclude that climate change is happening and to link climate change with the observed changes in the earth's physical systems. Agriculture is one of the high priority sectors where the impacts of climate change exceed tolerance limits with implications for the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers dependent on this sector. Agroforestry interventions, because of their ability to provide economic and environmental benefits, are considered to be the best “no regrets” measures in making communities adapt and become resilient to the impacts of climate change. The important elements of agroforestry systems that can play a significant role in the adaptation to climate change include changes in the microclimate, protection through provision of permanent cover, opportunities for diversification of the agricultural systems, improving efficiency of use of soil, water and climatic resources, contribution to soil fertility improvement, reducing carbon emissions and increasing sequestration, and promoting gender equity. These are discussed and limitations are highlighted. While agroforestry systems clearly offer economic and ecological advantages, the development of robust systems compliant with stakeholder needs and requirements is constrained by our limited understanding of the tradeoffs between subsistence requirements, acceptable risks, and the costs involved

Independent data for transparent monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions from the land use sector – What do stakeholders think and need?

The agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sectors contribute substantially to the net global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To reduce these emissions under the Paris Agreement, effective mitigation actions are needed that require engagement of multiple stakeholders. Emission reduction also requires that accurate, consistent and comparable datasets are available for transparent reference and progress monitoring. Availability of free and open datasets and portals (referred to as independent data) increases, offering opportunities for improving and reconciling estimates of GHG emissions and mitigation options. Through an online survey, we investigated stakeholders’ data needs for estimating forest area and change, forest biomass and emission factors, and AFOLU GHG emissions. The survey was completed by 359 respondents from governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, research institutes and universities, and public and private companies. These can be grouped into data users and data providers. Our results show that current open and freely available datasets and portals are only able to fulfil stakeholder needs to a certain degree. Users require a) detailed documentation regarding the scope and usability of the data, b) comparability between alternative data sources, c) uncertainty estimates for evaluating mitigation options, d) more region-specific and detailed data with higher accuracy for sub-national application, e) regular updates and continuity for establishing consistent time series. These requirements are found to be key elements for increasing overall transparency of data sources, definitions, methodologies and assumptions, which is required under the Paris Agreement. Raising awareness and improving data availability through centralized platforms are important for increasing engagement of data users. In countries with low capacities, independent data can support countries’ mitigation planning and implementation, and related GHG reporting. However, there is a strong need for further guidance and capacity development (i.e. ‘readiness support’) on how to make proper use of independent datasets. Continued investments will be needed to sustain programmes and keep improving datasets to serve the objectives of the many stakeholders involved in climate change mitigation and should focus on increased accessibility and transparency of data to encourage stakeholder involvement

The Role of Agriculture in the UN Climate Talks

Agriculture, and consequently food security and livelihoods, is already being affected by climate change, according to latest science from the IPCC. The various strands of work already underway on agriculture within the UNFCCC process can be strengthened and made more coherent. A 2015 climate agreement should reference food production and provide the financial, technical and capacity building support for countries to devise ambitious actions for the agricultural sector. A new climate agreement should be consistent with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) proces

Quantifying the contribution of land use to N2O, NO and CO2 fluxes in a montane forest ecosystem of Kenya

Increasing demand for food and fibre by the growing human population is driving significant land use (LU) change from forest into intensively managed land systems in tropical areas. But empirical evidence on the extent to which such changes affect the soil-atmosphere exchange of trace gases is still scarce, especially in Africa. We investigated the effect of LU on soil trace gas production in the Mau Forest Complex region, Kenya. Intact soil cores were taken from natural forest, commercial and smallholder tea plantations, eucalyptus plantations and grazing lands, and were incubated in the lab under different soil moisture conditions. Soil fluxes of nitrous oxide (N2O), nitric oxide (NO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) were quantified, and we approximated annual estimates of soil N2O and NO fluxes using soil moisture values measured in situ. Forest and eucalyptus plantations yielded annual fluxes of 0.3-1.3 kg N2O-N ha(-1) a(-1) and 1.5-5.2 kg NO-N ha(-1) a(-1). Soils of commercial tea plantations, which are highly fertilized, showed higher fluxes (0.9 kg N2O-N ha(-1) a(-1) and 4.3 kg NO-N ha(-1) a(-1)) than smallholder tea plantations (0.1 kg N2O-N ha(-1) a(-1) and 2.1 kg NO-N ha(-1) a(-1)) or grazing land (0.1 kg N2O-N ha(-1) a(-1) and 1.1 kg NO-N ha(-1) a(-1)). High soil NO fluxes were probably the consequence of long-term N fertilization and associated soil acidification, likely promoting chemodenitrification. Our experimental approach can be implemented in understudied regions, with the potential to increase the amount of information on production and consumption of trace gases from soils

Progress on agriculture in the UN climate talks: How COP21 can ensure a food-secure future

Agriculture, and consequently food security and livelihoods, is already being affected by climate change, according to latest science from the IPCC (Porter et al. 2014). The IPCC agrees that the world needs to produce at least 50% more food than we do today in order to meet the goal of feeding a projected 9 billion people by 2050. This must be achieved in the face of climatic variability and change, growing constraints on water and land for crops and livestock, and declining wild capture fishery stocks. Although the protection of food security lies within the core objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (Article 2), formal arrangements for addressing agriculture within COP21 are unlikely. CGIAR would welcome the strengthening of aspirations for food security through action on mitigation and adaptation within a new agreement. We recognise that the new climate agreement is unlikely to be prescriptive about how adaptation in agriculture is supported and how agriculture might contribute to emission cuts. These issues are addressed within countries’ INDCs and determined at national level

Spatial variability of soil N₂O and CO₂ fluxes in different topographic positions in a tropical montane forest in Kenya

Quantifying and understanding the small-scale variability of nitrous oxide (N₂O) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission are essential for reporting accurate ecosystem greenhouse gas budgets. The objective of this study was to evaluate the spatial pattern of soil CO₂ and N₂O emissions and their relation to topography in a tropical montane forest. We measured fluxes of N₂O and CO₂ from 810 sampling locations across valley bottom, midslope, and ridgetop positions under controlled laboratory conditions. We further calculated the minimum number of samples necessary to provide best estimates of soil N₂O and CO₂ fluxes at the plot level. Topography exhibited a major influence on N₂O emissions, with soils at midslope position emitting significantly less than at ridgetops and valley bottoms, but no consistent effect of topography on soil CO₂ emissions was found. The high spatial variation of N₂O and CO₂ fluxes was further increased by changes in vegetation and soil properties resulting from human disturbance associated with charcoal production. Soil N₂O and CO₂ fluxes showed no spatial pattern at the plot level, with “hot spots” strongly contributing to the total emissions (10% of the soil cores represented 73 and 50% of the total N₂O and CO₂ emissions, respectively). Thus, a large number of samples are needed to obtain robust estimates of N₂O and CO₂ fluxes. Our results highlight the complex biogeochemical cycling in tropical montane forests, and the need to carefully address it in research experiments to robustly estimate soil CO₂ and N₂O fluxes at the ecosystem scale

An assessment of deforestation and forest degradation drivers in developing countries

Countries are encouraged to identify drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in the development of national strategies and action plans for REDD+. In this letter we provide an assessment of proximate drivers of deforestation and forest degradation by synthesizing empirical data reported by countries as part of their REDD+ readiness activities, CIFOR country profiles, UNFCCC national communications and scientific literature. Based on deforestation rate and remaining forest cover 100 (sub) tropical non-Annex I countries were grouped into four forest transition phases. Driver data of 46 countries were summarized for each phase and by continent, and were used as a proxy to estimate drivers for the countries with missing data. The deforestation drivers are similar in Africa and Asia, while degradation drivers are more similar in Latin America and Asia. Commercial agriculture is the most important driver of deforestation, followed by subsistence agriculture. Timber extraction and logging drives most of the degradation, followed by fuelwood collection and charcoal production, uncontrolled fire and livestock grazing. The results reflect the most up to date and comprehensive overview of current national-level data availability on drivers, which is expected to improve over time within the frame of the UNFCCC REDD+ process

An efficient Foxtail mosaic virus vector system with reduced environmental risk

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Plant viral vectors offer high-yield expression of pharmaceutical and commercially important proteins with a minimum of cost and preparation time. The use of <it>Agrobacterium tumefaciens </it>has been introduced to deliver the viral vector as a transgene to each plant cell via a simple, nonsterile infiltration technique called "agroinoculation". With agroinoculation, a full length, systemically moving virus is no longer necessary for excellent protein yield, since the viral transgene is transcribed and replicates in every infiltrated cell. Viral genes may therefore be deleted to decrease the potential for accidental spread and persistence of the viral vector in the environment.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, both the coat protein (CP) and triple gene block (TGB) genetic segments were eliminated from <it>Foxtail mosaic virus </it>to create the "FECT" vector series, comprising a deletion of 29% of the genome. This viral vector is highly crippled and expresses little or no marker gene within the inoculated leaf. However, when co-agroinoculated with a silencing suppressor (p19 or HcPro), FECT expressed GFP at 40% total soluble protein in the tobacco host, <it>Nicotiana benthamiana</it>. The modified FoMV vector retained the full-length replicase ORF, the TGB1 subgenomic RNA leader sequence and either 0, 22 or 40 bases of TGB1 ORF (in vectors FECT0, FECT22 and FECT40, respectively). As well as <it>N. benthamiana</it>, infection of legumes was demonstrated. Despite many attempts, expression of GFP via syringe agroinoculation of various grass species was very low, reflecting the low <it>Agrobacterium</it>-mediated transformation rate of monocots.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The FECT/40 vector expresses foreign genes at a very high level, and yet has a greatly reduced biohazard potential. It can form no virions and can effectively replicate only in a plant with suppressed silencing.</p

Climate change linking adaptation and mitigation through agroforestry

Agriculture is the human enterprise that is most vulnerable to climate change. Tropical agriculture, particularly subsistence agriculture is particularly vulnerable, as smallholder farmers do not have adequate resources to adapt to climate change. While agroforestry may play a significant role in mitigating the atmospheric accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHG), it also has a role to play in helping smallholder farmers adapt to climate change. In this paper, we examine data on the mitigation potential of agroforestry in the humid and sub-humid tropics. We then present the scientific evidence that leads to the expectation that agroforestry also has an important role in climate change adaptation, particularly for small holder farmers. We conclude with priority research questions that need to be answered concerning the role of agroforestry in both mitigation and adaptation to climate change