9 steps to scale climate-smart agriculture: Lessons and experiences from the climate-smart villages in My Loi, Vietnam and Guinayangan, Philippines

The Climate-Smart Village approach is a CCAFS agricultural research for development (AR4D) strategy for stimulating the scaling of climate-smart agriculture. CSVs are established in Southeast Asia through the CCAFS program to serve as sites for “testing, through participatory methods, technological and institutional options for generating evidence of CSA effectiveness as well as drawing out scaling lessons for policy makers from local to global levels (CCAFS, 2016). The CSVs in My Loi in Vietnam and Guinayangan in the Philippines were established following this strategy starting 2014 by the World Agroforestry (ICRAF) Vietnam and the International Institute for Rural Reconstruction, respectively. This guidebook showcases the common experiences of the IIRR and ICRAF in the Philippine and Vietnam CSVs, which are outlined in 5 major stages and broken into 9 steps

Training on Establishing Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs) in Myanmar to Improve Food Security and Resilience in Agriculture

This training on establish Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs) in Myanmar was a collaborative effort of the Food Security Working Group (FSWG) and the Myanmar Program of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction. This was supported in part by donors of the FSWG and the International Development Research Center-Canada through the 3-year action research project of IIRR-Myanmar in 4 CSVs. The overall goal of this training was to increase the understanding of the concepts, processes and tools in implementing of CSVs as an approach to build climate resilience among small-holder farmers, achieve nutrition security and gender equality in Myanmar. It was aimed for local NGOs and members of the Food Security Working Group (FSWG), Myanmar’s largest alliance of development organizations advocating for food security and sustainable livelihoods in Myanmar. This training was part of IIRR-Myanmar’s out-scaling pathway by engaging and building capacities of local civil societies to replicate the CSV approach as platforms to promote climate smart agriculture in Myanmar

Supporting the Transformation of Livelihoods: Village Development Funds Managed by Self-Help Groups

This primer is used to train, monitor, and coach communities implementing the Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Project (BCCP) in Cambodia on Village Development Funds, which aims to help villages effectively achieve better livelihoods and infrastructures in their communities

Climate resilient agriculture: educational/training posters series

These posters are based on key messages derived from a sourcebook of reading/reference materials in a companion production entitled "Towards Climate Resilience in Agriculture for Southeast Asia - An Overview for Decision-makers". They were produced by CIAT with CCAFs funding for an FP1.1 project entitled “Integrated agricultural technologies for enhanced adaptive capacity and resilient livelihoods in climate-smart villages (CSVs) of Southeast Asia”. These posters are designed for use in training or educational events, primarily for starting discussions on important issues facing agriculture in a changing climate. The poster series cover a range of topics/ issues related to climate change in agriculture.They can be used one at a time, and not necessarily in any particular sequence. These pictures can also be enlarged to serve as educational posters, displayed one at a time. They can be used in power point presentations . The illustrations can serve as prototypes for local adaptation and further improvement by local artists. Any use of the illustrations should provide adequate credits to the source. The accompanying sourcebook can be found here: http://hdl.handle.net/10568/71100

Integrated Community Food Production. A Compendium of Climate-resilient Agriculture Options

This compendium of best practices brings together practical ecologically sound and nutrition-sensitive approaches to improving the productivity of backyard, community and family farms. With the increasing awareness of the importance of safe and healthy diets, there is a resurgence of interest in these complementary pathways to household level food security Many of these ideas are not scale neutral and therefore best done on small scale systems. The opportunities for diversification and intensification are often greater in these backyard and family centered systems. Most of these small scale production systems can quickly be transformed to chemical-free systems of production. This compendium has four main sections: the first section is an Overview chapter which provides a conceptual understanding of the value of agro ecological approaches. It has articles on climate smart agriculture approaches which IIRR has been promoting as part of its engagement with the global CCAFS network and the Philippine Department of Agriculture AMIA 2 Program. The second section is on Intensive Organic Gardening. This section includes the very best of the articles that IIRR has produced in its Bio Intensive Gardening program which it has adapted and refined over three decades and now being promoted nationally through the Department of Education of the Philippine government. The IDRC Canada (and earlier, UNICEF) has been a big supporter of this approach. The bio-intensive gardening program includes a tree component that helps create a micro climate in gardens that lowers the ambient temperatures by 2-3 degrees. Its emphasis on diversity helps turn these gardens into focal points for conserving vegetable diversity. Ways to enhance the nutrition contributions of gardens receive special consideration. This section on organic gardening is comprehensive and, can serve as the basis for designing a training program and field level interventions. The third section is on Family Farming. Here IIRR has relied on its own experiences as well that of other agencies (UPLB, Phil Rice, MBRLC, PRRM, World Neighbors and others) which have contributed articles to previous source books. Crop production is emphasized mostly those relying on regenerative agriculture approaches. Special efforts were made to include climate-smart agriculture ideas (agroforestry, conservation agriculture, mitigation opportunities in agriculture etc). Diversification and sustainable diversification characterizes the approach to family farming. The fourth section is on Small Livestock and Fish Production. Small scale livestock and fish production systems are highlighted in this section. The concern about hormones and antibiotic use in meat production is surfacing as a major health concern. Rural communities can meet their own needs (or even supply local markets) with animals produced in backyards and small farms. Alternative (improved) feeding systems are highlighted in this section (e.g. pig rations formulated from locally secured products). Low cost housing can help reduce the impacts of rising temperatures on livestock and along with small fish production systems, can contribute to enhancing protein requirements of families. Organic meat creates special niche market opportunities for the small producer. This compendium highlights ways of producing food with a small carbon foot print. Diverse systems of food production are environmentally sound and as long as climate change remains a threat, there will be a role for these systems. Moreover, as long as a third of the population (in developing countries) remains poor, and malnourishment prevails, there will be a special role for community level food production. This compendium features one hundred simple ideas each of which, in a small way, can contribute to climate-smart and nutrition-smart ways of producing food

A new relevance and better prospects for wider uptake of social learning within CGIAR

Relying entirely on survey information and personal exchanges with over 70 scientists from within the CGIAR network, this working paper attempts to achieve a better understanding of the scope of social learning related efforts undertaken in CGIAR and main issues of relevance to more current efforts, such as that planned by the CGIAR program on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). A wide range of methods was identified, where groups of people learn in order to jointly arrive at solutions to pressing food security problems. This methodological diversity is considered a strength given that they represent the different contexts that the research community is responding to. Relying on experiential evidence from professionals within the CGIAR network, the working paper further explores if the reformed CGIAR and the new structural and programmatic setup offer improved prospects for the inclusion of social learning approaches in CCAFS. A range of working definitions of social learning – from the literature – is proposed to meet the special needs/context of scientists. The stocktaking exercise also attempts to identify what is needed to foster an enabling environment for social learning. Key propositions are derived from the findings of the stocktaking exercise. Relying on secondary information provided by respondents, case overviews of exemplary and mature examples of social learning from within CGIAR were developed with the purpose of highlighting that CGIAR does already have a tradition to build upon in future work. Finally, an illustrative listing of current CGIAR projects provided to support the stocktaking objectives of this effort

The Promotion of Climate-Smart Villages to Support Community-Based Adaptation Programming in Myanmar

This report presents the highlights of a scoping study conducted by the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) in Myanmar. The study was funded by CCAFS in support of a plan to test and develop climate-smart villages in Myanmar. In 2015, through the initiative of CCAFS and after consultations with various agencies, the Myanmar Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation adopted the Myanmar Climate-Smart Agriculture Strategy (MCSAS). This document lays out climate change impacts to agriculture in the country in broad terms, as well as the vision and goals of making agriculture in Myanmar climate-smart