CGIAR Climate in the News

"We documented all the different types of soils and mapped them so that our decision-makers at national and regional levels can use the maps to decide where to invest in terms of food production and urbanization," said Robert Zougmore, regional program manager for west Africa at the CGIAR research program on climate change, agriculture and food security.

Vietnam: The Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS) research program, part of the CGIAR agricultural research partnership, has announced it is establishing a new hub in Vietnam. The country is the world’s second largest rice exporter and plays an important role in global food supply. “Vietnam is the country most vulnerable to climate change in Southeast Asia,” said Dr Robert Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), one of the participating organisations. (CGIAR). Photo: V. Meadu (CCAFS)

The conference on “Hunger-Nutrition-Climate Justice” that I attended in Dublin this month has shown a hugely significant development. Finally, grassroots activists, smallholder farmers, pastoralists and fishermen are being given a voice and placed at the centre of climate change discussions. Written by Frank Rijsberman

Frank Rijsberman, chief executive of the CGIAR, a partnership of 15 international agricultural research centres, told AlertNet from Dublin that attitudes among scientists have shifted to recognise that local knowledge and concerns must play a part in helping farmers adapt to climate change. It is no longer a question of researchers delivering new plant varieties and growing techniques in a one-way process.

"Farmers do have important knowledge that needs to be combined with modern science," he said. But Rijsberman noted that 60 percent of people at the conference had voted 'no' to a question on whether there is enough local knowledge to tackle hunger and climate change, adding that there is still a need for innovation.

 Questo mese, il governo irlandese e la Fondazione Mary Robinson-“Giustizia climatica” ospiteranno una conferenza internazionale per discutere di tali sfide e sollecitare approcci e soluzioni innovativi. La conferenza “Hunger, Nutrition, Climate Justice 2013” è organizzata in partnership con il Programma Alimentare Mondiale e il CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security . 

La sfida globale è determinare come si possono assistere i più vulnerabili: non imponendo soluzioni dall’alto ma associando le conoscenze tradizionali dei contadini, le loro pratiche e la loro esperienza alle innovazioni scientifiche, al fine di ridurre la fame, migliorare la nutrizione e aiutare le popolazioni ad adattarsi al cambiamento climatico. 

The international research programme ‘Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)’ is an important institution linking climate change and agriculture. Building on the collective strength of 15 international research centres in the CGIAR Consortium, CCAFS has been working in West Africa, East Africa and South Asia to help farmers cope with climate change and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural activities.

To date, efforts to translate what we do and do not know about climate change into effective, legitimate policy and action have had mixed results. As it happens, an increasing number of organisations and actors are reflecting upon this issue. We’ve discussed this with the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), the Global Environment Facility’s Evaluation Office (GEF EO), the Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security initiative (CCAFS, who fund the CCSL) and International Development Research Canada (IDRC). Together, we’re using this event as an opportunity to share our reflections on learning for climate policy and practice, and we’re doing that through an experimental format.

Indeed, in a new report on climate change and food systems, the agriculture research organization CGIAR concluded that our global food system is responsible for nearly a third of all greenhouse gas emissions.

Photo: P. Casier (CGIAR). South Asia has always been a climatic hot spot. According to Pramod Aggarwal, South Asia principal researcher and regional program leader for agriculture and food security for the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), over 70 percent of the region is prone to drought, 12 percent to floods and 8 percent to cyclones. “Climate stress has always been normal [here]; climate change will make things worse,” he said.

Recently, the CGIAR came up with focused research programmes on specific themes and Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) introduced the concept of "Climate Smart Villages (CSVs)" in India with adoption of five villages, Sandheer, Pakhana, Beer Nariyana, Anganthali and Traveri in Haryana.

‘What happens when some of the world’s thought leaders in hunger, nutrition and climate justice meet with innovators working at the frontlines of climate change in developing countries? At the Hunger, Nutrition and Climate Justice conference in Dublin yesterday, these pairings helped bring lofty theories down to earth, infusing discussions on rights, risk, knowledge and empowerment with touching and inspiring examples from around the world.’

Frank Rijsberman, head of the world's leading Cgiar crop research stations, said: "There's a lot of complacency in rich countries about climate change. We must understand that instability is inevitable. We already see a lot of refugees. Perhaps if a lot of people come over on boats to Europe or the US that would wake them up."

The conference, which will end Tuesday night, is being organised in partnership with the World Food Programmeand the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security. It was opened by President Michael D Higgins.

Frank Rijsberman, head of the world's 15 international CGIAR crop research centres, which study food insecurity, said: "Food production will have to rise 60% by 2050 just to keep pace with expected global population increase and changing demand. Climate change comes on top of that. The annual production gains we have come to expect … will be taken away by climate change. We are not so worried about the total amount of food produced so much as the vulnerability of the one billion people who are without food already and who will be hit hardest by climate change. They have no capacity to adapt." Related to the CCAFS co-organised conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Climate Justice, April 15-16 2013.

In order to combat this problem in developing nations, some scientists are turning to crowdsourcing. As part of its Seeds for Needs initiative, for example, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) has been looking at how to turn farmers into citizen scientists. Seeds for Needs, according to CCAFS’s Jacob van Etten, is a “series of projects… to give farmers more access to crop varieties and landraces to help them adapt to climate change.” As part of that initiative, the CCAFS is currently running a program in Vaishali, a district in India’s northeastern Bihar state, to test wheat varieties.

“There are many things to be done that can help deal with climate change impacts, but I would say we are not at all on track,” said Bruce Campbell, the director of the climate change, agriculture and food security program at the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.

“We need a global climate change agreement that ensures finance is available for poorer countries to adapt,” Campbell added. “We need major investments in R&D, such as in heat tolerant varieties[of seeds], and better ways of getting seasonal forecasts to farmers.”

With climate change causing droughts and higher temperatures, the risk of hunger could even increase 10 to 20 percent by 2050 if countries maintain the status quo in terms of policy and agriculture.

The index was created by Concern Worldwide, Welthungerhilfe and Green Scenery with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), which is part of a broad consortium of governments, foundations and other groups called the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.