1) A diverse range of agricultural practices and technologies are available to enhance food security, resilience and productivity in a sustainable manner, including laser-assisted precision land leveling, alternate wetting and drying of rice fields, weather-based crop insurance, climate-smart villages, and stress-tolerant rice varieties. 2) These interventions must be tailored to local agro-ecological zones and socio-economic contexts, and require mechanisms for capacity building, technology transfer, and initial funding to ensure adoption and scaling. 3) Many practices can achieve environmental, climate change mitigation, and gender co-benefits when implemented.

1. Pramod Aggarwal
Regional Program Leader – South Asia
Agricultural practices and
technologies to enhance
resilience, food security and
productivity

2. New CCAFS Working Paper
Agricultural practices and technologies to enhance food security,
resilience and productivity in a sustainable manner: Messages to
the SBSTA 44 agriculture workshops
Key messages
• A diverse range of suitable practices and
technologies are already available
• Interventions must be appropriate for agro-
ecological zones and socio-economic
contexts
• Mechanisms for capacity building and
technology transfer are necessary for success
• Funding is required to overcome initial barriers to
implementation and ensure scaling up
• Many agricultural practices provide the
opportunity to achieve environmental,
mitigation, and gender co-benefits
Read the Working Paper
Get key messages from the Info Note

3. 5 practices and technologies for Asia in 5 minutes
An Asia perspective

4. 1. Laser-Assisted Precision Land
Levelling (LLL)
• Uses tractor-towed laser-
controlled devices to remove soil
undulations
• Applied on over 500,000ha in
Haryana, India
• Improves yields
• Saved 82,000t CO2, and 1
billion cubic metres of water

5. • Involves periodic
drying and re-
flooding of rice
fields
• Field tested in
Bangladesh,
Indonesia, Lao
PDR, Philippines
Myanmar and
Vietnam
• Lowers water use
by 30%, and
reduces methane
emissions by 48%
2. Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD)
in irrigated rice production

6. • Covers 30 million farmers
• Improved products piloted with
56,623 farmers in Bihar and
Andhra Pradesh
• Insurance payouts based on
CCAFS- generated weather
‘triggers’ beyond which crops
suffer
• Insurance protects farmers from
increasing climate uncertainty
3. Weather based insurance in India

7. 4. Climate-smart villages (CSVs):
philosophy
• Three pillars (food security,
adaptation, mitigation) – and
other measures of success
too
• Integrated portfolio of
technologies, practices and
services
• Participatory decisions and
testing with farmers
• Capacity strengthening for
farmers and services
• Building evidence for
scaling up
• Demonstrating options to
governments and companies

8. 4. CSVs: ‘Growing’ solar power as a
remunerative crop
• Solar panels on farmland generate energy for on-farm needs—
excess power can be sold back to the grid
• Piloted in Gujarat, India
• Supplements farmer incomes, incentivises good water use, and
reduces emissions and dependence on fossil fuels

9. 5. Stress-tolerant rice for Africa and
Asia (STRASA)
• Development of new and improved rice varieties to combat numerous
climate change impacts
• More than 1.1 million farmers in India use STRASA rice to combat
flooding
• STRASA rice is capable of improving yields under drought, flooding
and poor soil conditions

10. Thank you
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