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Best Practices in Identifying Best Practices in crop production under climate change
The document discusses best practices in crop production under climate change, emphasizing the importance of identifying and adopting climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices. It highlights challenges farmers face due to climate change and the need for supportive policies, investment, and local institutions to facilitate the adoption of practices that enhance productivity, resilience, and carbon management. The presentation provides examples of potential practices, barriers to their adoption, and underscores the need for tailored strategies based on local contexts to achieve effective agricultural development.
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Best Practices in Identifying Best Practices in crop production under climate change
- 1. Best Practices inIdentifying Best Practices in crop production under climate change Andrea Cattaneo Agricultural Development Economics Division FAO Keynote presentation Best Practices in Crop Production 3rd Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security, and Climate Change December 3rd, 2013
- 2. Overview Part 1 –Challenges due to Climate Change Part 2 – “Technical” Aspects of Best Practices Part 3 – Incorporating Economic Decisions Part 3 – The Role of Institutions
- 3. African agriculture ina +4 °C world Length of growing period (%) To 2090, ensemble mean of 14 climate models >20% loss 5-20% loss No change 5-20% gain >20% gain Thornton et al. (2010)
- 4. But these changesare likely already happening... Source: (FAO, 2013
- 5. Smallholders’ response toclimate change Technologies and practices to increase resilience of agricultural systems: • Soil and nutrient management • Improving water harvesting and retention • Understanding and dealing with changes in distribution of weeds, pests, diseases • Utilising different crops, breeds, wild relatives • Efficient harvesting to reduce post-harvest losses • Planting date management • Use of agroforestry species (soil benefits, dry season livestock fodder, income generation, carbon sequestering, …) There is a need to prioritize among these options...
- 6. Climate Smart Agriculture Importantto build evidence-based agricultural development strategies, policies and investment frameworks to: 1. sustainably increase agricultural productivity and incomes, 2. build resilience and the capacity of agricultural and food systems to adapt to climate change, and 3. seek opportunities to reduce and remove GHGs compatibly with their national food security and development goals. Clearly identifying best practices is a key step in attaining these goals 6
- 7. Overview Part 1 –Challenges due to Climate Change Part 2 – “Technical” Aspects of Best Practices Part 3 – Incorporating Economic Decisions Part 3 – The Role of Institutions
- 8. Identifying Best Practices Thenatural approach to identifying CSA best practices is to examine proxies for the three pillars of CSA: 1. Productivity 2. Resilience 3. Carbon balances However, a best practice can really be considered such only if it is actually adopted by farmers 8
- 9. Examples of potentialCSA best practices Production Practices Conservation agriculture Nitrogen fertilizer Integrated nutrient mgmt Reduced residue burning Reduced tillage / no-till Resilience Mitigation Adoption Barriers ++ +++ ++ ++ + ++ ++ -++ + ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? + + *These examples are purely illustrative and hypothetical • How well a practice will perform in the three CSA dimensions will depend on the agro-ecological and socioeconomic contexts, and the farming system it is being applied to. •These three factors combined will also determine the barriers to adoption
- 10. Identifying Best Practices Understandingand overcoming barriers to adoption is a crucial aspect of identifying best practices for CSA 10
- 11. Overview Part 1 –Challenges due to Climate Change Part 2 – “Technical” Aspects of Best Practices Part 3 – Incorporating Economic Decisions Part 3 – The Role of Institutions
- 12. The Building Blocksfor CSA Success: An FAO country-based approach 1. Assessing the situation: identifying locally viable CSA practices 2. Understanding barriers to adoption of CSA practices 3. Managing climate risk 4. Building coherent policies & Institutions 5. Guiding investment
- 13. Overcoming Barriers toAdoption for Better Project Success: The case of Zambia Practices: Conservation Farming practices: minimum soil disturbance (MSD) and crop rotation(CR) – MSD adoption remains very low: ~5-6% (sample size 4,187) – Significant dis-adoption: ~90% of MSD adopters in 2004 abandoned it – Adoption intensity is significantly higher for smallholders Adoption: Strongest determinants – Variability of rainfall – Delays in the onset of rains – Extension information
- 14. With climate informationcan target interventions... Source: (FAO, 2013
- 15. Emerging Evidence: Malawi •Practices: improved maize varieties, inorganic and organic fertilizers (OF), legume intercropping (LI), and agro-forestry (AF) (e.g. Faidherbia albida) • Adoption: Important determinants: – Land tenure positively correlate with OF,LI, AF – Drought proneness positively correlate with AF&LI • Yields: – Improved seed, legume Intercropping & agro-forestry positively correlate with productivity – Significant synergies among all three practices 7
- 16. Overview Part 1 –Challenges due to Climate Change Part 2 – “Technical” Aspects of Best Practices Part 3 – Incorporating Economic Decisions Part 3 – The Role of Institutions & Investment
- 17. What barriers toadoption linked to institutions? Tenure Security: lack of tenure security and limited property rights, may hinder adoption of SLM Limited Access to Information, e.g. very low levels of investment for agriculture research and extension Up-front financing costs can be high, whilst on-farm benefits not realized until medium-long term (credit) Risk plays an important role What effect does a practice have on risk profile? What safety nets?
- 18. Strengthening local institutions: howto improve the enabling environment? • Local institutions (formal & informal) are “enablers” for adoption • Three main areas where CC affects what we need to see from local institutions for enabling environments • Information dissemination (CC destroys info) • Risk management (CC increases uncertainty) • Collective action (CC changes scale)
- 19. Conclusion • Technical aspectsof practices are very important, but to be successful practices need to be adopted on the ground by farmers • Adoption will depend on economics, institutions, and appropriate investment • Potential CSA practices should be evaluated taking these aspects into account when developing CSA investment proposals Identify barriers and enabling factors Managing Climate Risk Guiding Investments Defining coherent policies Assessing potential practices 7
- 20. Thank you! If interestedin the CSA evidence-base for Malawi, Viet Nam, and Zambia go to: http://www.fao.org/climatechange/epic/en/