There is a need for agricultural practices that not only limit agriculture-related GHG emissions, but also allow farmers to increase crop yields while building resilience and adapting to the growing number of challenges introduced by a changing climate.
Examples such as CGIAR’s Climate Smart Village (CSV) initiative illustrate how to deliver context-specific agricultural practices and technologies to rural communities.
By Rachael Franchini, Daniel Laurilliard, Gina Althoff, and Victoria Seekman
Achieving and sustaining universal food security (SDG 2), as well as adaptation, resilience, and mitigation to climate change (SDG 13), are highly interconnected[1]. It is predicted that climate change will negatively impact our current food systems and global food security through adverse effects such as prolonged periods of drought, desertification, and increased frequency of extreme weather events[2]. In addition, our current food system is responsible for 21-37% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHG)[3].
There is a need for agricultural practices that not only limit agriculture-related GHG emissions, but also allow farmers to increase crop yields while building resilience and adapting to the growing number of challenges introduced by a changing climate. While such solutions (e.g., rainwater harvesting, integrated soil management, and smart livestock management and grazing) exist, farmers may lack the knowledge or capital required to implement and use them[4]. Moreover, agricultural practices or technologies that build resilience and provide adaptation in one region may not be suitable for another[5].
Examples such as CGIAR’s Climate Smart Village (CSV) initiative illustrate how to deliver context-specific agricultural practices and technologies to rural communities. By incorporating climate smart practices and technologies, participating communities, such as those in Myanmar and Mali, have sustainably improved their food security within the context of climate change while concurrently making progress toward multiple SDG targets and indicators.
In Myanmar, farmers in the Htee Pu village suffered from increasingly poor yields due to erosion-prone, low nutrient soil that had been degraded from continuous farming of commercial crops. In order to combat erosion and improve soil quality, CGIAR’s CSV initiative worked with farmers to reintroduce hyacinth beans to their village. The hyacinth bean is rich in protein, drought resistant, and an excellent cover crop that adds nutrients to the soil[6]. This plant partially restored agrobiodiversity to the village and enhanced farmer nutrition (SDG 2). A second strategy implemented diversification through agroforestry and built resilience towards climate change. Farmers intercropped a local variety of mango tree due to its drought tolerant properties and its economically valuable fruit. The mango trees provide cover for other crops, which helps retain soil moisture and protects against erosion. Additionally, the fruit from the trees diversify farmers’ diets and incomes during the off season, thereby reducing instances of hunger and poverty (SDGs 1 and 2). Both practices help farmers adapt to climate change (SDG 13), build resilience among the community, and insulate the farmers from economic shocks (SDG 1)[7].
In Mali, where 80% of the population’s income is linked to farming, climate change variability is threatening economic and social stability[8]. Malian farmers have already observed increases in temperature, decreases in rainfall, and increases in desertification. A CSV in Cinzana, located in the Ségou region, aims to improve the local community’s adaptation to climate change (SDG 13) while alleviating poverty (SDG 1) and increasing food security (SDG 2)[9]. The adoption of climate-smart agrosilvopastoral systems in Cinzana integrates livestock food production systems with sustainable usage and preservation of local fodder species, including trees, shrubs, and grasses (SDG 15)[10]. This agrosilvopastoral technique will also be used for bioenergy production, following a comprehensive, community-led assessment of household energy usage (SDG 7). CGIAR expects the CSV in Cinzana to be a model for farmers, policymakers, and development practitioners working on food security and bioenergy production.
Rural communities in Myanmar and Mali, as well as others throughout the world, are learning to adapt to climate change through the living laboratories of Climate-Smart Villages. Through trial and error, farmers discover which climate-smart agricultural interventions work best in each unique geographic, social, and economic context. With the CSV model supplanting itself in communities around the globe, lessons are learned and diffused regarding how to best prepare for the imminent shocks and stresses related to climate change. Through additional funding and commitment to this model, the best practices and proven agricultural interventions can be adapted and scaled up throughout similar agro-ecological zones. CSVs represent a bottom-up and participatory development opportunity that ensures smallholder farmers have the best interventions and the agency to prepare themselves and their communities for a climate secure future.
This article was authored by Rachael Franchini, Daniel Laurilliard, Gina Althoff, and Victoria Seekman. They are graduate students at The George Washington University.
[1] Campbell, Bruce, James Hansen, Janie Rioux, Clare Stirling, Stephen Twomlow, and Eva Wollenberg. “Urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (SDG 13): transforming agriculture and food systems.” Environmental Sustainability 34, (October 2018): 13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2018.06.005
[2] Lal, R. “Soil degradation as a reason for inadequate human nutrition. Food Security 1, (2009): 48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-009-0009-z
[3] FAO. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (2020): Transforming Food Systems for Affordable Healthy Diets. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization, 2020, 102. http://www.fao.org/publications/sofi/2020/en/
[4] Campbell et al. “Urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (SDG 13),” 18.
[5] Whitfield, Stephen, Andrew Dougill, Jen Dryer, Felix Kalaba, Julia Leventon, and Lindsay Stringer. “Critical reflection on knowledge and narratives of conservation agriculture.” Geoforum 60, (2016): 138.
[6] Barbon WJ, Myae C, Su MN, Gonsalves. 2020. Restoring drylands, strengthening resilience: Insights from a Climate-Smart Village in Htee Pu, Nyaun Oo, Myanmar. Cavite, Philippines: International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR). https://ccafs.cgiar.org/publications/restoring-drylands-strengthening-resilience-insights-climate-smart-village-htee-pu#.X6h2CZNKiqA
[7] Ibid.
[8] CCAFS. West Africa: Mali. Accessed 5 November 2020. https://ccafs.cgiar.org/mali#.X6h40tBKjIX
[9] CCAFS. Integrated soil-water-energy system as a climate-smart agro-sylvo-pastoral production model in Cinzana, Mali. Accessed 5 November 2020. https://ccafs.cgiar.org/integrated-soil-water-energy-system-climate-smart-agro-sylvo-pastoral-production-model-cinzana-mali#.X6h5dtBKjIX
[10] CCAFS. Integrated soil-water-energy system as a climate-smart agro-sylvo-pastoral production model in Cinzana, Mali. Accessed 5 November 2020. https://ccafs.cgiar.org/integrated-soil-water-energy-system-climate-smart-agro-sylvo-pastoral-production-model-cinzana-mali#.X6h5dtBKjIX