7 December 2015: The CGIAR Consortium announced a five-year initiative that will work with farmers in developing countries to increase carbon sequestration in soil, with the aim of promoting agricultural yields as well as mitigating climate change.

The initiative, introduced on the sidelines of the Paris Climate Change Conference, is part of the “4 pour mille” or “4 per thousand” initiative launched by the Government of France in March 2015.

The CGIAR Consortium said its “climate-smart” initiative will work with farmers in Colombia, Ghana, Nepal, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Viet Nam to improve agricultural yields by 20% while offsetting greenhouse gas emissions by 15%. This will be done by: promoting agro-forestry, in which 10% of cropland is planted with trees; conservation agriculture; efficient management of forage and range lands; and using the nutrients from urban waste streams to nourish agricultural lands. The initiative is estimated to cost US$225 million, and will build on countries’ Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted to the UNFCCC.

In a press release, CGIAR highlighted that, although agriculture is absent from the text being negotiated at the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to the UNFCCC, its analysis of 160 INDCs shows that 80% of countries included agriculture as a means of reaching their mitigation targets, and 64% included agriculture in their climate adaptation strategies. [World Agroforestry Centre Press Release] [4 Pour 1000 Website]