4 August 2016
CGIAR Research Program on Dryland Systems Releases Annual Report
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The 2015 Annual Report of the CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Dryland Systems titled, ‘Towards Sustainable Livelihood in Drylands,' highlights improvements to the livelihoods of 1.6 billion people in 2015.

It further notes that the scientific evidence, tools and practices generated through Dryland Systems' integrated systems approach to agricultural research helped to shape global policies to mitigate land and resource degradation “in three billion hectares of drylands.”Sy

CGIAR2 August 2016: The 2015 Annual Report of the CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Dryland Systems, which is titled ‘Towards Sustainable Livelihood in Drylands,’ highlights improvements to the livelihoods of 1.6 billion people in 2015. It further notes that the scientific evidence, tools and practices generated through Dryland Systems’ integrated systems approach to agricultural research helped to shape global policies to mitigate land and resource degradation “in three billion hectares of drylands.”

The Annual Report outlines progress made towards Dryland Systems’ goals of reducing poverty, improving food and nutrition security, and ensuring sustainable resource management in rural dryland communities around the world. Among some key results and outcomes in 2015, the publication discusses the Systems’ contribution to: increased incomes and production; research insights and policy recommendations for adopting sustainable land management (SLM) practices; value chain development; conservation agriculture; empowerment of women and young people to build better agricultural livelihood futures for themselves; 55 open access geospatial databases; and the publication of more than 567 research documents.

Describing some “early successes” of the CGIAR’s new focus on an integrated systems approach to agri-food research, the report highlights, inter alia: re-greening of silvopastoral systems; integrating smallholders in agricultural value chains; improving gender empowerment through village-based seed enterprises in Afghanistan; influencing the adoption of a policy promoting new, high yielding, heat-tolerant wheat varieties in Nigeria; and introducing index-based livestock insurance in Kenya and Ethiopia.

The publication also highlights some examples of “real on-the-ground impacts” from Dryland Systems’ research to identify the main drivers of poverty and its efforts to promote more productive and profitable agricultural practices for thousands of farming households across Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Kenya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and Yemen. It notes that more than 16,000 hectares across North Africa were managed under conservation agriculture options, and more than 134,000 hectares reaped the benefits of enhanced natural capital as improved wheat based technologies were employed across Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan.

The report discusses a four-year Dryland Systems research programme under the framework of the Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) Initiative, which culminated in the publication of the ELD synthesis report titled, ‘The Value of Land’ in 2015. Highlighting the impact of the ELD report in his introductory message, Richard Thomas, Director, CRP on Dryland Systems, notes that the European Commission, which he describes as “a net ‘importer’ of land embedded in imported products,” recognized the relevance of the scientific evidence and recommendations for developing sustainable agriculture, ending poverty and hunger, curbing migration, and enabling global political and socio-economic stability.

Among contributions to other global processes, the report highlights how the Systems’ research is underpinning efforts of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in relation to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 15:3 (By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world). It further notes that private sector actors are making use of the CGIAR business brief, ‘Opportunity Lost: Mitigating risk and making the most of your land assets’ to assess exposure to the risks of land degradation and to evaluate opportunities in sustainable land management.

The report also notes the contribution of Dryland Systems within the broader CGIAR system, such as the adoption of its interactive Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) system by three other CRPs and two CGIAR Research Centers. The report notes that this will help to widen the scope for sharing knowledge and information and spur greater innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration. [Dryland Systems Press Release] [ICARDA Press Release] [CGIAR Research Program on Dryland Systems Annual Report 2015: Towards Sustainable Livelihoods in Drylands]

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