This publication is one of four CABI briefings on climate change. The key messages in this briefing are:
Rainfed agriculture accounts for more than half of the world’s food production but is facing increasing precipitation variability, driven by climate change. Achieving zero hunger will require improvements in rainwater management to increase productivity. About 45 percent of global rainfed cropland is still under low-input production systems. These are concentrated mostly in lower-income countries, which face multiple challenges in addressing the growing water shortages. Improved water management practices must be combined with the best agronomic practices for enhanced effectiveness.
This brief explores the evidence on the relationships between food aid transfers and investments in climate adaptive agriculture using data from Ethiopia, Malawi and United Republic of Tanzania. Four climate adaptive agricultural investments are considered, namely: adoption of cereal-legume intercropping, use of organic fertilizers such as manure and compost, construction of soil and water conservation structures in fields, and investments in livestock diversification.
Innovation for sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) is challenging. Changing agricultural systems at scale normally means working with partners at different levels to make changes in policies and social institutions, along with technical practices. This study extracts lessons for practitioners and investors in innovation in SAI, based on concrete examples, to guide future investment.
Researchers at the University of Queensland have worked on research projects in the PNG Highlands since 2005. These projects were, and are, applied research to manage soil fertility in sweetpotato-based cropping systems in the Highlands. They were funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. Our key collaborator was PNG’s National Agricultural Research Institute. Although the projects were in the field of Soil Science, specifically soil fertility management, our approach has always been multidisciplinary.
The Water Resources Department, Government of Maharashtra, responsible for building infrastructure and delivering water to farmers and other users, has so far created irrigation potential of about 5.3. million hectares and the current utilization is about 76%. About 5000 Water User Associations (WUAs) have been established to manage the water supply within their designated areas. However, the water use efficiency and productivity is adversely impacting the overall water security of the state.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) financed the second Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource Management Project (CHARMP2), in areas where poverty is most severe among indigenous peoples in the highlands of the Cordillera Region in northern Philippines. The aim is to reduce poverty and improve the livelihoods of indigenous peoples living in farming communities in the mountainous project area. The indigenous peoples consist of many tribes whose main economic activity is agriculture.
Policy briefs are an effective tool to communicate policy messages using evidence. Thus, the Department of Agriculture Extension and Cooperatives (DAEC) and the Department of Planning and Cooperation (DOPC) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) in Lao PDR organized a multi-stakeholder policy dialogue process with support from FAO’s TAP-AIS project to spur discussion and gather evidence for this policy brief. Stakeholders involved in the policy dialogue process included representatives from the private sector, farmers organizations, academia, NGOs and the government.
Water is scarce and pivotal for the Sahel, not only for increasing the productivity for millions of small-scale farmers but also for countering loss of arable land resulting from erosion and warming temperatures. A major barrier to the use of water in the Sahel is the lack of infrastructure and technologies – 45 percent of the population do not have access to water, and only 2 percent of arable land is irrigated (OECD, 2022).
In order to realize the potential of agricultural innovation in family farming, national priorities of sustainably increasing food production and productivity, and reducing hunger and poverty, require rural knowledge institutions to be stronger and communication processes to be improved. This brief synthesizes the focus of FAO’s research and extension branch on transforming agricultural innovation systems of member countries.