Are We Ready to Scale-out Climate-Smart Agriculture in South Asia?

P.K. Aggarwal1, A. Khatri-Chhetri1, P. B. Shirsath1, M.L. Jat2, P.T. Thornton1, A. Jarvis1

1CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)

2International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)

South Asia: Home for 40% of World’s Poor

Source: World Bank, 2015

• > 1.6 billion people, 2.4% of the world’s land area and 17% of world’s population

• Still has high growth rate of population

• Tremendous progress in last 4 decades

Food consumption increased from 1900 kcals to > 2500 kcals

Average GDP growth >6%

Little food imports now

• Yet, 1/4th of the world’s hungry; 40% of the world’s malnourished children and women

• Lagging in MDGs

• Agriculture important for livelihood security of > 50% population

• Projected to be very vulnerable to climatic risks

Source: Maplecroft, 2010

Drought: 70% land

Floods: 12% land

Cyclones: 8% land

Frost: Northern regions

Heat: Frequent at many places

Coastal salinity ingression

One of the most vulnerable regions to climate change

Food security and poverty are the key issues

Climatic Stresses are Common in South Asia High CV of rainfall in Pakistan; northwest and south India

Climate Change and Agriculture South Asia is a major hotspot

• Climate change likely to reduce agricultural production by 10-

50% by 2050 and beyond, if we do not start adapting now.

• Increased production variability due to more frequent droughts,

floods, and heat events

• Large implications for intra- and inter-national trade.

• Increasing demand for (quality) food

• Increasing competition for resources

• Increasing degradation of resources

• Increasing climatic risks

• Increasing variability of global supplies, and prices

Adapting South Asian Agriculture to Climate Change and Declining Resources: Need for CSA

Climate-Smart Agriculture

Adapting South Asian Agriculture to Climate Change: Key Action Points

• Providing value-added weather services: Weather infrastructure; data protocols, storage, access and dissemination

• Promoting insurance for climatic risk management: scientific and economically validated schemes; weather derivatives; awareness

• Facilitating community partnership in food, forage and seed banks: Technical know-how; capital costs; increased acceptance if successive years are more risky

• Improved targeting of technologies and policies: Improved agronomic practices, climate-smart technologies; gender friendliness

• Identify and exploit potential benefits of climate change: Change in temp zone, increase in rainfall, short duration crops etc.

• Maximize synergies among interventions: Adaptation with mitigation co-benefits, higher yield with improvement in soil, resilience

Climate-Smart Village Programme Participatory approach of promoting CSA

Strategy • Integrated farmer participatory

approach

• Builds on local knowledge and plans

• Precision agronomy principles-sensors

• Use of modern ICT tools

• Capacity strengthening and technology targeting

For more details visit www.ccafs.org

Key Interventions in a Climate-Smart Village

Typical Partners of CSVs

• Farmer groups

• Buyers

• Input suppliers

• Rural ICT company

• Insurance company

• Meteorological agency

• Local governments, CBOs, NGOs

• Researchers (NARS, Universities,

CGIAR)

Outputs of CSV Programme

CSAPs Portfolios in CSVs: Some Evidences From Field Scale Technology Yield

gain/loss

(kg/ha)

Economic

gains/loss

(USD NR/ha)

Water saving

(M3/ha)- for

water smart

practice

Energy

Saving

(MJ/ha)

Increase in

NUE (as

kg/kg)

Reduction in

GHG (CO2-e

kg/ha)

Zero tillage in

wheat (without

residue)

342 131 414 3040 1.44 1507 (from

LCA)

Zero tillage with

residue in wheat

468 190 550 2650 1.61 ?

Permanent beds

in maize/wheat

195 289 1650 ? 1.33 ?

Direct seeded

rice

+150 136 3000 ? - 420 (based

on soil flux

only)

Improved water

management

375 97.51 405 ? 1.40 -

Nutrient Expert in

wheat

500 104 - ? 10 200

Laser leveling

(RW system)

600 130 2500 ? ? 330

Source: Jat et al (2014)

Initial Achievements 1. Evidences of CSVs: Impact on yield, income, inputs use and GHG

emissions. Source: Jat et al. 2014, Aryal et al. 2015, Sapkota et al. 2014, Aryal et al. 2014 Khatri-Chhetri et al, 2015 (accepted), Sapkota et al 2015 (accepted)

2. Development of partnership: Strengthening collaboration among researchers, local government and farmers organizations for participatory evaluation of diverse CSA technologies in farmers’ fields.

3. Investment and scaling out/up: International organizations, national and state governments have shown keen interest to invest and scale out CSV approach in various locations, Example: India (Maharashtra, Haryana), Nepal (IFC, CDKN) and Bhutan.

4. Development of portfolio of interventions in the CSVs: integration of seed, water, nutrient, energy, insurance and ICT

Challenges for Scaling out CSA through CSV

1. Financial: Investment in CSA interventions by smallholders

2. Policy: Integration of CSA/CSV into current policies and schemes relating to agricultural development and climate change

3. Social: Inclusion of marginalized and socially disadvantage groups

Are We Ready………..?

1. National and state governments have shown keen interest to invest and scale out CSA/CSV appraoch

2. High potential of converging policies/programs around climate change adaptation in agriculture

3. More evidence needed for synergies in different agro-ecological enviornments

4. While business models for some interventions such as ICT exisit, they need to evolve for CSVs

Questions

Answers &