Recent research from diverse contexts points to the importance of “local” in driving climate adaptation. Farmer organizations and their networks are potentially crucial for three reasons: (a) with effective local networking they can share, learn and innovate; (b) with effective organization they can act as aggregators, in order to better obtain finance, access markets and benefit from higher prices; and (c) with an effective voice, they can influence policy makers. Effective is the key!

Networking to stimulate sharing, learning and innovation

What do the following three examples have in common? (1) Farmers for Climate Action, a movement of farmers, agricultural leaders and rural Australians working to ensure that farmers are part of the solution to climate change; (2) farmer-led greening in Tigray*, previously an epicenter of famine and now largely food self-sufficient and greener than ever; and (3) Wefarm, a farmer-to-farmer digital network with more than a million users across Kenya and Uganda. The answer is simple: all of them represent successful cases of effective local networking that has been translated into concrete benefits for farmers, through a diversity of mechanisms.

However, farmers’ organizations are not a simple recipe for success. According to Aleksandra Dolinska and Patrick d’Aquino in their recent paper examining a dairy cooperative, unequal power dynamics may limit effectiveness. Loan Thi Phan and colleagues also noted that the gender imbalances in organizations can negatively impact women.

Union becomes power

The theory is easy to understand: in general, small-scale farmers in developing countries face market imperfections that lead to high transaction costs of accessing input and output markets, at the same time that they face poor access to credit and low bargaining power. Numerous studies suggest that these constraints could be overcome if small-scale farmers were organized into collective action groups. Nevertheless, empirical studies find varied levels of success and benefits of agricultural cooperatives. The latter does not imply that the theory is wrong, however, and under some circumstances collective action groups can become powerful. In particular, administrative and skill competence of the managers of these groups and the level of members’ participation can determine the success of cooperatives (Mojo et al., 2017). At the same time, sub-Saharan Africa has demonstrated that democratic governance, homogeneous groups of optimal size, and transparent and market-led farmer organizations can enhance farmers’ access to markets (Shiferaw et al. 2011).

What can a united, strong voice accomplish?

According to Julio Berdegué and colleagues, the sectoral and organizational diversity of territorial economic structures and the intensity of interactions among them is one of the five factors that facilitated development among 10,000 territories in 11 countries in Latin America. The study suggests that positive developments depend on “transformative social coalitions” characterized by a convergence in the vision and actions of diverse social actors that are committed to sustained action over a long period of time. As Pierre-Marie Bosc and colleagues conclude, the level of influence on policy that local organizations can bring to bear is often linked to their ability to forge alliances within the rural world or to partner with other actors in civil society or with the private sector.

So now what?

Rural societies have an essential, yet often ignored role in the global discourse on finding climate change adaptation solutions, and an essential role in fostering action. However, the rural voice is seldom heard. Farmers organizations have a key role to play. What needs to happen? Farmer organizations themselves need to reflect on, and improve, their effectiveness, as problems in leadership and gender inequality will undermine their roles. Governments can help by investing in capacity building for farmers’ organizations, and providing the enabling regulatory and legal frameworks for better governance. Public and private sector actors can invest in developing creative and innovative networking mechanisms such as digital platforms that can mobilize and connect farmers. To increase their voice and role in influencing policy, farmers’ organizations need to develop powerful networks with other stakeholders.

References

• Berdegué JA, Escobal J, Bebbington A. 2015. Explaining spatial diversity in Latin American rural development: Structures, institutions, and coalitions. World Development 73:129–137.
• Bosc PM, Piraux M, Dulcire M. 2015. Contributing to innovation, policies and local democracy through collective action. In: Sourisseau JM, ed. Family Farming and the Worlds to Come. Dordrecht: Springer. p 145–160.
• Dolinska A, d’Aquino P. 2016. Farmers as agents in innovation systems. Empowering farmers for innovation through communities of practice. Agricultural Systems 142:122–130.
• Mojo D, Fischer C, Degefa T. 2017. The determinants and economic impacts of membership in coffee farmer cooperatives: recent evidence from rural Ethiopia. Journal of Rural Studies 50:84–94.
• Phan LT, Jou SC and Lin JH. 2019. Gender Inequality and Adaptive Capacity: The Role of Social Capital on the Impacts of Climate Change in Vietnam. Sustainability 11:1257.
• Shiferaw B, Hellin J, Muricho G. 2011. Improving market access and agricultural productivity growth in Africa: what role for producer organizations and collective action institutions? Food Security 3:475–489.
• Thornton P, Dinesh D, Cramer L, Loboguerrero AM, Campbell B. 2018. Agriculture in a changing climate: Keeping our cool in the face of the hothouse. Outlook on Agriculture 47:283–290.
• Thornton PK, Kristjanson P, Förch W, Barahona C, Cramer L, Pradhan S. 2018. Is agricultural adaptation to global change in lower-income countries on track to meet the future production challenge? Global Environmental Change 52:37–48.

*The original version contained an incorrect reference. The reference in this blog has been corrected.

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Two things struck us the most in this year’s intersessional climate talks: Firstly, countries failed to agree on ambitious action in response to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC. Even so, Switzerland’s lead negotiator and several others put the focus on science-based action, wearing t-shirts with the quote, “science is not negotiable”, and urging countries to make the right decisions based on the report. Secondly, the 15^th Global Conference of Youth was officially launched by the youth constituency, with the compelling theme, “we are action”.

Science as the basis for action

Working at the interface of science and policy, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) has endeavored to inform policy decisions based on sound scientific research, and provided inputs into the UNFCCC negotiations over the years. This year again, CCAFS and the World Bank made a formal submission on soil health to the UNFCCC’s Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture, and hosted a side event on the topic at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn in June. We also organized a side event that highlighted the role of local to global policy as a catalyst for transformation in food systems. Participants discussed transformative actions, including changing diets, tackling food loss and waste, reducing emissions and increasing resilience. Radical shifts in the financial system, particularly to reorient public support for agriculture, were also discussed with the aim of supporting actors to raise their ambition for change.

In addition, new evidence on changing rainfall patterns was presented at a third side event, in which participants discussed how science can better inform adaptation decisions and raise ambition. Following proactive discussions with countries and observers, Julio Cordano, Head of Climate Change and Sustainable Development Department at Chile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, highlighted the various processes within the UNFCCC that can raise ambition and enable action for adaptation, noting, “we have the opportunity to marry the science and the policy, in this new era that starts in 2020”. Even though the processes and opportunities exist, however, the willingness among all countries is lacking, and this has led to reluctance to act upon scientific findings in the most appropriate manner. This in itself is a cause for concern, and the pace of action is far from desirable.

Science is not negotiable, Swiss negotiator Franz Perrez tells #SB50Bonn after a group of nations seeks to question the science behind latest IPCC report #climate #science #cop25 pic.twitter.com/PMaayRJQsd

— Ewa Krukowska (@EwaBN) June 27, 2019

What needs to change?

With only 11 cropping seasons to achieve the SDGs in some countries, it appears unlikely that we will reach these goals unless we transform the way we produce and consume food, and fast. As one participant noted, the UNFCCC negotiations are like tricycles, and while a positive outcome from negotiations means that all parts of the tricycle are functioning and the tricycle is moving forward at a steady pace, this is far from the Tesla that we need to transform food systems within the next decade. Negotiations on agriculture continued to make progress, and the conclusions elude to more effective use of climate finance for the sector and an additional inter-sessional workshop with a focus on scaling action. But, the pace of progress may be too slow to catalyze a transformation. This means that in addition to progress in negotiations (which is important as it offers a political mandate), action must also be catalyzed at scale outside the UNFCCC.

Who can make this change happen?

A transformation requires actions at multiple levels. The Global Conference of Youth’s tagline, “we are action”, is inspiring as each one of us has a responsibility to act. Probably the changes and the speed needed are not going to come from the UNFCCC negotiations but from other initiatives that focus on delivering action on the ground.

For instance, the UN Secretary General’s climate summit happening in September of this year could be an important venue for accelerating action. Other key initiatives to watch out for in the agriculture space include the Global Commission on Adaptation’s action track on agriculture, the Food and Land Use Coalition, the World Economic Forum’s strengthening global food systems initiative, and the Global Resilience Partnership. While the number of initiatives is promising, the success of these many initiatives will largely depend on their ability to go beyond discourses and translate them into concrete actions championed by specific actors committed to implement them. A new initiative led by CCAFS, Transforming Food Systems Under a Changing Climate, aims to ensure success by identifying levers for transformation and developing a set of action plans led by champions to advance action. Action by all stakeholders, including youth, will be fundamental to the success of all of these initiatives.

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With the average African farmer’s age hitting nearly 60 years, the sector’s stakeholders have been diligently working to come up with measures on how to attract and retain youth in the sector. There have been a myriad of suggestions, but none of them seemed as attractive as engaging youth through climate-smart and digital agriculture.

In April 2019, thought leaders, policy experts, researchers, the private sector and youthful farmers joined a sizeable audience of participants at the first Agtech Africa summit, held in Nairobi, Kenya. These stakeholders came together to discuss the potential of climate-smart and digital agriculture in attracting young people and thereby rejuvenating an aging global agricultural sector.

Agriculture can only be ‘cool’ for the youth if they can make a decent living out of it. #AgtechSummit #SustainableAgricultureSummit #YouthinAgribusiness pic.twitter.com/dTQFhQefyx

— #FarmerInASuit (@iamVicmugo) April 30, 2019

Victor Mugo, Country Coordinator for the Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network (CSAYN), started by dispelling the notion that youth keep away from the farm because it is a ‘dirty job’. He went on to clarify that young people shy away from farming because it is not profitable: “With the train of risks that are often exasperated by climate change, young people see the sector offering little opportunity for economic enrichment and social fulfilment. Agriculture can only be cool if youth can make a decent living out of it.”

While concurring with Victor’s statement, Benson Mwendia, a young farmer who keeps poultry and grows watermelons, onions, okra and chillies, narrated his chilling experience with climate-related disasters that had wreaked havoc in his farm: “My farm sits only a stone throw away from River Sabaki and while I benefit from a regular supply of water, I am also constantly staring at the threat of flooding.”

For him, his saving grace was his introduction to climate-smart agriculture (CSA) and the reinforcement of this knowledge through Kilifi County’s Climate Risk Profile that elaborated the available menu of options on how to adapt to climate-related threats. “With the new knowledge, I have been able to significantly reduce some of the risks associated with growing these crops and I am now making a good return from my farming activities” he reported.

Engaging young people in agriculture is vital for the sector’s survival. Photo: C. Schubert (CCAFS)

Benson has also gone a step forward and turned his farm into a Climate-Smart Agriculture Excellence Centre (CSAEC). He now makes an extra income teaching farmers on how to strengthen their local capacity to adapt to perennial climate-related hazards through adopting CSA technologies and management practices.

The final panellist Philip Simiyu, a young maize farmer studying agricultural economics at the University of Nairobi, noted that although CSA increases agricultural production and builds the resilience of farmers, post-harvest losses and lack of stable markets water down all these gains. Even after increasing his maize produce, Philip shared how he suffered at the hand of poor market prices and pests that ate his profits away. Having learned his lesson, he now advises young farmers to acquire a market-oriented farming mind-set that allows them to ‘sell before they plant’.

George Wamukoya, a policy expert from the Africa Group of Negotiators Expert Supporter (AGNES) team brought the session to a subtle conclusion, warning that CSA was not a miracle solution. He advised that appropriate technologies and management practices needed to be matched with different weather conditions, soil state, topology and agro-ecological zone. However, he also noted that by using CSA, farming activities could become less risky and therefore more profitable. With this, young people could find it more appealing as a sector to venture into.

Read more:

• News update: Diverse youth groups come together for climate-smart agriculture
• News update: The future of farming: The potential of young people in the agriculture sector
• News update: Youth, agriculture, and innovation: Building the capacity of young entrepreneurs to mange climate risks
• News update: Encouraging African youth to adopt climate-smart agriculture
• Publication: Youth engagement in climate-smart agriculture in Africa: Opportunities and challenges

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Green GB Week (15-19 October), a new initiative in the UK this year, comes just in time. If it was not clear before, the recent IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C of Warming is unequivocal that limiting global warming to 1.5°C requires decisive action to reduce emissions in all sectors, now. While Green GB Week focuses on domestic clean growth, it’s a fitting moment to think about UK support for climate change mitigation and adaptation abroad, too. Earlier this week, on the occasion of the World Food Day, Harriett Baldwin MP, Minister of State for Africa at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and Minister of State for International Development, wrote about UK Aid’s efforts to invest in research and development to enhance resilience of food systems in Africa to the impacts of climate change.

The agricultural sector, one of the sectors most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change while at the same time responsible for 11% of global emissions, requires nothing short of a transformation in the face of a changing climate. At this intersection of multiple challenges under climate change, climate-smart agriculture (CSA) has emerged as a promising approach to drive transformational change in agricultural systems. The need for more farmers to adopt climate-smart agriculture is pressing. Yet the highly diverse and context-specific nature of different agricultural systems makes scaling CSA challenging.

To understand the opportunities and challenges for scaling up CSA, and to provide a central mechanism for policy cohesion at different geopolitical levels, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) is launching a Learning Platform on Partnerships and Capacity for Scaling CSA.

The platform will be hosted by the Priestley International Centre for Climate Change at the University of Leeds, and is supported by UK Aid, one of CCAFS’ major funders. On November 26^th, CCAFS and the University of Leeds will host a seminar and discussion, ‘Scaling up climate-smart agriculture: challenges and opportunities’ to celebrate the launch and kick-start collaboration.

The scaling challenge

To successfully address the multiple challenges that agriculture faces under climate change, CSA must be scaled up to be adopted by millions of farmers. But agricultural

systems are highly diverse. Some farmers rely on agriculture as their main livelihood activity and income source. Others diversify their livelihoods—for instance, when agricultural returns are insufficient for survival. Still others are integrated into the bigger capital-intensive global trading systems.

To achieve scale, CSA needs to address this wide range of different motivations and contexts. A study by CCAFS found that some drivers of adoption, such as market access and climate variability, are relevant across countries and regions, whereas others are site-specific, e.g. social constraints that prevent women from selling their products at the market.

A fitting partnership

Since 2012, CCAFS has had a research focus on ways to scale CSA. Notable contributions include:

• A roadmap for adaptation in agriculture, for the newly launched Global Commission on Adaptation.
• Informing UNFCCC decisions and discussions on agriculture, and supporting negotiators from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
• Trialing and scaling out index-based insurance in India, Bangladesh, Honduras, Senegal, Ghana, and Ethiopia, in partnership with industry and government.
• Disseminating low emissions livestock practices to over 600,000 farmers in Kenya.
• Enhancing c. USD 1 billion of investments for climate action in agriculture, including CSA projects in Niger and Kenya by the World Bank ($350 M), and projects in Nicaragua, Comoros, Liberia and Uganda through the International Fund for Agricultural Development’s (IFAD) Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme.

The University of Leeds has been a partner of CCAFS since the inception of the program, when Professor Andy Challinor of the Priestley International Centre for Climate co-led the CCAFS Flagship Program on Climate-Smart Technologies and Practices.

The Learning Platform on Partnerships and Capacity for Scaling CSA is an opportunity for further collaboration and learning, drawing on the complementary expertise and resources of CCAFS and the University of Leeds.

Launch of the learning platform

The November 26^th launch event, Scaling Up Climate Smart Agriculture: Challenges and Opportunities, will be held at the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds. The program will consist of two sessions.

The first session focuses on differentiated adaptation and development pathways for food systems that meet the needs of a diverse array of types of farmers and contexts. The second session will focus on the role of CSA, and the opportunities and challenges for scaling up CSA to realize inclusive and sustainable rural development, drawing on previous experiences from CCAFS. This session will help to identify priorities for the learning platform.

Please note that participation is by invitation only. Interested parties are encouraged to send an email to r.septivita@cgiar.org.

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Ahead of the 24^th Conference of Parties (CoP) in Katowice, Poland, world leaders including Ban Ki Moon, Bill Gates, Mark Rutte and Kristalina Georgieva came together with heads of states and representatives from more than 10 countries and international experts to launch of the Global Commission on Adaptation. The Commission, managed by the Global Center on Adaptation and World Resources Institute is an important step to bring together governments, the private sector, civil society, intergovernmental bodies, and knowledge institutions to address the obstacles which slow down adaptation action. In its most recent report, out earlier this month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has highlighted the impacts and risks associated to climate change in different systems and pointed out that communities dependent on agriculture are disproportionately affected.

An adaptation roadmap for agriculture

In response to the disproportionate risks faced by the over 550 million smallholder farmers who depend on agriculture, urgent and decisive action is needed. CCAFS has prepared a discussion paper for the Global Commission on Adaptation, which puts forward a roadmap which calls for:

• Increased investment in the modernization of agricultural systems in the developing world, especially for smallholder farming systems where yield gaps are large.
• Expanding digital climate information services to make knowledge accessible to farmers to scale the uptake of proven and effective resilience-building tools and techniques.
• Using public finance to de-risk and incentivize private sector led climate action in agricultural value chains.
• Supporting collective action at scale, building the capacity of farmers and other local organizations, as well as empowering rural women and youth.
• Stepping up country led policies which create a conducive environment for action.

Speaking about the paper, Dr Ana Maria Loboguerrero Rodriquez, Head of Global Policy Research at CCAFS and lead author noted, “Changes are inevitable, but transformation is a conscious choice. Global food systems are at a key point, where we now need to make the crucial choice to transform these systems so that they can respond to the climate challenges. Without transformation, the food security of future generations is at risk.”

Five building blocks to climate change resilient agriculture.

Not without hope

It is not all doom and gloom, and inspiring examples of adaptation actions are emerging, led by farmers, communities, governments and businesses. The paper highlights several such actions, including scenario guided climate-resilient policy development, use of big data for decision making by producer groups, use of reality TV to disseminate technical advice, and adoption of practices such as Alternate Wetting and Drying in rice, Coffee Banana Intercropping , and Stress Tolerant Varieties. However, it is crucial that such examples are scaled out to realize the adaptation action needed within the sector.

Read the report: Feeding the world in a changing climate: an adaptation roadmap for agriculture

You can access other research for the Commission here.

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Every good thing starts from a good seed.”

Dr Sylvester Baguma, Director of research at Bulindi Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute (BUZARDI)

On 4 August 2018, over 1200 farmers, researchers, development partners, political leaders, and Ugandan government officers from Hoima District gathered in the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Hoima Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs) in western Uganda to celebrate the launch of the Hoima community seedbank.

The community seedbank is a repository of local genetic diversity that is adapted to the prevailing climatic conditions and is useful for contributing to community-based strategies for adaptation to climate change. At the launch event, Eva Kugonza, the Chairperson of the Hoima community seedbank, said:

“One of the purposes of our community seedbank is to serve as an emergency seed supply when our fellow farmers have a shortage of seeds, due to crop failure or occurrence of pests, diseases and droughts. Making seeds of both local and improved varieties available will help us achieve more yields through the cultivation of a variety of crops. Fellow women in the community will play a key role in the development, maintenance and promotion of different crop types, because of our role in selecting and saving seeds and raising awareness on the importance of traditional varieties.”

The community seedbank performs three key functions:

• It is responsible for the conservation of plant genetic resources for the community.
• It facilitates access and ensures the availability of diverse seeds and planting materials based on farmers’ needs and interests.
• It ensures seed and food sovereignty for the households.

“This seedbank will act as Hoima farmers’ savings for future crop production,” said Dr. Dr. Ambrose Agona, the Director General of Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), who was the chief guest at the event. He added, “Just like we put our savings in a regular bank, and whenever we need extra money we take out our savings. It will, therefore, serve to cushion the local community against crop losses, ensuring seed security and subsequent food security. The women in our community will benefit more by accessing better seeds because they are more disadvantaged economically. We will promote this innovation country-wide.”

See the photos from the event:

The event also included a national seed fair which created a platform for all community seedbanks in Uganda to display their genetic diversity. In addition to the NARO Director General, the event was attended by local politicians like the Hoima District Local Council-Five (LC5) Chairman, Mr. Kirungi Kadiri, and government leaders like the Hoima District Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Mr. Ekongo John Steven, demonstrating the political will to support the initiative.

The event also attracted farmers from Kenya, specifically from the CCAFS Nyando Climate Smart-Villages in Kericho and Kisumu counties, as well as farmers from Seed Savers Network in Nakuru County. Farmers from Tanzania also participated in the event. All of these farmers carried seeds from their communities for the farmer-to-farmer exchange. There was a lot of excitement in the air as farmers displayed their seeds and visited different booths to learn from each other.

The launch and seed fair were instrumental in highlighting the key role and position of small-scale farmers and the community within the agricultural complex, especially in conserving and managing plant genetic resources. Moving forward, CCAFS and Bioversity International will collaborate with other like-minded partners to establish community seedbanks in other CCAFS Climate-Smart Villages in East Africa.

Read more:

• Bioversity International: Community Seedbanks

The success of the community seedbank establishment is attributed to the collaborative efforts of a diverse range of partners. The local community-based organization, Kyabigambire farmers’ organization, which was started by CCAFS in 2013, donated the piece of land for the construction of the seedbank. Funding for the construction of the seedbank was provided jointly by CCAFS and Bioversity International. The support from Bioversity is part of a project on Open Source Seed Systems for Climate Change Adaptation funded by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the European Union through the Benefit Sharing Fund of the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). The community seedbank construction process was supervised by the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) of Uganda.

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