Over the last few years there has been a re-emergence of attention to agriculture and food security in the context of a changing climate. Globally, the sector accounts for 13-15% of greenhouse gas emissions. In Africa, there are important concerns over the vulnerability of farmers and farming systems, also given the sector’s key economic importance across the continent.It is increasingly clear that the focus on climate change will shape agricultural development in Africa in significant ways over the coming decades. But with the growing attention comes an increasing complexity of actors in the debate both on the nature of the problem and the most appropriate solutions.
The Climate Change Theme of FAC was set up to analyse this complexity and to open up critical issues for debate through case studies, briefing papers and roundtable discussions. The aim is to help broaden the policy debates on climate change and agriculture to include alternative adaptation and mitigation pathways for the sector.
One of the big debates at the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP 18) on climate change last week in Doha revolved around the role of agriculture, and whether to establish a separate agricultural work programme. The decision to set up such a programme has now been deferred again. This is an opportunity to rethink the broader issues around climate change and agriculture.
Read the opinion piece on our blog by Lars Otto Naess (FAC) Peter Newell (University of Sussex).
A new paper questions the ‘triple wins’ claimed by Kenyan supporters of agricultural carbon finance.
Supporters of agricultural carbon finance claim multiple benefits for Africa, but the reality is more complex.
This working paper by Joanes O. Atela explores how, in the context of major scientific and policy concern with the causes and implications of climate change, various actors are now keen to demonstrate how agricultural carbon finance can help achieve multiple benefits or ‘triple wins’ for sub-Saharan African agriculture.
The Politics of Agricultural Carbon Finance: The Case of the Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project (pdf, 1.87mb)
This working paper (pdf) analyses policy discussions on climate change and agriculture in Ghana, looking at their origins and what their implications are.
The dominant narrative: mitigating climate change
Agriculture has only recently become a central part of climate change policy discussions in Ghana. Now, climate change is seen as a new, externally imposed, risk that may hinder modernised agriculture as an engine for growth and poverty reduction.
This working paper is among the first of its kind to analyse policy discussions on climate change and agriculture in the Malawi.
In Malawi, national debates are framed as an issue of managing the risk that climate change poses to agricultural production. There are two dominant narratives: (1) that agriculture needs to be made robust in the face of climate change; and (2) that agriculture should be considered as part of wider development efforts.
The working paper (pdf) discusses the implications of these narratives for four strategies: conservation agriculture, drought-resistant varieties, agroforestry, and index-based weather insurance.
Two new working papers explore the changing debates around climate and agriculture policy in Ghana and Malawi.
Agriculture and climate change are now firmly at the top of the research and policy agenda. The issues are attracting more and more attention, with expectations of large amounts of funding over the years to come.
However, despite renewed optimism, there is also growing concern around how this funding will be spent. In theory, “climate smart agriculture” and similar terms cater for a wide range of interests under a common goal of improving robustness, sequestering carbon and increasing productivity – but there are concerns around how these approaches will play out in practice.
The FAC Climate Change theme convened a policy roundtable in February 2012 to discuss key findings of a recent research on the status of agricultural climate change policy process in Kenya. Video and presentations have been published from the session.
The research, conducted by Immaculate Maina, Michael Okoti and Andrew Newsham, mapped different actors dealing with climate change in the agricultural sector in Kenya with a view to understand the current status quo, emerging narratives and the political processes that influence climate change policy making.
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Overall focus
Climate Change
