dfid and icrisat
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Resilient and sustainable tomorrowDFID and ICRISAT
DFID’s priority countries where ICRISAT has a strong presence include, Bangladesh, Burma (Myanmar), Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
A major priority area of DFID and ICRISAT is under the broad area of “climate and environment” with the focus on helping the poorest people adapt to the effects of climate change on their lives and livelihoods and encouraging global action on climate change. ICRISAT’s holistic approach is to work across the agricultural value chain, to help the smallholder farmers overcome poverty and improve their livelihoods.
▪ DFID was a major funder of ICRISAT’s research work (especially aflatoxin research) in the initial years.
▪ UK was among ICRISAT’s top five donors before the CGIAR reorganization.
▪ DFID was the topmost donor to CGIAR W1 in 2012 and 2013.
▪ UK is the second highest total contributor to CGIAR.
DFID and ICRISAT have several overlapping areas of focus, both geographically as well as thematically, creating a platform to pool resources and work jointly.
DFID’s support to ICRISAT
Photo: C Wangari, ICRISAT
Current projectsAgricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP Phase II). The Future of Food and Farming in South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa.
Principle Investigator: Anthony Michael Whitbread, Research Program Director, Resilient Dryland Systems
Investor: Department for International Development (DFID)
Project Duration: 2014-2016
Photo: A Rathore, ICRISAT
During the period 2011-2014, the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP I) engaged global and regional stakeholders and researchers to assess climate impacts on food security and plan for a more resilient future. AgMIP built a cutting-edge framework linking climate, crops, livestock, and economics to help decision-makers better understand how climate change will reverberate through complex agricultural systems and markets.
AgMIP worked with Regional Research Teams and Regional Coordination Teams to conduct integrated assessments of climate impacts on the agricultural sector across sub-Saharan Africa (with teams in East, West, southern, and southeastern Africa) and South Asia (with teams in the Indo-Gangetic Basin, Pakistan, southern India, and Sri Lanka).
AgMIP was developed to formulate and evaluate agricultural models, intercompare them, improve their ability to predict climate change, and assess their actual and projected impacts, using improved models at global and regional scales. AgMIP has grown into a global community of science, with over 700 members from over 40 countries.
The following map shows the locations of AgMIP participants.
This project aims at reducing poverty and enhancing resilience to climate change, building pathways for sustainable futures for smallholder crop-livestock systems in semi-arid southern Africa. Results from AgMIP Phase 1 show that incremental changes to intensify farming systems are insufficient for improving smallholder livelihoods. Drastic systems’ re-configuration is required, suited to context and supported by policy decisions. The project also hypothesizes that adaptation packages tailored to farm types have larger impacts than blanket recommendations. Multi-stakeholder engagement is critical for leveraging synergies from improved access to markets, technologies and information and better systems integration.
DFID and ICRISAT Resilient and sustainable tomorrow
Major messages from AgMIP I
Overall ▪ Climate change impacts on food security,
income, and poverty can now be assessed for current farming systems and the types of farming systems that are likely to occur in the future, giving much more realistic projection of how climate change will facilitate or impede economic development.
▪ Consideration of economics and adaptation gives a more realistic and more optimistic picture of projected impacts of climate change on the agricultural sector, as future farming systems are more capable of absorbing yield losses than the farming systems under current practice.
▪ This is the first comprehensive regional integrated assessment of climate change impacts on smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia led by regional researchers and using best available data and models.
▪ Climate studies which integrated climate, crop, livestock and economic models help conduct multi-model climate change impact assessments. These studies characterize differential impacts on smallholder groups even within a given region.
▪ The approach provides direct evaluation of yield, income, and poverty outcomes from pilot adaptation packages and development pathways.
Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia ▪ AgMIP regional integrated assessments in sub-
Saharan Africa and South Asia are capable of evaluating impacts, adaptations, and policies related to agricultural development and climate change resilience.
▪ AgMIP assessments show that climate change impacts smallholder farmers across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, with gainers and losers within each area studied.
▪ Climate changes lead to reduced incomes and increased poverty in most locations compared to a future in which climate change does not occur.
▪ Using the AgMIP distributional approach to integrated assessment enables decision-makers to target specific interventions to improve food security and reduce vulnerability.
▪ AgMIP expert teams identified improved varieties, sowing practices, fertilizer application, and irrigation applications as prioritized
adaptations. These targeted adaptation packages were able to overcome a portion of detrimental impacts but couldn’t compensate completely in many locations.
▪ The future of the agricultural sector in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia is projected to be more resilient to climate change impacts and therefore better able to absorb yield losses due to economic development, more diversified farming systems, and increased commodity prices.
Global assessments ▪ Crops in lower latitudes (where most developing countries
are located) show greater vulnerability to climate change, and climate change will slow the pace of development in many current smallholder agricultural systems.
▪ In contrast to previous assessments that projected a period of increasing crop yields before temperature effects reduced yields, AgMIP global gridded crop model results with realistic nitrogen fertilization show steadily decreasing yields for wheat, maize, and soybean in mid and high-latitude regions even for small temperature increases; a finding backed up by an independent analysis conducted for the IPCC of individual climate impact studies.
▪ Climate change is projected to exert upward pressure on global agricultural prices, but with large uncertainty. Price uncertainty on the global market comes largely from economic models, with smaller contributions from crop and climate model uncertainty, although these can be substantial on the regional scale. Economic models differ primarily in assumptions about ease of land use conversion, intensification, and trade.
▪ Economic systems respond to climate impacts by taking actions to reduce yield loss, increase crop area, and change demand.
Photo: L Vidyasagar, ICRISAT
Recent projectsProvide technical support to Enhancing Community Resilience Programme (ECRP)-Malawi consortium Implementing Partners in seed systems development, Pre and Post-Harvest handling and storage of crops
Key contact: Patrick Okori
Investor: Care International (DFID funding)
Project Duration: 2012-2014
Enhancing Community Resilience Programme (ECRP) - Malawi is being implemented by a consortium consisting of Action Aid, CARE and Christian Aid (Lead). The program is being implemented in 7 Districts and selected Traditional Authorities (TA) of Chikwawa, Kasungu, Machinga, Mulanje, Mwanza, Nsanje and Thyolo. These districts are vulnerable to climate variability, especially now under climate change. The aim of ECRP is to contribute to attainment of the Hyogo Framework for Action by halving disaster losses and increasing communities’ resilience to climate change by 2015 in Malawi.
Case study: Conservation agriculture puts farmers on firmer footing Elizabeth Msimanga, a farmer in Zimbabwe’s Nkayi District, practices conservation agriculture on one plot of 82 by 75 m of her land. “I can see the difference in soil structure and fertility,” Msimanga says. “My farm is on sandy soil, but on the field where I have been using conservation agriculture, the soil structure has really improved.”Poor soil fertility and degradation severely limit food security for many smallholder farmers in southern Africa. Productivity on rain-fed farms is low due to infertile soils, unreliable rainfall patterns often associated with prolonged dry spells, sparse infrastructure and restricted access to markets. Msimanga says practising conservation agriculture on part of her land has increased her yields and income. She heard of these soil and water conservation techniques in 2007 from the local AGRITEX (national extension agency) office, which provides farmers with extension support in Duha village. “In the past I used to harvest about 450 kg of maize from my whole farm but now I get around 2,250-3,150 kg of grain. The conservation agriculture field contributes to most of this yield,” she says.“Before, I would only have one meal and water (a day). But now I have three meals.”Farmers using conservation agriculture methods have often achieved yields that are 15 to 75 percent higher than with conventional practices. Since 2004, ICRISAT, with funding from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), has been promoting conservation techniques with partners like AGRITEX and NGOs including CARE, CAFOD, CRS, World Vision, Oxfam GB, Save the Children UK, Action Contre la Faim, Christian AID and Concern Worldwide.
Excerpts from an article written by ICRISAT researchers Kizito Mazvimavi and Martin Moyo, and communications officer Swathi Sridharan for Thomson Reuters Foundation.
020-2015
ICRISAT is a memberof the CGIAR ConsortiumScience with a human face
ICRISAT-India (Headquarters)Patancheru, Telangana, [email protected] OfficeNew Delhi, India
ICRISAT-Mali (Regional hub WCA)Bamako, [email protected]
ICRISAT-ZimbabweBulawayo, [email protected]
ICRISAT-Kenya (Regional hub ESA)Nairobi, [email protected]
ICRISAT-NigeriaKano, [email protected]
ICRISAT-MalawiLilongwe, [email protected]
ICRISAT-MozambiqueMaputo, [email protected]
ICRISAT-NigerNiamey, [email protected]
ICRISAT-EthiopiaAddis Ababa, [email protected]
DG’s Journal: dgblog.icrisat.org
ICRISAT works in agricultural research for development across the drylands of Africa and Asia, making farming profitable for smallholder farmers while reducing malnutrition and environmental degradation.
We work across the entire value chain from developing new varieties to agri-business and linking farmers to markets.
About ICRISAT: www.icrisat.org
ICRISAT’s scientific information: EXPLOREit.icrisat.org
We believe all people have a right to nutritious food and a better livelihood.
Sep 2015
Photo: S Sridharan, ICRISAT