1. A Vision for Climate Smart
Agriculture
Bruce Campbell, Director
CGIAR Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security
(CCAFS)

2. Outline
1. What is CSA?
2. Mitigation options
3. Adaptation options
4. Which way forward for CSA?

4. Food
security
Ecological
Adaptation footprint
Grand Challenges of the 21st Century

5. Ocean Safe
Role of acidification Nitrogen operating
Agriculture cycle
space
Climate
change
Phosphorous
cycle
Current
Biodiversity status
loss
Global
freshwater
use
Change in land Rockström et al. (2009);
use Bennett et al. (in prep.)

6. GHG CO2-eq tonne
Food 25
per capita
Security 20
15
10
5
0
US Malawi
Adaptation Ecological
footprint
Climate-Smart Agriculture

7. Agriculture and Rural Development
Day 2011
• Positive on CSA: national governments,
regional organisations, regional farmer’s
organisations
• Informal feedback: More clarity needed on
CSA

8. A multitude of trade-offs……..
• Across sub-sectors (e.g. residues to soils or
livestock?)
• Across spatial scales (e.g. more productive
agriculture can result in forest clearance)
• Different kinds of households (e.g. some risk
insurance exclude female-headed households)
• Short-term vs. long term benefits (e.g.
livestock risk insurance can promote land
degradation)

9. CSA will differ significantly…
Impact of
climate change
on child
malnutrition
Costs of
adaptation
Indirect emissions
Direct emissions

10. 2) Mitigation
options

11. Where to invest?
• Agronomy
• Nutrient management
Cropland • Tillage/residue management
management • Water management
Grazing land • Rice management
management Land cover
change • Agro-forestry
• Set-aside, land use change
Management
of organic Manure-
GHG
soils biosolid
reduction
management
Restoration of Bioeenergy
degraded lands
Livestock
management

12. Five areas for investment
1. Sustainable intensification &
forest governance
2. Sustainable land management
(SLM) practices
3. Alternate wetting and drying
systems in irrigated rice
4. Improved nitrogen use
efficiency
5. Increased intensity of ruminant
production in Africa to reduce
GHG++ per unit of product

13. Food
Security
Adaptation Ecological
footprint
“Climate smart means landscape
and policy smart”

14. Alternate-Wetting-
and-Drying
(AWD)
30% water
25-50% GHG
Yield not compromised

15. 3) Adaptation
options

16. Adaptive capacity
Technology
Income & assets Infrastructure
Knowledge &
Governance Access
skills
& to
institutions information
Social capital

17. Key adaptation strategies
Incremental adaptation to progressive
climate change
• Closing the yield gaps
• Raising the bar – breeding for 2030s
Climate risk management
• Technologies (e.g. flood-resistant varieties)
• Institutions (e.g. index-based insurance)
• Climate information systems (e.g. seasonal forecasts)
Transformative adaptation
• Changing production systems
• Changing livelihood portfolios

18. Mali farmer climate advisories
• Climate information to farmers for decision
making
• National Met Service, WMO, ACMAD
• Forecasts provided for three‐days, ten‐days,
and seasonal (inc. crop health...)
• Major increases in yields for participating
farmers
• Lessons learning and scaling up across Sahel?

19. EA Regional Learning
partnership
• Information exchange, capacity strengthening, building
consensus around issues and priorities
• National and regional • Regional economic
agencies community
• Research providers • Advisory services
• =
• NGOs & policy think tanks • Farmer organisations

20. Activities
• Common messages
to UNFCCC COP17
• Communities of
practice
– Synergies across
diverse projects
– Carbon markets for
agriculture

21. Transformative adaptation
 Relocation of grape
production or wineries to
cooler regions
 Shifts to other crops
 Diversification
Parks et al CSIRO

22. Coffee areas
shrink (in
Nicaragua)

23. 4) Which way forward for CSA?

24. CSA, in summary:
• Takes into account: food security, adaptation and
ecological footprint
• foremost about development itself and address
smallholder concerns
• Crucial to deal with trade-offs
• Context matters: CSA differs widely
• Development & ecological footprint → green economy

25. What is needed?
• Analytics and tools – choices, options,
investments
• What kinds of knowledge products are
needed to advance action
– especially at farmer, district and national
levels?
– but also for coherent messaging and
dialogue?

26. More analytics on resource
efficiency? E.g.
Tomatoes
$ return per X
water use X Cotton
X
X X
X X
X
X
Maize Soybean
X Rice
X X X X X X
Water use per output
Grains use much more water than fruits/vegetables and
yield lower economic returns Lele et al. (2011)

27. Integrated decision support
tools?
Example:
Options Food Adaptation Environmental
security impact
Crop x
Crop z
Livestock
Agroforestry

28. Questions
• What kinds of knowledge products are
needed to maintain momentum?
• Is it time to give more formalisation to the
partnership between the CGIAR and WB?