Better before worse trajectories in food systems? An investigation of synergies and trade-offs through climate-smart agriculture and system dynamics (original) (raw)
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2020
Building transformative change in Africa's smallholder food systems: Contributions from climate-smart agriculture and agroecology Key messages `Transforming food systems under a changing climate entails amplifying solutions that build sustainability along multiple interconnected principles-i.e., diversity, resilience, equity, economic viability, health and renewability. `Two different approaches are engaged in this transformational work in Africa: climatesmart agriculture (promotes participatory multi-stakeholder collaborations and climate-informed sustainable agriculture innovations) and agroecology (prioritizes cocreated diversified livelihood strategies). `Together, their contributions highlight the urgency of reconfigurations that balance technology transfer with realigning human values to support inclusive processes and principles of transformation. `Taking to scale this critical work will require significant support: donors and policy makers can help by diversifying their investments to create a balance between projects focused on technological solutions and those implementing more agroecological components. `Agricultural research for development organizations can help to build the evidence base for agroecology and climate-smart agriculture based on data metrics associated with yields, income, and socioeconomic performance, and on the significance of their holistic approaches to tackling climate change adaptation and mitigation by ensuring strong, resilient social foundations.
Contribution of systems thinking and complex adaptive system attributes to sustainable food production: Example from a climate-smart village, 2019
Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) conceptually has the potential to contribute to the sustainable development goals of achieving zero hunger, reducing land degradation, eliminating poverty, tackling climate change, and promoting gender equality. The scaling-up needed to achieve goals of CSA represents a challenge, as it entails understanding synergies between often opposing socioeconomic and environmental priorities and trade-offs over temporal and spatial scales. In this paper, we tested new approaches to support scaling-up of sustainable food production through investigating the contribution of systems thinking as a conceptual approach and complex adaptive system (CAS) attributes as a framework for analysis of CSA. This was done through examining (i) to what extent CSA represents a CAS and (ii) what contribution systems thinking and CAS attributes can make to understanding and scaling-up sustainable food production systems through CSA. The CSA situation was conceptualized through systems thinking sessions with women farmers in the climate-smart village (CSV) of Doggoh-Jirapa, northern Ghana, and was guided by the Distinctions, Systems, Relationships and Perspectives (DSRP) framework. Systems thinking, and CAS attributes provide system-wide understanding of elements, dynamics and trade-offs over temporal and spatial scale in selected agri-food systems. As such it could aid horizontal and vertical scaling-up by informing policy developoment and selection of a context-specific portfolio of technologies and practices at landscape and farm levels to achieve synergies between goals. In this study, systems thinking enabled women farmers in the CSV to identify income-generating and tree planting activities, with desirable simultaneous system-wide impact. The paper calls for further testing of tools, approaches, and methods that enable dynamic systems thinking to inform scaling-up efforts, while embracing the transdisciplinary nature and complexity of CSA as a constituent of the food production system.
Climate-smart agriculture: Greenhouse gas mitigation in climate-smart villages of Ghana
Environmental Sustainability
Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an approach that helps guide actions to transform agri-food systems towards green and climate-resilient practices and it remains prominent in food systems transformation in the light of increasing climate change impacts. Unfortunately, the quantification of the greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation potential of CSA approaches is currently limited. Using the Cool Farm Tool (CFT), this paper quantifies the GHG mitigation of CSA based on farm-level experimental data. Individual interviews and focus group discussions were also conducted to identify farmers’ choices and willingness to adopt CSA practices. The study compared the GHG emission mitigation of CSA practices for two scenarios (baseline and mitigation). The study found that organic fertilizer input, residue incorporation, no-inorganic fertilizer and no-pesticide input reduced GHG emission intensity of sorghum (to 93.2 ± 25 kg CO2e GHG kg− 1 sorghum), rice (79.2 ± 22 kg CO2e GHG kg− 1 rice) and ground...
2022
Globally, food crops production has been challenged by the impacts of climate change. Climate change scholars have argued that rural dwellers, particularly smallholder farmers who engage in food crops production, suffer the most due to their low capacity to adapt. A growing body of knowledge also suggests that local practices serve as safeguards, that enable smallholder farmers to lessen their vulnerability in food crops productions. However, limited scholarly insight has been advanced about sustainable food production via the use of local practices. Through the mixed research approach, our study contributes to local practices and climate adaptation debates by examining the various local practices of smallholder farmers, the challenges they encounter with the use of such practices and the possibility for sustainable food crops production in the future. Our ndings suggest that smallholders encounter multiple drawbacks in attempts to utilize local practices to adapt food crops production to climate change including the advent of modern farming inputs/practices. Even when multiple local practices (the planting of crops varieties, switching between crops and livestock rearing, reducing cultivatable land size) are utilized, only the increment in farm size, the use of income/remittances of rural-urban migrants to support food crops production, and early cultivation offered some possibilities of sustaining improvement in food crops production for the future. Therefore, we conclude that local practices are not necessarily panaceas for sustaining food crops production under climate change. We recommend further studies to pay attention to the sustainability of local practices under climate change.
Purpose-The consequences of extreme climatic events that threaten food security have created the urgent need to properly adopt climate-smart adaptation techniques to improve productivity. The study examined the sustainability responses to climate-smart adaptation and the implication it has for explaining the food security situations among farm households in the Central Region of Ghana. Design/methodology/approach-We estimated Heckit treatment effect model to analyse cross-sectional data collected from randomly selected farmers in the Central Region. Findings-Analysis of farm sustainability index suggests that farmers' agricultural practices in response to climate change are lowly or moderately sustainable. We further found that while majority of the farm households are severely food insecure or food insecure with hunger, only about one-third are food insecure without hunger and the remaining few being food secure. The sustainability of farm practices is being impacted by the farmers' choice of climate smart adaptation measures at the farm level. Consequently, the farm households' food security situation is found to be improved when sustainable farming practices are employed in the face of managing climate change effects. Practical implications-Conclusions drawn from the study findings give rooms for policy implications that suggest responsibilities for policymakers, farmers and other stakeholders to promote CSA practices in food crop production in Ghana. These policy implications will contribute to improve crop productivity, increase incomes and thus enhance food security among farm families. Awareness campaign about benefits of CSA practices and technologies need to be strengthened among farmers in Ghana by government and NGOs that matter in promoting farm resilience to climate change. Given the important impacts of sustainable farm practices on household food security situation, policies that seek to build the adaptive capacity of farmers to climate vulnerability impacts should take into consideration the sustainability dimensions of the adaptation and mitigation measures to be advocated for use at farm levels. Originality/value-Our paper contributes to literature knowledge onclimate-smart adaptation practiceseffect on food security as evidenced in some recent literature. The paper makes a unique contribution by highlighting the food security implication of the sustainability impact of CSA practices, thereby exploring sustainability as an impact pathway between climate smart adaptations practices and food security in a developing country like Ghana. We approached our study aiming at making new contribution by introducing in the study implementation a quasi-experimental research design which future studies on impacts of climate smart adaptation practices can replicate.
Climate change resilience: lessons from local climate-smart agricultural practices in Ghana
Energy, Ecology and Environment, 2020
The need to adapt to the changing climate is one of the important concerns of our time. However, the use of local ecological knowledge (LEK), which farmers have built up over the years to adopt climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, has been less explored by researchers and policy scientists. Leveraging on LEK, this study explores various local CSA practices, their benefits and management constraints and suggests ways to improve local CSA practices to enhance farmers' resilience to climate change (CC). We conducted eight focus group discussions (FGD) in eight farming communities in the Western region of Ghana. The data from the FGD was complemented by secondary data from sources such as peer-reviewed journal articles, organisational websites, and quarterly reports. The study found that farmers used LEK to identify key local CSA practices, including agroforestry, cover cropping, crop rotation, mulching, and mixed cropping. However, some of their farming practices are not consistent with sustainable agricultural practices. Key issues that need immediate attention include (i) limited access to agricultural inputs prevented farmers from adopting CSA, (ii) land tenure issues adversely affected access to arable land for farming, (iii) inadequate agricultural training for farmers on CSA practices, (iv) limited access to agricultural information on CSA options, and (v) high labour-intensive activities for some CSA practices. We maintain that governmental efforts to improve local CSA, and in the context of increasing resilience of farmers and local communities, need to engage relevant stakeholders and communities to formulate and develop an effective climate-smart agricultural action plan. The policy implications of these findings and recommendations for future research are also discussed and documented. Keywords Climate resilience Á Climate-smart agriculture Á Local ecological knowledge Á Focus group Á Ghana Energ. Ecol. Environ.
Potential interactions between food production and climate miti- gation are explored for two situations in sub-Saharan Africa, where deforestation and land degradation overlap with hunger and poverty. Three agriculture intensification scenarios for supply- ing nitrogen to increase crop production (mineral fertilizer, herba- ceous legume cover crops—green manures—and agroforestry— legume improved tree fallows) are compared to baseline food pro- duction, land requirements to meet basic caloric requirements, and greenhouse gas emissions. At low population densities and high land availability, food security and climate mitigation goals are met with all intensification scenarios, resulting in surplus crop area for reforestation. In contrast, for high population density and small farm sizes, attaining food security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions require mineral fertilizers to make land available for re- forestation; green manure or improved tree fallows do not provide sufficient increases in yields to permit reforestation. Tree fallows sequester significant carbon on cropland, but green manures result in net carbon dioxide equivalent emissions because of nitrogen additions. Although these results are encouraging, agricultural in- tensification in sub-Saharan Africa with mineral fertilizers, green manures, or improved tree fallows will remain low without policies that address access, costs, and lack of incentives. Carbon financing for small-holder agriculture could increase the likelihood of success of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries programs and climate change mitigation but also promote food security in the region.
Climate-resilient development: An approach to sustainable food production in sub-Saharan Africa
Future Foods, 2023
Climate change is profoundly affecting many activities in the agricultural sector in almost all regions of the world. To adapt to the prevailing climatic conditions has translated into a cascade of risks for agro-ecosystems and agricultural production, ultimately impacting food security and nutrition. Hence, the study examines the effect of climate change on food production in 32 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries between 2005 and 2019 using Fixed Effects (FE) and Two-Step System-Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation. Findings help better understand the link resulting from climate change to adverse impacts on food production, as empirical analyses indicate that an increase in climate change (CO2 emissions) will result in a significant reduction in food production in SSA. This implies that climate change seems to have significantly contributed to the challenges associated with food insecurity in the region. Via changes in average temperature and rainfall patterns, climate change could be exacerbating existing threats and issues related to food production in the SSA region. It is therefore suggested that to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change on food production, policy makers should aim at encouraging and adopting good adaptation approach, primarily at the production stage of food supply.
2020
Just Transition has become an established discur-sive and conceptual framework to transition economic industries toward a low-carbon and climate-resilient future. In the coal and mining industry in particular, it has gained a foothold and transformed politics and livelihoods. In other areas, like animal agriculture, which is equally damaging to the climate , the need for change and the deployment of Just Transition to achieve it are not yet established. Drawing on the most recent scientific insights by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this viewpoint argues that transitioning toward a low-carbon production is just as imperative in agriculture. Specifically, it demands that we move away from animal agriculture. The viewpoint concludes by sketching possible areas and means of intervention.