Climate-Smart Agriculture at Feed the Future’s 2014 Global Forum
Long-term food security goals can be achieved only when development efforts address the changing world in which we live. During this plenary session moderated by the World Agroforestry Center’s former Director General Dr. Dennis Garrity, experts in climate change and agriculture from NASA (Dr. Molly Brown), the World Bank (Marc Sadler), and USAID (Dr. Jerry Glover) share their perspectives on the current state of knowledge and our potential ways forward.
Lake Naivasha Payment for Environmental Services-Farmers Helping Farmers and the Environment
In this successful payment for watershed services (PES/PWS) pilot program, CARE-Kenya, World Wildlife Fund, and the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture helped major commercial horticulture growers (flowers) on the banks of Lake Naivasha in Kenya’s Rift Valley test a program to pay and train smallholders in the upper watershed to improve their farming practices in order to reduce soil erosion and improve water quality flowing into the lake, which the large-scale growers use for irrigation. As a result smallholders increased their incomes from improved crops and fodder for their livestock, while enhancing their families’ nutrition and their environmental sustainability.
Why is climate-smart agriculture important, and can it work? Watch this 3 minute trailer for an insight into what the challenges are, and where the solutions might lie. Originally produced to introduce the Learning Events section of Agriculture and Rural Development Day at the United Nations COP17 climate change conference in Durban, South Africa, Dec 2011. Find out more about the CGIAR’s Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security research program: www.ccafs.cgiar.org
Beauty and the Beef: Achieving Compatibility Between Wildlife Conservation and Livestock Production
African farmers living in areas with wildlife are faced with a serious dilemma: they cannot sell their healthy, free range beef to the lucrative export market. Current international trade practices dictate that they cannot protect the wildlife and, at the same time, farm their cattle in the same general area. If they want to export their beef to wealthy nations, they will have to get rid of all the wild buffalo or put up environmentally damaging veterinary fences.
BioReclam is a major activity being conducted with vulnerable women to provide them with access to land for producing food and earning income during the rainy season. The project works with Communities to allocate abandoned lands to vulnerable people, This land is being reclaimed using a package of innovative techniques and is used to produce lucrative, low maintenance crops rich in micronutrients such as Okra and Hibiscus (leaves and flowers). These crops/varieties are selected to be particularly rich in Iron and Zinc. At the same time, the crops are in high demand and provide a source of revenue for women.
PARIMA – Pastoral Risk Management in Southern Ethiopia
Pastoral people have lived on the Borana Plateau of southern Ethiopia for centuries. But their traditional way of life is threatened by recurrent droughts, human and livestock population growth, and increased competition –even armed conflict–over ever-scarcer pasture and water. The GL-CRSP Pastoral Risk Management project (PARIMA) conducted research, training, and outreach to help people diversify their livelihoods away from complete dependence on livestock.
PARIMA – Pastoral Risk Management in Southern Ethiopia. This is the story of PARIMA and some of those people. Film by Robert Caputo.
