Helping farmers adapt to the impacts of climate change
can also significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions – which is good news for
the planet and for future generations, says the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the CGIAR
Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).
Speaking at
UNESCO’s Our Common Future Under Climate Change Science Conference in Paris,
CCAFS and IFAD have released details of their latest research on what
mitigation potential smallholder farming actually has.
The study finds reducing emissions may not be as big a
burden as some may believe. The
Mitigation Advantage Report has found that mitigation could be another benefit of
adaptation activities. The
study, released today, examines IFAD’s portfolio of projects focused on making
smallholder agriculture more resilient to climate change.
The
Mitigation Advantage Report shows that thirteen IFAD-supported adaptation
projects could reduce CO2e emissions by 30 million tons. This
represents about 38 per
cent of IFAD’s target to reduce 80 million tons of CO2e by 2020
under its Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP).
Whilst
IFAD’s investments are focusing on the key priorities of rural poverty
reduction, climate change adaptation and food security, the mitigation target
set by the organisation shows how resilient, climate-smart agriculture can make
a substantive contribution to the global fight to curb greenhouse gas
emissions.
“What this
report shows is that smallholder farmers are a key part of the solution to the
climate change challenge,” says IFAD’s Vice President Michel Mordasini. “With
the right investments, smallholders can feed a growing planet while at the same
time restoring degraded ecosystems and reducing agriculture's carbon footprint.”
IFAD’s
climate change adaptation initiatives include improved agronomic practices,
afforestation and rehabilitation of degraded lands. These practices help
address farmers’ immediate needs, like dealing with unpredictable rains, and
gradual shifts in crop suitability.
If smallholder adaptation can help reduce global
emissions, there could be new opportunities, according to CCAFS Head of
Research, Sonja Vermeulen.
“Currently over 90 per cent of public and private
climate funds go to mitigation, not adaptation. For future food security it
would be very helpful if the majority of the world’s farmers, who are
smallholders, could access those funds,” she said.
IFAD is
supporting projects in over 40 countries through its innovative climate
financing mechanism, the Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme
(ASAP). Launched in 2012, ASAP has become the largest global
financing source dedicated to supporting the adaptation of poor smallholder
farmers to climate change.