financial support to help developing countries adapt to climate change. Most of the world’s lead- ers were scheduled to arrive in the second week,
when they would undertake the final political negotiations needed to close the deal. As the sec- ond week arrived, however, a deal was nowhere
BOX 5
Better Tools for Tackling Climate Change Bruce Campbell, CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security
F
armers and policymakers in developing countries need support in their struggle
to adjust to global changes in climate. They must have evidence to weigh the pros and cons of different strategies and policies. Providing that support through research-based evidence is the goal of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), which was in its first full year of operation in 2011. Inevitably, adjust- ing to climate change will mean making complex tradeoffs among food security, livelihoods, and the environment both at grassroots levels and in the corridors of power. Sound research will help policy- makers, farmers, and others affected by climate change understand the implica- tions of their decisions when making dif- ficult compromises. Progressive climate change threatens
farmers in developing countries, who must adapt their farming practices to the changes ahead in order to survive. Studies by CCAFS Program scientists published in the book Crop Adaptation to Climate Change describe how climate change could threaten production of important food crops such as potatoes, beans, bananas, and cassava—and how specific adaptation strategies such as new plant breeds could neutralize or at least signifi- cantly lessen the impact.1
As part of the
Program’s work on adaptation through managing climate risks, researchers have been training farmers on interpreting
seasonal climate forecasts in East and West Africa. The Program’s research- ers also produced a study on “Mapping Hotspots of Climate Change and Food Insecurity in the Global Tropics” to iden- tify food insecure areas most vulnerable to the impacts of future climate change, across the priority regions for the CGIAR centers.2
A workshop and paper series
examined how new institutions, property rights arrangements, and agricultural technologies can improve livelihoods and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.3
As
part of its ongoing work on gender, the Program issued grants to six female sci- entists working in Program target regions to study the links among gender, climate change, agriculture, and food security.4 Climate change was on the agenda of
many international institutions in 2011, including two large conferences: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa, and the International Conference on Climate Change and Food Security in Beijing, China. Key agricultural organiza- tions (including the Program, the World Bank, and IFAD) coordinated Agriculture and Rural Development Day, a parallel event at the UN conference that focused on galvanizing international support for a new work program on agricultural climate change adaptation and mitigation. The Program’s work in 2011 focused
on taking stock and developing the rele- vant research strategies that will have the
40 MODEST ADVANCES, STARK NEW EVIDENCE
greatest impact. For example, research- ers implemented a baseline food security and climate adaptation survey covering more than 5,000 households in more than 250 villages across 36 sites in 12 coun- tries in East and West Africa and South Asia.5
The data gathered in the past year
will help provide decisionmakers with evidence-based results and useful tools for designing and testing approaches to adaptation and mitigation. When their work is completed, researchers will be able to report whether certain techniques were successful. The Program has also created the Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Knowledge Network, an information service and a key tool for practitioners, donors, policymakers, and researchers interested in food security and climate change. The Network is a map- based online platform that brings climate, agriculture, and socioeconomic informa- tion together, and uses multimedia to share stories of farmers living at research sites across the tropics. Climate change affects agriculture
and food security in a variety of ways, so choosing the best mitigation and adapta- tion techniques requires thorough research. The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security con- tributed significant evidence in 2011, but this is only the beginning of an undertaking that must reach beyond a single research program to match climate change’s com- plexity with its own breadth and depth.
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