Blog

Our food systems are failing us. However, they are also complex and each is unique, which requires many different behavioral changes and interventions along the supply chain. Our food systems are failing us, and a new report from the Transforming Food Systems Under a Changing Climate initiative (launching June 25th) argues that nothing short of a systemic transformation of food systems is required if we are to feed the world’s current and future population sustainably under climate change.

• 07/01/2020
• CCAFS

Climate impacts social and economic development across sectors, in numerous ways. Each sector also has unique opportunities to contribute to climate solutions. USAID integrates climate change in development programming across a variety of technical fields.

• 06/18/2020
• Isabela Barriga

The global dairy sector is committed to doing its part to reduce our impact on the environment. And while globally dairy is responsible for 3 percent of man-made green house gas emissions (GHG), the sector is already making strides to improve the health of our planet and create a sustainable world for everyone. A new report, entitled “Climate Change and the Global Dairy Cattle Sector,” was released earlier this year that shows over a 10-year period (2005-2015), GHG emissions from the production of milk has decreased in intensity by 11 percent (GHG emissions per unit of product).

• 05/06/2020
• Brian Lindsay

There is an increasing awareness of the importance of adapting agricultural systems and rural livelihoods to the challenges caused by climate change. This awareness has come hand in hand with the need to guarantee that both men and women — of different ages and ethnicities — can adapt equally to the effects of climate change. And while, in recent years, the importance of integrating gender issues in climate change initiatives in the agricultural sector has been increasingly acknowledged, it is not always obvious how to systemically and practically carry out gender integration.

• 03/31/2020
• Mariola Acosta, Lauren Sarruf Romero

Recent reports are taking an economic view of climate impacts, making a clear case for acting early rather than reacting late. The Global Commission on Adaptation’s 2019 report, Adapt Now: A Global Call for Leadership on Climate Resilience, warns leaders around the world that we simply cannot afford the costs of inaction on climate change.

• 03/25/2020
• Jennifer Frankel-Reed

Over the past 13 years, I have had the opportunity to work with the poorest communities across Zimbabwe. I have seen families struggling to adapt to the changing climate, as their livelihoods mainly depend on limited and dwindling natural resources. However, through asset creation, I have also seen incredible strength, resilience, and community dedication to improving communal resources and food security.

• 03/24/2020
• Erina Machoko

In this post, the Feed the Future Enabling Environment for Food Security (EEFS) project describes how its Water Governance Scorecard can inform policy discussions on water use within the agriculture sector. Water is at the nexus of food security and climate risk management. Smallholder farmers depend on reliable access to water to support production through rainfall and/or irrigation systems. As climate risks mount, variability in water availability and allocation will affect the competitiveness and resilience of the agriculture sector.

• 03/17/2020
• Feed the Future Enabling Environment for Food Security

The transformative process involved in implementing climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices can be well observed in the villages of Los Cerrillos and El Danubio in the Cauca department of Colombia where a Climate-Smart Village (CSV) site is located. CSV is an initiative of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) in conjunction with the Ecohabitats Foundation and these two communities were chosen to be part of the project due to their vulnerability to climate change and high dependence on agricultural activities.

• 03/11/2020
• CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)

More than 80 percent of the world’s coffee is produced by smallholders. Despite their integral role, these farmers face significant challenges that threaten their livelihoods and the long-term viability of the global coffee supply chain. Limited access to financing and training means that farmers are unable to increase their productivity or rebound from fluctuating market prices.

• 03/04/2020
• Agrilinks

At the Climate-Smart Village in Olopa, Guatemala, we witnessed the different stages of implementing climate-smart agriculture practices. The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) developed the Climate-Smart Villages (CSV) approach, which aims to generate evidence on climate-smart agriculture (CSA). In the CSVs, different actors develop, adopt and evaluate CSA options in a participatory manner.

• 03/03/2020
• Agrilinks

Farmers are faced with new challenges in Mozambique, including the cycle of frequent droughts and drenching rains. Through her involvement with the Resilient Agricultural Markets Activity project in the Beira Corridor of Mozambique, this family farmer is learning how to increase productivity, profitability, and resilience of her farm through the adoption of conservation agricultural practices, like low/no tillage, soil coverage, and crop diversification.

• 03/02/2020
• Climatelinks

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report on Climate Change and Land, changing precipitation patterns, increasing temperatures, and more frequent extreme weather events are already affecting food security. As extreme events occur more regularly, food systems are likely to be disrupted, creating challenges in food access and potentially causing price fluctuations.

• 02/28/2020
• Stephan Hardeman

In Ethiopian cuisine, onion rules. Stews, sauces, and salads all rely on onions as a star ingredient, and market stalls are stacked high with fragrant bulbs. Across the country, onions contribute significantly to food security, adding taste and nutrients to diets otherwise mainly made up of cereals. Despite their popularity, onion crops yield much less in Ethiopia than in other African countries. Farmers here, like elsewhere, use irrigation to cultivate onions. In fact, farmers prefer to irrigate onion more than other crops, thanks to the high demand and high prices for onions. But yields remain low.

• 02/27/2020
• Agrilinks Team

The Rainforest Alliance is implementing the USAID-supported Alliance for Sustainable Landscapes and Markets project in the states of Campeche, Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Quintana Roo, Mexico. This alliance involves groups of producers, nonprofit organizations, public institutions, enterprises, and consumers in taking actions towards a better future where people and nature thrive in harmony.

• 02/26/2020
• Graciela Zavala

The impacts of climate change on crop yields, as projected by a slew of impact assessments carried out since the 1980s, have brought the issue of future food insecurity to the fore. A meta-analysis of ~27,000 data points from studies published over the last four decades reveals that at country level, average impacts of climate change on crop yields up to the 2050s are generally small (but negative) for rice and wheat, and modest for maize, provided farmers adopt practices and technologies such as improved varieties, planting at optimal times, and improved water and fertilizer management.

• 02/26/2020
• Climatelinks