Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture

20-22 March 2013. University of California, Davis, US. The Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture brought together over 300 participants to discuss science-based solutions that use knowledge systems in new ways to increase the resilience of food systems and ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes in the context of future uncertainty on climate change and extreme events.

At the Conference, a number of representatives from the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) presented their work. 

Describing climate change in agriculture as a "wicked problem," Andy Jarvis of the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Program called for "translating complexity into actionable and understandable options" by developing robust processes for large investments in climate-smart agriculture.

Prior to the Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture, CCAFS held its 2013 Science Meeting, bringing together approximately 70 scientists from the program to discuss approaches to scale up the impact of their research and pilot initiatives. The meeting, which was held from 18-19 March 2013, in Bodega Bay, US, examined approaches to achieve larger impacts on climate change adaptation and mitigation in the agriculture sector, particularly through social learning approaches and participatory work.
Tina Monica Joemat-Pettersson

Participants stressed the need to reach the hundreds of millions of small-scale farmers globally, and highlighted the importance of considering farmers as collaborators, as opposed to recipients in development work. They shared experiences of working with agro-pastoralists in East Africa to develop a framework of community facilitator-researchers working on bridging the gap between research and action. Other scientists shared stories on the use of crowdsourcing, social media and traditional media to share messages for transformational change.

Extracts:
  • Tina Monica Joemat-Pettersson (Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, South Africa): Climate change and small-holder farms in South Africa (Video presentation)
  • FAO and IFAD work on Climate Smart Agriculture: recent experience and lessons learned

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