WEBINAR: Building evidence for transforming agricultural innovation systems under climate change

2 June 2021.

Opportunities, challenges and ‘trade-offs’ in scaling agro-ecological practices

• the UK—as part of its COP26 Presidency—engaged a new campaign ‘Transforming Agricultural Innovation for People, Nature and Climate’ to catalyse a step change in agricultural innovation.
• This component of the COP26 Nature Campaign is co-chaired by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).
• This session is part of a Transforming agricultural innovation - webinar series of 5 webinars

Building evidence for transforming agricultural innovation systems under climate change

The second in a series of webinars to set a path for transformation in agricultural innovation systems, in the lead up to COP26. Agroecology is increasingly promoted as a means to transform food systems globally, yet the evidence for generating large-scale impacts on climate change adaptation and mitigation in developing countries has been unclear.

• This session summarized the quality and strength of evidence regarding (i) the impact of agroecological approaches on climate change mitigation and adaptation in low-and-middle-income countries, and (ii) the programming approaches and conditions supporting large-scale agroecological transitions. 
• The session included panelists from notable, large-scale initiatives for agroecology and invites them to comment on the review findings and their experience about what is necessary to scale up agroecology programs.

Substantial evidence is available for agroecology’s impacts on climate change adaptation and only modest evidence for impacts on mitigation, mostly for carbon sequestration. Farmer co-creation and sharing of knowledge supported farmers’ capacity to adapt to local conditions, improving both adaptation and mitigation.

The review also identified knowledge gaps critical to understand and inform future public and private investment in research, development and deployment of agroecological approaches.

• Lini Wollenberg, Flagship Leader for Low Emissions Development, CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and University of Vermont (UVM) - Moderator
• Yodit Kebede, Post-doctoral Researcher, the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) - Introduction to the evidence review webinars & Welcome by Chair
• Sieg Snapp, Professor, Michigan State University (MSU) - Climate change and the performance of agroecological approaches in low- and middle-income countries
• Vijay Kumar Thallam, Advisor and Co-Vice Chariman, Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) & Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming (APCNF)
• Batamaka Somé, International Consultant for The McKnight Foundation's Collaborative Crop Research Programme activities for West Africa
• Sandra Gagnon, PhD, Senior Program Officer for Climate-Resilient Food Systems, International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
• Guy Faure, Senior Policy Officer, European Commission
• Liz Kirk, Senior Food Security and Commercial Agriculture Adviser, UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) - Closing and introduction to next webinar

Resource:

Snapp S, Kebede Y, Wollenberg E, Dittmer KM, Brickman S, Egler C, Shelton S. 2021. Agroecology and climate change rapid evidence review: Performance of agroecological approaches in low- and middle- income countries. Wageningen, the Netherlands: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) 64 pp.

Agroecology is increasingly seen as being able, or even necessary, to transform food systems (HLPE 2019). The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) commissioned this rapid evidence-based review to assess the quality and strength of evidence regarding (i) the impact of agroecological approaches on climate change mitigation and adaptation in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and (ii) the programming approaches and conditions supporting large-scale transitions to agroecology and transitions. The review also aims to identify knowledge gaps critical to understand and inform future public and private investment in research, development, and deployment of agroecological approaches. The focus here is on the science of agroecology at the field and landscape level, not on social movement, value chain or business aspects. We use the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) 10 elements of agroecology with the Gliessman (2016) framework to identify agroecology practices (transition level 2) and agroecology systems (transition level 3).

To assess evidence related to agroecology‘s climate change outcomes we conducted a systematic literature review of i) synthesis papers and ii) primary empirical studies related to nutrient and pest and disease management. For the latter we documented the presence of evidence for climate change outcome indicators, but not the magnitude or direction of the change. We also conducted semi-structured interviews with representatives from 12 organizations supporting or implementing on-the-ground agricultural development programmes to better understand the feasibility of scaling out agroecology.