Post on 08-May-2023
Climate Smart Agriculture and agroecology:
Selected experiences from CIRAD in Latin America
J.F. Le Coq, R. Poccard-Chapuis,M. Gomes, S. Plassin, MG Piketty
Context and issues of Climate Smart Agriculture and Agroecology in Latin America
• Vulnerability to climate change (Drought & extreme events)
• Degradation of natural resources: deforestation of Amazonia,…
• Food system issue: double burden (punctual undernutrition + obesity)
• Dichotomy / competition / confrontation / between family agriculture and agribusiness
• Inequity rural / urban, indigenous issues• Strong civil society and Social movement toward
agroecology
Cirad Partnerships in Latin America involved in climate smart agriculture and agroecology/forestry research
PP-ALNetwork on public policies
and rural development in Latin America
Partners:40 institutions, including universities, national
and regional research center, and regional cooperation bodies, in 12 countries
PCP AFS-PC(agroforesta)
AMAZONIE
PP-AL
Forest, agriculture, livestock and territorial dynamics in the Amazon
DP - Amazônia
Partners:Embrapa Amazônia Oriental
Universidade Federal do Pará,
Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia
Restoring efficient landscape in cattle ranching basins: jurisdictional approach in the Brazilian Amazon
R. Poccard-Chapuispoccard@cirad.fr
M. R. de Oliveira GomesMario.gomes@embrapa.br
S. PlassinSophie.plassin@inrae.fr
M.G. Pikettypiketty@cirad.fr
Context: pasture intensification to
avoid deforestation ?
“Restoring degraded pasture is a way to increase agricultural production, not needing to expand
new pasture in forest areas”
“Increasing pasture and herds productivity without removing a single tree”
“Forest restoration needs specific incentive, as it does not generate incomes”
“Farmers needs payment to restore forest cover, since they have no gain on this land ”Forest
Livestock
Disconnected advocacies
Observed and spontaneous practices:
Pasture Intensification
New Farming designAccording to land suitability
Low agricultural suitability land
High agricultural suitability land
Intensive practicesAbandonment / fallow
Forest restoration
New deforestation
= farm level synergies
to be coordinated at jurisdictional
to restore landscape Improved pasture
Landscape transition at farm level:From “mining natural resources”, to “managing landscape suitability’s”
PlateauPlateau
Valley slopeValley slope
Escarpment Escarpment
New forest matrix
covering critical areas for ecosystem services:soil protection, water cycle, climate regulation,biodiversity protection.
Improved pasture
to increase incomes in high agricultural suitability areas
Efficient landscape
Pasture and forest cover linked by land suitability
Microzoning law in Paragominas municipality
Mapping Land suitability at jurisdictional level to drive farm practices
Public policies linked with zoning:- Compliance to Forest Act to achieve legal forest
cover- Municipal license for agricultural production- Green Finance
Soil ErosionForest Biomass Connectivity(PC index)
Monitoring Reporting Verifying (MRV) at jurisdictional level to attract investors
Climate Smart Landscape restoration at jurisdictional level: what we learned ?
Mapping Land suitability is a key point to drive climate smart landscape restoration
Pasture intensification could be a strong driver for landscape restoration and forest protection, if regulated in a jurisdictional legislation and spatial microzoning tool.
Low intensification practices are preferable, as they are accessible for more farmers and regions. High technology is not a strategy for landscape restoration (only for few farms).
Green finance could incentive pasture intensification to achieve their goals and build climate smart landscape, if the financial product is designed according to jurisdictional policies.
• Jurisdictional approaches are pertinent at local level, but needs outscaling to build credible value chains and territorial labels. Regional or multilevel policies are needed.
• The accuracy and the price of topographic data are crucial to plan and monitor climate smart landscape restoration. Partnerships with remote sensing providers are needed to turn accessible land suitability tools.
• Green finance should support water cycle regulation, soil protection and biodiversity protection, behind carbon storage and zero deforestation. Multicriteria MRV tools are needed.
Climate Smart Landscape restoration at jurisdictional level: what are the perspectives ?
Experiences from PP-AL network :
State and dynamics of CSA conducive policies, currents limits and perspectives
J.F. Le Coq jflecoq@cirad.fr; jf.lecoq@cgiar.org
Climate Smart Agriculture in policies
• CSA concept contributed to strengthen agenda setting of agriculture in international climate agenda (Hrabanski, 2020)
• Climate adaptation and mitigation policies documents related to agricultural sector are increasing in the LAC
• Some specific CSA oriented policies framework: the SICA regional strategy for promoting CSA (EASAC)
• An achievement for Science policy-engagement strategy (Meza et al, 2018)
• More than 200 changes in policies, institutions and funding toward the CSA scaling, since 2017 (Collazos et al, 2020)
Policies and instrument for CSA• Enabling environment for CSA rely on adoption
of a policy and instrument mix beyond agricultural / or / climate policies
• Few new instruments are actually implemented, in most of the cases existing sectorial instruments are reframed with new narrative (eg: Brazil)
• Local reinterpretation of climate oriented instruments occurs toward sub sectorial interest (ex MAEC in Banana sector in Guadeloupe)
• Fragmentation and coherence issue are prone to occur
• Coordination problem rely on divergence between coalition with contrasted value and interest regarding climate issue and solutions (Eg Brazil, Honduras)
• Instruments complementarity matters !! (Milhorance et al,2020)
Brazil, Milhorance, et al 2020
Honduras, Le Coq et al 2018
CSA and agroecology
• International debate between tenants of CSA and Agroecology concept
• Diversity of models and trajectories(Sustainable agriculture, Organic, Agroecology)
• Few agroecology comprehensive policies and programs, but agroecology conducive instruments fragmented in various policies domains
• Existing conducive policies came from civil society movement and coalitions
• Limits • Fragmentation among tenant of alternative agriculture
movements, and low coordination with other consumers organizations
• Political dismantling in some countries (e.g. Brazil)
Methods and approach to promote CSA adoption (1)
• CSA innovation platforms (Andrieu et al, 2019)
• (1) Exploration of initial situation: identification of local stakeholders, existing farming systems, and specific constraints for CSA adoption
• (2) Co-definition of the innovation platform: definition of structure and rules of functioning
• (3) Shared diagnosis: definition of main challenges to be solved
• (4) Identification and ex ante assessment of new farming systems: assessment of the potential performances of solutions prioritized by the members of the innovation platform under CSA pillars
• (5) Experimentation: tests the prioritized solutions on-farm;
• (6) Assessment of the co-design process of climate-smart farming systems
• (7) Definition of strategies for scaling up/out
Methods and approach to promote CSA adoption (2)
• Climate Smart Villages (sustainable territories adapted to climate: TESAC)
• Alliance with local stakeholders (science, NGO, Farmers organization, …)
• Experimentation and document the benefice of CSA practices
• Collective action principles
Methods and approach to promote CSA adoption (3)
• Agro climatic platforms• Creation of local information on
climate variability• Modeling of agronomic response
to climate • Technical advisory based on local
observation and climate information
• Science Policy Engagement • Use windows of opportunities• Create alliance between research
and decision makers• Support public administration with
information and methodological process
Perspective on policy, institutions and enabling environment
• Post Covid, a momentum for CSA / agroecology further integration in policies ?
• Focus on the implementation process of policies and instruments more than design of new policy documents, supporting coordination between local initiative and national frameworks, and coherent policy / instrument mix implementation
• Develop comprehensive and rigorous evaluation of existing policies, taking into account technical, socio economical and equity criteria (M&E)
• Strengthen among pro agroecology actors’ coalition through dialogue and collaborative & citizen science
• Facilitate digital agriculture access to small holders• Develop long term financial mechanism and facilitate access to green
funding
J.F. Le Coq jflecoq@cirad.fr; jf.lecoq@cgiar.org
R. Poccard-Chapuispoccard@cirad.fr