Agricultural practices and technologies to enhance resilience, food security and productivity
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1) A diverse range of agricultural practices and technologies are available to enhance food security, resilience and productivity in a sustainable manner, including laser-assisted precision land leveling, alternate wetting and drying of rice fields, weather-based crop insurance, climate-smart villages, and stress-tolerant rice varieties. 2) These interventions must be tailored to local agro-ecological zones and socio-economic contexts, and require mechanisms for capacity building, technology transfer, and initial funding to ensure adoption and scaling. 3) Many practices can achieve environmental, climate change mitigation, and gender co-benefits when implemented.
Agricultural practices and technologies to enhance resilience, food security and productivity
- 1. Pramod Aggarwal Regional Program Leader – South Asia Agricultural practices and technologies to enhance resilience, food security and productivity
- 2. New CCAFS Working Paper Agricultural practices and technologies to enhance food security, resilience and productivity in a sustainable manner: Messages to the SBSTA 44 agriculture workshops Key messages • A diverse range of suitable practices and technologies are already available • Interventions must be appropriate for agro- ecological zones and socio-economic contexts • Mechanisms for capacity building and technology transfer are necessary for success • Funding is required to overcome initial barriers to implementation and ensure scaling up • Many agricultural practices provide the opportunity to achieve environmental, mitigation, and gender co-benefits Read the Working Paper Get key messages from the Info Note
- 3. 5 practices and technologies for Asia in 5 minutes An Asia perspective
- 4. 1. Laser-Assisted Precision Land Levelling (LLL) • Uses tractor-towed laser- controlled devices to remove soil undulations • Applied on over 500,000ha in Haryana, India • Improves yields • Saved 82,000t CO2, and 1 billion cubic metres of water
- 5. • Involves periodic drying and re- flooding of rice fields • Field tested in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Philippines Myanmar and Vietnam • Lowers water use by 30%, and reduces methane emissions by 48% 2. Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) in irrigated rice production
- 6. • Covers 30 million farmers • Improved products piloted with 56,623 farmers in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh • Insurance payouts based on CCAFS- generated weather ‘triggers’ beyond which crops suffer • Insurance protects farmers from increasing climate uncertainty 3. Weather based insurance in India
- 7. 4. Climate-smart villages (CSVs): philosophy • Three pillars (food security, adaptation, mitigation) – and other measures of success too • Integrated portfolio of technologies, practices and services • Participatory decisions and testing with farmers • Capacity strengthening for farmers and services • Building evidence for scaling up • Demonstrating options to governments and companies
- 8. 4. CSVs: ‘Growing’ solar power as a remunerative crop • Solar panels on farmland generate energy for on-farm needs— excess power can be sold back to the grid • Piloted in Gujarat, India • Supplements farmer incomes, incentivises good water use, and reduces emissions and dependence on fossil fuels
- 9. 5. Stress-tolerant rice for Africa and Asia (STRASA) • Development of new and improved rice varieties to combat numerous climate change impacts • More than 1.1 million farmers in India use STRASA rice to combat flooding • STRASA rice is capable of improving yields under drought, flooding and poor soil conditions