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IFPRI ForumWhile the negative effects of climate change have been studied for many years, international attention has recently begun to focus on the major challenges it poses to rural livelihoods and food security. There is now consensus that at least some impacts of a warmer world are irreversible, meaning that adaptation—especially in the most vulnerable regions of the world such as rural Africa—must begin swiftly.
IFPRI's Environment and Production Technology Division is working to provide policymakers and researchers in Ethiopia and South Africa with tools to better understand, analyze, and form policy decisions that will support their adaptation strategies to global change. The division's research indicates that while farmers in the case-study river basins of both countries are acutely aware of long-term changes in temperature and precipitation and the potential adverse impacts on food production and livelihoods, only about half have made actual adjustments in their farming practices.
Recognizing the importance of moving from awareness to action, IFPRI organized workshops in Pretoria and Addis Ababa so policymakers and researchers could discuss next steps for adaptation and mitigation. The main barriers to farm-level adaptation were lack of credit in South Africa and lack of information in Ethiopia. Both countries will require a cross-sectoral approach, focusing on irrigation, education of farmers, and enhanced support to subsistence agriculture. Ethiopian policymakers highlighted the need to open global carbon markets to afforestation and soil carbon sequestration, which would allow the country to finance much-needed adaptation while supporting mitigation. In South Africa, participants pointed out that markets were not serving the information, credit, and other needs of small-scale subsistence farmers, who tend to be the most vulnerable to droughts, floods, fires, and hailstorms.
To help developing countries identify the best adaptation strategies, IFPRI is also working to improve modeling tools for global and regional water and food policy assessments, develop scenarios to gauge the impact of responses and adaptation, and enhance national and international capacity to undertake their own assessments.
Associated with the CGIAR's Challenge Program on Water and Food, the project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Partners include the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy in Africa, the Ethiopian Development Research Institute, the Ethiopian Economics Association, and the University of Hamburg.
For more information, visit www.ifpri.org/themes/globalchange/globalchange.htm.