Minimizing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in the agricultural sector in Africa, while also helping smallholder farmers adapt to climate change as they increase their incomes, was the topic of IFPRI’s side event at the international climate change negotiations (COP-15) on Friday, December 11. IFPRI Senior Research Fellow Claudia Ringler gave an overview of climate change’s negative impacts on crop production, food prices, trade, and child malnutrition in Africa. While African farmers must adapt to these changes, East Africa in particular also has great potential to reduce GHGs from agriculture. Often, these goals can merge, and at the same time benefit the farmer, through practices such as improved crop varieties, reduced tillage, and nutrient management. Glwadys Aymone Gbetibouo of the University of Pretoria presented the Kenya case study, including a household survey that identified that farmers are aware of climate change and are already adapting to it. However, they will need access to credit and assets to adopt the practices they feel are truly necessary, such as better irrigation methods.

Panel members rounded out the discussion, with Girma Abebe Birru of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research giving his country’s perspective. He emphasized the importance of the creation of a National Climate Change Task Force, whose primary purpose is to integrate climate change adaptation into existing development plans. The obstacles to implementing agricultural mitigation projects was discussed by Timm Tennigkeit of Unique Forestry Consultants. He referred to an ongoing project in Kenya and the particular difficulty of developing methodologies when so few mitigation projects exist, as well as the challenge of monitoring, reporting, and verifying the carbon stored. On the positive side, one of the Kenya sub-projects is up and running, which aims to increase both carbon storage and crop yields in the coffee sector. However, a larger agroforestry project covering smallholders over 60,000 acres is proving more complex. Although precise answers on which mitigation and adaptation activities should be implemented and where are hard to come by, the research and project data clearly show that with greater capacity building and strong institutional frameworks, these projects could become a reality and potentially improve the lives of millions of farmers in developing countries.

View presentations on the IFPRI website and on the UNFCCC Side Event webpage.