Four parallel sub-plenaries

CCAFS, CTA

The promise of climate-smart agriculture is food security, adaptation and mitigation. Raising yields, using inputs more efficiently and enhancing soil organic matter in agricultural fields can all be pathways to synergies among food security, adaptation and mitigation. Farms and forests are often interwoven in a complex landscape mosaic, especially in smallholder systems in developing countries, and thus need to be managed in an integrated manner. In addition, expanding the land for crop and livestock production is the major driver of deforestation globally, leading to trade-offs as the products and ecosystem services of forests are lost.

A major global Alliance on Climate-Smart Agriculture is being planned.  To what extend does this appropriately integrate forests and forestry? What role is there for a landscape approach to fostering success?  In fostering adaptation and mitigation strategies, at what scale should the focus be: at the level of individual farmers and foresters, landscape governance, national policy?

Sub-plenary co-organized by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and the Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA).

KEY QUESTIONS THAT THE PANEL WILL ADDRESS

1. Why is climate-smart agriculture receiving so much attention – what has it got to offer?
2. Does climate-smart agriculture pay sufficient attention to the forests and forestry?
3. Does climate-smart agriculture incorporate the concerns of smallholder farmers, foresters and fishers, women and marginalised groups?
4. What are the appropriate policies and other strategies to facilitate the upscale of CSA and unlock their potential benefits for improving food security while contributing to climate adaptation and mitigation?

PANEL

Bruce Campbell, Director, CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) (moderator)

Dr Campbell will introduce the sub-plenary, and present the speaker and discussants. After a brief keynote, there will be a panel discussion on the issues, teasing out controversies and the way forward.

Sheila Sisulu, Ambassador, Special Envoy for the Minister of Agriculture, Forestries and Fisheries, Republic of South Africa (discussant)

What does Climate-Smart Agriculture have to offer?

José Campos, Director General, CATIE (discussant)

Ensuring that Climate-Smart Agriculture is Forest-Smart!

Andy Jarvis, Director, Decision and Policy Analysis, International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and CCAFS Theme Leader on Adaptation to Progressive Climate Change (discussant)

Technical and institutional breakthroughs in adaptation and mitigation at landscape level

Dyborn Chibonga, CEO, National Association of Smallholder Farmers (NASFAM), Malawi (discussant)

Integrating adaptation and mitigation on smallholder farms

Dorcas Robinson, Climate Change Resource and Partnerships Coordinator with CARE’s

Poverty, Climate Change and Environment Network, PECCN (discussant)

Balancing food security, adaptation and mitigation – the key ingredients

Michael Hailu, Director, CTA (rapporteur)

Speakers

• Dorcas Robinson

  Climate Change Resource and Partnerships Coordinator with CARE's Poverty, Climate Change and Environment Network, PECCN

• Dyborn Charlie Chibonga

  Chief Executive Officer, The National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi

• José J. Campos

  Director General of CATIE, an international organization for research, education and technical cooperation based in Costa Rica

• Andy Jarvis

  Leader of the Decision and Policy Analysis Program, the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and Theme Leader for the Research Program for Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS),

• Sheila Sisulu

  Ambassador, Special Envoy for the Minister of Agriculture, Forestries and Fisheries, Republic of South Africa

Moderator

• Bruce Campbell

  Director of the CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)

Rapporteur

• Michael Hailu

  Director of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, (CTA), a joint EU-ACP organization