How can climate change considerations be incorporated into all stages of agricultural investment (farming, fisheries, livestock and forestry) programme cycles? This guide intends to raise awareness and understanding of the basics of climate change adaptation and mitigation in the agricultural sector. It advises using key information sources, methods and tools for climate change adaptation and mitigation – addressing both technical and institutional aspects – provided in the guide to examine the relevance of climate change to the proposed agricultural investment project/programme.
The guide provides basic principles of climate change adaptation and mitigation, priority issues for incorporating climate change considerations into agricultural project/programme stages, and also briefly describes options for financing climate change activities. A list of essential readings and a comprehensive set of annexes offer summary information, including one devoted to disaster risk reduction, examples of good practice, and links to other guidance sources and tools. It is aimed at national and international stakeholders involved in designing, supporting and mobilising resources for agriculture and rural development investment programmes.
Climate change will affect smallholder farmers, forest dwellers, herders and fishers most acutely because of their limited capacity to adapt to its impacts. Climate change cannot be effectively addressed without talking about agricultural sector emissions. Agriculture, forestry and land-use change are responsible for about one-third of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, of which agriculture accounts for about 13.5%. Climate change adaptation and mitigation are aimed at capturing synergies and managing the trade-offs between food security, rural livelihoods and sustainable development. Adaptation reduces negative impacts and promotes positive ones builds resilience and mitigation addresses the root causes, limiting the extent and cost of adaptation.
Other key messages include:
- Agricultural activities need to be climate-proofed. For example, irrigation and agriculture water management should assess impacts of climate change on local water demand and availability and incorporate them into planning and design.
- An ecosystem approach and integrated planning are advised to maximise synergies and minimise trade-offs while maintaining ecosystem functions and services. Tools and methods include sustainable land management (SLM) and integrated water resources management. This is aligned with the concept Greening the Economy with Agriculture (GEA), which aims to increase food security while using fewer natural resources throughout the food value chain.
- When it is not possible to make localised projections of climate-change impacts (due to limited data), the “no-regrets approach” is recommended. This assumes that adaptive practices and actions will be beneficial even with uncertainty of future climate change threats and impacts.
- The adoption of demand-driven, location-specific approaches and participatory methods that integrate gender-specific vulnerabilities, needs and capabilities of vulnerable populations is vital during design. Conducting comprehensive social analyses is fundamental to understand complexities of social diversity, gender and the various dimensions of poverty, and enables planners and practitioners to put human dimensions at the centre of interventions.
- Models exist (e.g. EXACT tool) to estimate mitigation potential of rural development projects/programmes. These estimates account for GHG emission reductions and carbon sequestration, providing a basis for seeking climate finance (public or market-based) which can increase investment flows.
