Search Results
The value of climate-resilient seeds for smallholder adaptation in sub-Saharan Africa
2020, Cacho, Oscar J., Moss, Jonathan, Thornton, Philip K., Herrero, Mario, Henderson, Ben, Bodirsky, Benjamin L., Humpenöder, Florian, Popp, Alexander, Lipper, Leslie
Climate change is threatening food security in many tropical countries, where a large proportion of food is produced by vulnerable smallholder farmers. Interventions are available to offset many of the negative impacts of climate change on agriculture, and they can be tailored to local conditions often through relative modest investments. However, little quantitative information is available to guide investment or policy choices at a time when countries and development agencies are under pressure to implement policies that can help achieve Sustainable Development Goals while coping with climate change. Among smallholder adaptation options, developing seeds resilient to current and future climate shocks expected locally is one of the most important actions available now. In this paper, we used national and local data to estimate the costs of climate change to smallholder farmers in Malawi and Tanzania. We found that the benefits from adopting resilient seeds ranged between 984 million and 2.1 billion USD during 2020–2050. Our analysis demonstrates the benefits of establishing and maintaining a flexible national seed sector with participation by communities in the breeding, delivery, and adoption cycle. © 2020, The Author(s).
A protocol to develop Shared Socio-economic Pathways for European agriculture
2019, Mitter, Hermine, Techen, Anja-K., Sinabell, Franz, Helming, Katharina, Kok, Kasper, Priess, Jörg A., Schmid, Erwin, Bodirsky, Benjamin L., Holman, Ian, Lehtonen, Heikki, Leip, Adrian, Le Mouël, Chantal, Mehdi, Bano, Michetti, Melania, Mittenzwei, Klaus, Mora, Olivier, Øygarden, Lillian, Reidsma, Pytrik, Schaldach, Rüdiger, Schönhart, Martin
Moving towards a more sustainable future requires concerted actions, particularly in the context of global climate change. Integrated assessments of agricultural systems (IAAS) are considered valuable tools to provide sound information for policy and decision-making. IAAS use storylines to define socio-economic and environmental framework assumptions. While a set of qualitative global storylines, known as the Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs), is available to inform integrated assessments at large scales, their spatial resolution and scope is insufficient for regional studies in agriculture. We present a protocol to operationalize the development of Shared Socio-economic Pathways for European agriculture – Eur-Agri-SSPs – to support IAAS. The proposed design of the storyline development process is based on six quality criteria: plausibility, vertical and horizontal consistency, salience, legitimacy, richness and creativity. Trade-offs between these criteria may occur. The process is science-driven and iterative to enhance plausibility and horizontal consistency. A nested approach is suggested to link storylines across scales while maintaining vertical consistency. Plausibility, legitimacy, salience, richness and creativity shall be stimulated in a participatory and interdisciplinary storyline development process. The quality criteria and process design requirements are combined in the protocol to increase conceptual and methodological transparency. The protocol specifies nine working steps. For each step, suitable methods are proposed and the intended level and format of stakeholder engagement are discussed. A key methodological challenge is to link global SSPs with regional perspectives provided by the stakeholders, while maintaining vertical consistency and stakeholder buy-in. We conclude that the protocol facilitates systematic development and evaluation of storylines, which can be transferred to other regions, sectors and scales and supports inter-comparisons of IAAS. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd
Shared Socio-economic Pathways for European agriculture and food systems: The Eur-Agri-SSPs
2020, Le Mouël, Chantal, Mathijs, Erik, Mehdi, Bano, Mittenzwei, Klaus, Mora, Olivier, Øistad, Knut, Øygarden, Lillian, Priess, Jörg A., Reidsma, Pytrik, Schaldach, Rüdiger, Schönhart, Martin, Mitter, Hermine, Techen, Anja-K., Sinabell, Franz, Helming, Katharina, Schmid, Erwin, Bodirsky, Benjamin L., Holman, Ian, Kok, Kasper, Lehtonen, Heikki, Leip, Adrian
Scenarios describe plausible and internally consistent views of the future. They can be used by scientists, policymakers and entrepreneurs to explore the challenges of global environmental change given an appropriate level of spatial and sectoral detail and systematic development. We followed a nine-step protocol to extend and enrich a set of global scenarios – the Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs) – providing regional and sectoral detail for European agriculture and food systems using a one-to-one nesting participatory approach. The resulting five Eur-Agri-SSPs are titled (1) Agriculture on sustainable paths, (2) Agriculture on established paths, (3) Agriculture on separated paths, (4) Agriculture on unequal paths, and (5) Agriculture on high-tech paths. They describe alternative plausible qualitative evolutions of multiple drivers of particular importance and high uncertainty for European agriculture and food systems. The added value of the protocol-based storyline development process lies in the conceptual and methodological transparency and rigor; the stakeholder driven selection of the storyline elements; and consistency checks within and between the storylines. Compared to the global SSPs, the five Eur-Agri-SSPs provide rich thematic and regional details and are thus a solid basis for integrated assessments of agriculture and food systems and their response to future socio-economic and environmental changes. © 2020 The Author(s)