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Communities across the Fijian islands rely on agriculture. Approximately 60 percent of Fijians derive at least a part of their income and livelihood from agriculture. The agriculture sector accounts for 39.7 percent of total employment
in the country, with women comprising about 39 percent of those employed in the sector. A large share of the population is also engaged in informal and subsistence agriculture, which remains a major source of livelihoods across the country.

Fiji is vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events, which have an impact on agriculture and therefore, on nutrition and livelihoods.

Fiji has been at the forefront of the global effort to integrate  the disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) agendas.

The Pro-Resilient Fiji (PRF) project aims at reducing structurally and sustainably food and nutrition insecurity derived from the negative impact of climate change induced drought disasters in Fiji.

The issue

A majority of the population is involved in the agricultural sector as well as subsistence farming. Climate change is increasing the challenges of food production and environmental conservation.

There was, until now, no systematic exchange of data and information between government institutions and no common database.

The action

The Pro-Resilient Fiji (PRF) project aims at reducing structurally and sustainably food and nutrition insecurity derived from the negative impact of climate change induced drought disasters in Fiji.

Its main outcome is to improve climate risk identification and management capacities at national, provincial and village levels; and to promote adoption of climate-smart and nutrition-sensitive agriculture techniques by vulnerable smallholder farmers.

The supported communities are receiving technical assistance and inputs that are based on traditional knowledge and improved agriculture techniques. The distributed agro-inputs include nutritious and resilient varieties of planting material adapted to the agro-ecological context of Fiji. In addition, the easy agriculture water management technology for drip irrigation is particularly innovative as subsistence farmers in Fiji only implement rain-fed agriculture production.

The simplicity of material used, all locally available in hardware shops present all over Fiji, and reduced costs of the technology makes it the first introduction of affordable irrigated technology     for subsistence and semi-commercial farmers in Fiji. The technology is also being implemented in coordination with the research division of the MoA. A demonstration plot is being established to conduct training of trainers for extension and for irrigation officers, and the formulation of

a technical manual for trainers and practitioners.

FAO Fiji is implementing food processing and preservation activities for women and youth groups introducing innovative techniques as solar dryers and flour grinders to reduce post-harvest losses, improve nutrition and incomes of vulnerable communities. The solar dryers and hand-powered grinders are new technologies for the subsistence farming communities of Fiji.

Expected results

Through the introduction of climate-smart and nutrition-sensitive farming practices, the project is contributing directly to improving food and nutrition status of the people in the targeted areas and supported farmers have demonstrated good assimilation of resilient agriculture production techniques which will have an impact on the quality of community food and nutrition security and resilience in the coming months.

Geographic focus: Fij

In India, to attain harmony between conservation and development efforts, FAO is working with the Indian government to develop innovative strategies and sustainable business models to mainstream environmental considerations into agriculture, and to pilot and replicate sustainable management practices and the ecorestoration of priority biodiversity landscapes.

India is taking major steps to holistically transform its agricultural system to conserve critical biodiversity and forest landscapes. To attain harmony between conservation and development efforts, FAO is working with the Indian government to develop innovative strategies and sustainable business models to mainstream environmental considerations into agriculture, and to pilot and replicate sustainable management practices and the eco-restoration of priority biodiversity landscapes. 

The issue

Agriculture is one of India’s most important socioeconomic and land-use sectors. However, India’s agriculture sector needs to fully integrate environmental concerns into its policies, plans and programmes to ensure that the sector’s negative environmental impacts are mitigated and positive contributions are enhanced.

There is  a need to ensure long term integrity of existing protected areas and other important ecosystems outside protected areas, and secure the critical ecosystem services that underpin sustainable agriculture.

The action

This project aims to mainstream biodiversity, climate change, and sustainable land management objectives and practices into the Indian agricultural sector.

The innovative landscape approach focuses on protecting areas of significant global importance in terms of biodiversity that, at the same time, offer key ecosystem services. The approach has value for addressing land degradation, climate change mitigation, and sustainable forest management. India has called for scientific research to focus on achieving greener landscapes along with efficient and effective resource use, and is enhancing the capacity of farmers to adopt and maintain ecologically friendly agriculture and land-use practices while taking gender and social inclusion dimensions into consideration.

The diversification in farming systems will ensure that species and genetic resources are optimized across time and space within food systems so that they can ensure food security and nutrition while also conserving, protecting and enhancing natural resources.

Expected results

The ultimate aim of innovation across these Green Landscapes is to ensure that farmers have the capacities and incentives to maintain and/or adopt ecologically friendly agriculture and land-use practices, including ecosystem management, and work together to maintain and enhance global environmental benefits at a wider landscape level. This can be achieved through maintenance of agrobiodiversity, soil and water productivity, and other ecosystem services, while at the same time ensuring sustainability of agricultural production and improving opportunities for rural livelihoods development.

This is a unique opportunity where both the wild and domesticated aspects of biodiversity will be addressed in a given area through this approach. Within these ecologically important “Green Landscapes”, the incremental investment into this intervention will serve to catalyse the alignment of the much larger government, donor and private sector investments.  This in turn maximizes multiple global environmental benefits,such as biodiversity, sustainable land management, greenhouse gas emission reduction and maintenance of high-conservation-value forests.

Geographic focus: India

In partnership with the Government of India.

Agriculture in Myanmar is the most affected sector in terms of impacts from disasters, accounting for half of all economic losses with rural livelihoods significantly impacted. The country is vulnerable to increased risks that in turn are increasing the impacts of biotic and abiotic stresses. FAO has partnered with national counterparts to use drones for data collection. The information collected by the drones is then fed into a modelling system with analytical capabilities that provide valuable insights into problems and possible solutions.

Drones

Fixed-wing drones can cover up to 200 hectares in just thirty minutes, while one person can survey roughly seven hectares a day. The images can be use to address a variety of condition, including flooding and pest infestation and, in some cases, to lessen the impact of such threats by timing harvest appropriately.

Another example is the use of drone-generated information to design irrigation canals.

Drones are used to collect and deliver fast, reliable data that can be used to quickly make urgent decisions.

The issue:

The agriculture sector and rural livelihoods in Myanmar and the Philippines are heavily impacted by the effects of natural disasters, accounting for half of all economic losses. Coastal regions are a  high risk for cyclones, storm surges and tsunamis, in addition to drought and fire during the dry season.

These challenges call for more comprehensive approaches based on an integrated analysis of hazards, risks linked with land use, livelihoods planning, and natural resource management. The timely collection of reliable information is of utmost importance to support disaster risk reduction.

The action

In the past few years, there has been a significant increase in the available low-cost geospatial data collected via satellites and drones.Drones are also used to monitor the fields, including for developmental stages for input applications and pest populations. FAO has partnered with national counterparts to use drones for data collection. The information collected by the drones is then fed into a modelling system with analytical capabilities that provide valuable insights into problems and possible solutions. 

Expected results:

Information collected by drones can provide rural communities with high-quality reliable advice and can assist the government to better plan disaster relief and response services. The information collected by the drones is fed into a modelling system with analytical capabilities that provide valuable insights into problems and possible solutions. The data is high-quality  and reliable and can assist the government to better plan disaster relief and response services.

Impact

The drone technology has allowed substantial efficiency gains in terms of data collection to identify damages and losses in case of disaster.

Geographic focus

Myanmar and The Philippines

Climate variability and change are already affecting Nepal’s agriculture sector. Every year, Nepal faces various kinds of natural disasters, such as floods, landslides, droughts, frost, windstorms and hailstorms, which have substantial impacts on smallholder’s agriculture production system. Marginalized poor farmers residing in rural areas are usually hit hardest by the consequences of climate change and increasing frequency of natural disasters.

Growing trends in extreme climate events and natural disasters owing to climate change could undermine future food security.

Smallholder farmers in Nepal are challenged by extreme weather events due to climate change but they have very limited access to adaptation technologies like stress and disease tolerant varieties, irrigation facilities, proper feeding practices, animal disease management and suitable housing of livestock. Farmers attended climate field schools where they received training on how to understand weather forecasts and advice on agro-management of farm practices,land, water, crops and livestock management and to increase food production and reduce losses due to climate related disasters like droughts and floods.

The issue

Smallholder farmers in Nepal have to cope with climate extremes due to lack of access to early warning system and difficulties to use weather forecasts that are important for timely preparedness. They have very limited access to adaptation technologies like stress and disease tolerant varieties, irrigation facilities, proper feeding practices, animal disease management and suitable housing of livestock. This causes low productivity in crops and livestock and results in crop loss due to extreme weather events.

The action

Farmers were organized in 120 different groups and they met in climate field schools where they received training on how to understand weather forecasts and advice on agro-management of farm practices.

The training materials helped farmers to manage their limited resources like land, water, crops and livestock efficiently and increase food production and reduce losses due to climate related disasters like droughts and floods.

Vulnerability and risk assessments were prepared for eight municipalities in four districts by supporting them to develop climate change adaptation and risk reduction plans.

At the national and district levels, it raised capacity of more than 300 government staff through trainings, enhancing their skills in planning and implementation of climate change adaptation and risk reduction measures. At municipality level, more than 108 leaders and staff were trained for vulnerability and risk assessment and adaptation planning enhancing their capacity to understand the problem of climate change. More than 3 000 farmers were trained on climate change hazards, agro-meteorology and agro-advisory, and income generation

Results

The intervention increased food grain production, milk production and farm income. The final survey as compared to the baseline survey reports that food grain production among the participant households increased by 62 percent (from 1.37 to 2.22 tons/ha) in four years

period. Milk production in target communities increased by almost 42 percent. Similarly, income of the project participant farmers increased by 27 percent (from USD 2 375 to USD 3 025 per household).

The farmers continue to maintain their resilient practices learned during the climate field schools and there is some evidence to suggest that even the farmers other than the target beneficiaries have adopted some of the practices promoted by the project. At both institutional level and on-farm, the training and learnings helped to sustain many positive impacts of the project. The project emphasized on new technologies and their transfer and more women were empowered than men encouraging them for improvement of their capacity to adopt the technologies tested.

Municipalities in the project areas are implementing climate change adaptation and will continue with the project. A voluntary guideline for such planning is provided to all the 753 municipalities in the country for their reference in future actions. Farmers adopted adaptation technologies they tested and validated through the climate field schools and found them useful for enhancing their livelihoods.

Geographic focus: Nepal

In partnership with the Government of Nepal.

In the provinces of Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB) and Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) of Indonesia, water scarcity, low and erratic rainfall, drought, poor soil fertility and dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides have resulted in food shortages and economic hardship. FAO worked with the government at national and local level to promote a locally adapted approach to Conservation Agriculture (CA).

 The issue:

Water scarcity, low and erratic rainfall, drought, poor soil fertility and dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides have resulted in food shortages and economic hardship in the Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB) and Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) Provinces.

The action
In a programme that ran for five years from 2013 in the two provinces, FAO worked with the government at national and local level to promote a locally adapted approach to Conservation Agriculture (CA). The CA package selected was based on three main principles: minimum soil disturbance, soil surface cover with crop residues, and crop rotation/intercropping with leguminous crops. In the context of minimizing soil disturbance, permanent planting holes were promoted where soil was rocky and hard, particularly in sloping terrain, and “ripping” lines were promoted in loose soils. Organic fertilizer was used. The soil surface was covered with crop residues to maintain soil moisture, reduce the labour requirement.

In addition, intercropping maize with legume crops brought in nitrogen fixation to improve soil fertility and increase productivity as well. A rotation with legume crops after maize harvesting provided soil cover, utilized residual soil moisture, ensured further nitrogen fixation to increase soil fertility, and increased the cropping index and productivity.

Capacity development for extension officers, farmer groups and civil society organizations (CSOs) were included in the Farmer Field School approach.

Results
CA methods had improved soil health, increased soil organic carbon content by 29 percent, increased soil nitrogen content by 51 percent, improved cation exchange capacity (CEC), improved soil density, and increased soil moisture and water holding capacity, when compared to the baseline situation. This improved soil health increased maize productivity by 63 percent on average, from 2.7 to 4.5 tons/ha. The cropping index at CA plots was increased due to improved soil moisture and water holding capacity. Most of the CA farmers have planted a second season maize or leguminous crop after harvesting their first season maize to utilize residual soil moisture. As a result, food availability for CA farmers increased from 4 to 5 months per year on average to around 10 months.

Geographic focus: Indonesia

In partnership with the Government of Indonesia

While the probability of El Niño-induced drought in Viet Nam was forecasted in 2015, few actions were taken in the preparedness phase, ultimately leading to a delay in response   from central to local level. The practice of drought response in Viet Nam shows that despite increasing climate risks and better forecasting mechanisms, there is limited progress in systematically linking climate forecast, early warning systems and response actions, which anticipate climate disaster.

As opposed to floods and typhoons, there is currently no early warning system in place for drought in Viet Nam. Drought is a slow onset disaster and its impact could be considerably minimized by taking necessary actions at early stage based on climatic forecast.  

In response to the lack of a early warning system in Viet Nam for drought, FAO and partners initiated the forecast based financing (FbF). FbF is a mechanism that enables a community to put preparedness actions into play based    on reliable climate forecasts. The mechanism releases funds to support preparedness actions before a disaster strikes, thus enhancing community preparedness and response, and making disaster risk management more effective. This mechanism reduces human suffering and loss by acting in anticipation of an extreme event rather than responding to it.

The issue

In 2015-2016, Viet Nam was impacted by the strongest drought in the past 90 years. The drought was induced by the El Niño climate event that at its peak, and affected 52 out of 63 provinces. Despite over USD 65.5 million of relief assistance mobilized by national and   local government since late 2015, and over USD 26 million mobilized by the humanitarian community since the launch of the Government-UN enterprise resource planning (ERP) in April 2016, the drought and salt water intrusion emergency left two million people without water, over one million people in need of food assistance, and almost two million people without a livelihood.

The health of women was especially adversely impacted as women spent 2-4 hours more than normal collecting water.

There is no early warning system in Viet Nam for drought.

 The action

FAO and partners initiated the forecast based financing (FbF). FbF is a mechanism that enables a community to put preparedness actions into play based     on reliable climate forecasts. The mechanism releases funds to support preparedness actions before a disaster strikes, thus enhancing community preparedness and response, and making disaster risk management more effective.

This mechanism reduces human suffering and loss by acting in anticipation of an extreme event rather than responding to it. The mechanism is based on risk analysis and forecasts that utilize triggers, which signal when early actions should be employed.

Importantly, the mechanism enables access to funding for early action and preparedness for response and so reduce impact of the drought.

Expected results

The project has directly contributed to both SDG 2 and SDG 13, through achieving the following outputs:

•   Strengthened existing drought forecasts and early warning (EW) dissemination mechanism;

•   Established standard operating procedures for FbF, which is key for vulnerable communities to secure food supplies during drought period; and

•   Institutionalized the mechanism into the government disaster preparedness and response.

 Geographic focus: Viet Nam

In partnership with with UN Women, Save the Children, German Red Cross, and various Ministries, FAO started this innovative project

Following the severe drought of 2018 in Afghanistan, FAO and WFP with WB developed  the “Early Warning, Early Financing and Early Action” (EWFA) prototype to address ‘food insecurity, water scarcity and famine risks’ in Afghanistan. 

 Climate change studies point out that there will be more severe, long-lasting and frequent droughts due to climate change and other causal factors of drought in Afghanistan.

Change in precipitation and temperature will lead to lower productivity of agriculture, more droughts and seriously impact food security, biodiversity and ecosystems.

Drought worsens the already high levels of food and nutrition insecurity in the country apart from adversely affecting the agriculture, livestock, water, health and economic sectors.

The issue

In 2018, one of the most severe droughts in recent times displaced at least 300 000 people were internally, and directly impacted 10.5 million people in 22 out of 34 provinces.  Some reports also suggested an increase in children dropping out of school, child labour and marriages at earlier age amongst the drought-impacted communities.  

The action

In 2018, the World Bank Group initiated its Famine Action Mechanism (FAM) globally with an objective of supporting early financing and actions based on early warnings and forecasts to mitigate the risks of famine. The World Bank (WB) in Afghanistan reached out to FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP) and under the leadership of the Ministry of Finance, a collaborative process to develop the FAM in Afghanistan was initiated.

The collaboration of FAO and WFP with WB in Afghanistan to develop FAM has led to the contextualization and re-pitching of the FAM into the “Early Warning, Early Financing and Early Action” (EWFA) prototype to address ‘food insecurity, water scarcity and famine risks’ in Afghanistan. Further, FAO provided technical and substantive contribution towards shaping the adapted framework’s pitch, priorities and prototype development. FAO technically anchored and co-led the designing of drought Early Warning, Monitoring and Decision Support System for Afghanistan and evolving multi-stakeholder consensus thereof. Finally, FAO led in designing and costing of normal and shock years’ early actions in the agriculture sector (crop and livestock) to be triggered based on drought early warnings as well as linking the same to long-term resilience building actions.

FAO Afghanistan immediately responded to the early signs of drought in February/March 2018 by initiating an Emergency Food Security Assessment and worked with the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster to bring out evidence of the early impacts of drought on agriculture sector as well as on smallholders and the landless.

Results

Government ministries have widened their ‘perspectival horizons’ on drought risk management to focus on risks of drought instead of managing drought as a disaster. It has also led beyond agriculture production focus to a multi-sectorial, multi-scalar and long-term national focus.  An important outcome was request by Afghanistan to FAO for the formulation of a long-term strategy (2019-203) for drought risk management.

Geographic focus: Afghanistan

In partnership with The World Bank Group and World Food Programme (WFP)

El Niño is a climate cycle that warms the Pacific Ocean, upsets normal weather patterns and causes droughts and prolonged dry spells all over the Philippines.

The negative impacts caused by climate-change related events necessitate the protection of rice production by providing irrigation systems and inputs, and by offering alternative livelihoods such as livestock farming and high-value commercial crops to prevent asset depletion and increase resilience.

Acting before vulnerable farming communities face stress is a way to protect their livelihoods, keep them food secure, and harness agriculture’s potential as a driver of stability.

The issue

The recent El Niño conditions, which lasted from the last quarter of 2018 until August 2019, resulted in droughts that caused an estimated USD 197 million in damages to the agriculture and fisheries sectors of the country. It affected the livelihoods of some 362 000 farmers and fisher folks. Due to the dry spell, 43 local government units declared a State of Calamity.

The action

FAO piloted an Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) initiative to protect the livelihood of rice farmers in two highly drought-vulnerable provinces in Mindanao – Cotabato and Maguindanao.  

FAO provided irrigation systems and inputs to protect rice production and promoted livelihood diversification with training and inputs for livestock farming and high-value commercial crops to prevent asset depletion and increase resilience.

The early action in Cotabato and Maguindanao was set in motion by a monitoring system that FAO designed in close consultation with government agencies involved in disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) specifically to anticipate drought and cyclones that might hit Mindanao. Since February 2018, the system has been tracking weather forecasts, remote sensing data on vegetation, and other indicators that allowed the team to notice worrying signs at an early stage. Seeing these trends emerge makes it possible to foresee larger changes down the line and what impact they would have on farmers. By November 2018, the early warning system produced a score that suggested a strong likelihood of drought hitting Cotabato and Maguindanao provinces. With robust evidence in hand calling for early action, FAO released USD 400 000 through its Special Fund for Emergency and Rehabilitation Activities.

Specifically, the project provided 1 500 farmers, including women, with drought-resistant rice seed varieties, garden tools, fertilizer, and plastic drums for water storage. Women cooperatives were also trained on enhanced farming systems for vegetable production and basic livestock (goat and mallard duck) production, which also covered preparedness planning in relation to drought, as well as management and handling as additional source of food and livelihood.

Expected results

In the municipality of Datu Saudi Ampatuan, a project pilot site in Maguindanao that included 7 barangays (villages), the analysis showed that for every dollar FAO spent in the project, families reaped benefits worth USD 4.40.

Families saw fewer crops fail and harvested larger amounts of vegetables than families who did not have the same drought-tolerant seeds and had not received training. Families in the early action project also cultivated larger plots of land and grew a wider variety of vegetables than other families in their area. The ducks added a new income stream to the mix. On average, families participating in the project made a net profit of USD 17 each from the eggs they collected. In total, families reaped some USD 538 in benefits throughout the project and added new kinds of nutritious foods to their diet.

Geographic focus: The Philippines

In partnership with the Government of the Philippines and with support from the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium.