Climate Smart Agriculture Sourcebook
Glossary

A

Accession

A distinct, uniquely identifiable sample of seeds representing a cultivar, breeding line or a population, which is maintained in storage for conservation and use (FAO, 2014d).

Agricultural Innovation

The process whereby individuals or organizations bring existing or new products, processes and forms of organization into social and economic use to increase effectiveness, competitiveness, resilience to shocks or environmental sustainability, thereby contributing to food and nutritional security, economic development and sustainable natural resource management. (FAO 2012c).

Agricultural Innovation System

A network of actors or organizations, and individuals, together with supporting institutions and policies in the agricultural and related sectors, that brings existing or new products, processes, and forms of organization into social and economic use. Policies and institutions (formal and informal) shape the way that these actors interact, generate, share and use knowledge, as well as jointly learn. 

Agrifood sector

Food sector concerning only those parts of “agriculture” in the broad FAO sense (i.e. agriculture, forestry and fisheries) that produce food, as well as the food processing, distribution, retail, preparation and cooking phases.

Annual plants

Plants that complete their entire life cycle from seed to flower to seed within a single growing season.

Autonomous climate change adaptation

Responses to be implemented by individual farmers, rural communities and farmers’ organizations, depending on perceived or real climate change in the coming decades, and without intervention or coordination by regional and national governments and international agreements.