Past collaborations
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Quinoa initiative
The strong interrelation between agriculture and climate change has been well accepted as one of the key factors to consider for sustained food production and nutrition security for the fast growing world population. Non conventional, stress tolerant crops such as quinoa play a central role in sustaining agricultural productivity and food security under a changing climate, particularly in marginal areas. Quinoa’s great adaptability to climate variability and its tolerance to salinity and water stress makes it an excellent alternative crop in the face of climate change.
The initiative was a follow up to the recommendations made by the governments of beneficiary countries of projects implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in the framework of the action plan of the 2013 International Year of Quinoa (IYQ). National authorities as well as direct beneficiaries requested that FAO scale up the achievements made for the development of quinoa in their respective regions and countries.
This initiative was coordinated by FAO in collaboration with the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) and the Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG).
Dryland agriculture
The WASAG partnership pursued opportunities for delivering sustainable dryland agriculture, as recommended by the 27th Session of COAG in 2020.
Relevant topics associated with water scarcity in agriculture, such as dryland agriculture or livestock, can lead to collaborative work with potential to develop into major collaborative programmes. Therefore, this collaboration was specifically consolidated between WASAG and the Global Programme on Sustainable Dryland Agriculture, to reach countries affected by drylands. Dryland agriculture includes marginal rainfed production systems and rangelands. With a changing and variable climate, drylands need urgent and serious sustained attention.
Approaches that can be implemented in drylands are, but not limited to, supplemental irrigation, rainwater harvesting, diversified (inter)cropping systems, maximizing economic water productivity, solar irrigation using desalinated water, agroforestry, and integrated crop–livestock–forestry systems. As for livestock, a deeper understanding of their relationship to depleting water sources, both in quantity and quality, will contribute to a clearer and more realistic narrative of the impacts of climate change on water scarcity.