By: Yvonne Uwase Munyangeri (CIAT-Rwanda), Seble Samuel (CCAFS), Desire M. Kagabo (CIAT-Rwanda), Gloriose Nsengiyumva (CIAT-Rwanda) and Livingstone Byandaga (CIAT-Rwanda)

Key stakeholders in Rwanda learn the ins and outs of the country’s Climate Maproom.

Maps are powerful tools, breaking down language barriers and gaps across disciplines to translate complex concepts. Rwanda’s Climate Maproom, a collection of maps and figures of the national meteorological agency, Meteo Rwanda, does just this.

In April 2019, Meteo Rwanda, a public institution that facilitates access to reliable weather and climate data, organized a three-day training workshop on the use of the Climate Maproom. The system monitors climate conditions and provides guidance on historical, present day and seasonal climate forecasts.

The training workshop was organized in collaboration with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the Rwanda Green Fund (FONERWA). The workshop brought together the provincial directors of agriculture and district development programs, district directors of agriculture and natural resources, government institutions, international and local non-government organizations and research centers concerned with the production and use of weather and climate information. The Rwanda National Police, media, academia and other stakeholders involved in climate information production and use were present as well.

Different Climate Maproom products were presented, including climate data across time scales, malaria historical analysis, and the intersections of climate information and agriculture outputs, among others. Participants learned how to navigate the Climate Maproom and explored different products available on this platform. Through practical sessions, participants learned to interpret and use Climate Maproom products in planning and decision making depending on their sectors. Through deep analysis, participants learned how onsets, cessations, dry and wet spells, length of the season, and other climate factors, are calculated and forecasted. They also learned to analyze and monitor diseases vis a vis weather and climate variabilities, such as malaria.

It is very helpful to know that the climate situation of your region can be easily available before the season starts,” said Theogene Mugabonake, Director of Agriculture and Natural Resources Management in Nyanza District in southern province. “This will help us in planning our agricultural activities and reduce the risk of losing some crops.”

The workshop outcomes included ensuring that:

• a) climate information products, including their uncertainties and limitations are understood and communicated to users
• b) user opinions were discussed on how to make climate information accessible, user-friendly and applicable
• c) a user feedback mechanism was created between Meteo Rwanda and weather and climate users to promote and enhance co-production of weather and climate information products

“Meteo Rwanda’s Climate Maproom is available for you. It intends to help you in planning and decision making,” said Desire Kagabo, the chairperson for the board of directors of Meteo Rwanda. “There should not be any planning without taking into consideration the climate information.”

Through the 5Q approach, a simplified and innovative monitoring and evaluation method developed by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and CIAT, participants were trained to share their feedback on climate information services via mobile phones. This approach has been harnessed to ensure that information provided by Meteo Rwanda is suitable for users, and that they may provide feedback for improvement where needed, hence promoting the co-production of climate information.

At the end of the training, participants visited the weather radar located at Maranyundo in Nyamata District to learn more on the process of climate information production and dissemination.

Original Document in PDF Format

By: Kathlee Freeman

“For Africa to realize a food secure future, the majority need to take part in agricultural solutions, and that means young people,” according to Seble Samuel, Communications and Knowledge Management Officer with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security’s (CCAFS) East Africa region.

Indeed, young people are having something of a moment. From an increased focus on youth in agriculture by a number of international development agencies to Rwandan-born, U.S.-based choreographer Sherrie Silver celebrating the powerful role of young farmers. One thing that sets young people apart is their comfort with information and communication technologies (ICTs), including cellphones and their use to access the internet.

This trend was explored through an online discussion, held between 15 April to 17 May, on the Climate & Agriculture Network for Africa (CANA) platform in the run up to World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. Participants responded to questions about barriers to youth participation in agriculture, the role of ICTs in agrobusiness, and how non-farmers can use ICTs to support agriculture. Continuing this online conversation, a webinar was held on 29 May to further discuss youth, agriculture, and ICTs.

Panelists included:

• Catherine Mungai, Partnerships and Policy Specialist with CCAFS East Africa
• Joan Kerr, Director for the Foundation for Building Sustainable Communities (FBSC)
• Victor Mugo, Country Coordinator with the Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network (CSAYN) in Kenya and an Agricultural Risk Management Associate with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
• Seble Samuel (moderator)

Audience members were invited to ask questions, which ranged from how to incorporate innovative financing into ICT projects to engaging stakeholders in youth-led agriculture initiatives.

During the webinar, participants were also asked to provide their thoughts on barriers for youth adoption of ICTs. The majority of those who responded, 45 percent, felt infrastructure was the most serious constraint young people faced when trying to incorporate ICTs into the agriculture sector. Availability of culturally appropriate, relevant resources was another barrier to ICT use by young farmers.   

The importance of education was made clear by panelist Kerr. “Agriculture education sows the seeds for elevating the status of young farming professionals to prosper,” she explained. Indeed, in a follow-up survey for webinar participants, training, along with costs and gender concerns, were noted as areas of interest for future discussions.

To watch the entire recorded webinar, click here. You will be prompted to provide your name and email address, and then taken directly to view the webinar.  

Kathlee Freeman is a communications consultant with the CGIAR Research Program on Cimate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

Original Article in PDF Format

Against the backdrop of changing climatic conditions in Africa, scientists, administrators and seed enterprises have urged the farming community in Tanzania to adopt hardy crops like sorghum.

“Farmers, mainly those in low rainfall areas, can embrace sorghum which is tolerant to drought. This will ensure food security in the country and across the region, bringing economic development,” Mr John Palingo, Commissioner for Songwe Region in Tanzania’s Mobzi District, said during a farmers’ field day organized recently in Magamba.

Full Original Article

by Claudia Ringler and Ruth Meinzen-Dick

As people and organizations around the globe mark World Environment Day (June 5), all signs point to an unprecedented and rapid decline in planetary health. A preview of a global report on biodiversity, the most comprehensive to ever be completed, somberly notes that 1 million animal and plant species are on the brink of extinction, many within mere decades. Since 1980, greenhouse gas emissions have doubled and human-induced warming reached approximately 1 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and is growing at around 0.2 degree Celsius per decade. The impacts of climate change on this scale are only starting to be fully understood.

Human health depends intimately on planetary health. The loss of ecosystem services erodes the social and economic support systems of people around the world, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. Higher temperatures and extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, and hurricanes destroy agricultural systems, impoverishing the communities that depend on them for their livelihoods and food and nutrition security for years, decades and can even have inter-generational effects.

Full Article

By:Ronoh Nathan

The Feed the Future Kenya Accelerated Value Chain Development (AVCD) program implemented by a consortium of CGIAR centers, sought to harness the technologies and innovations within the research system ‘to sustainably reduce poverty and hunger in Kenya with the objective of increasing inclusive agricultural growth and improving nutritional status of communities.

In phase 1, the potato value chain, led by the International Potato Center (CIP), supported 46,700 smallholder farmers with technologies to improve farm productivity and engage in market systems. The seed system for potato was scaled out to reach farmers who previously did not have access to quality seed by transforming 150 progressive farmers into seed multiplier businesses. One such progressive farmer is Samuel Kibet Sugut who is providing clean seed to potato farmers using a newly introduced technology—rooted apical cuttings. A few months ago, his story was published in the weekly magazine insert, Seeds of Gold, in the Saturday Nation newspaper in Kenya. A crosspost is available below:

In the quiet Kipsirigo village in Nandi County, a new agribusiness is picking up.

Samuel Kibet Sugut is among those who have embraced the new agribusiness, which involves the multiplication of Irish potato planting materials, having abandoned dairy farming to concentrate on the cash cow.

Sugut, who was a dairy farmer for 15 years, has seen a bright future in the production of the disease-free materials that many farmers are turning to. As he prepares his small piece of land for planting, his phone keeps ringing every few minutes, with nearly all the callers enquiring about the availability of seeds given that the short rain season is just around the corner.

By Kristina Roesel

In Uganda, around 70% of all households keep at least one kind of livestock (including poultry). Livestock production is primarily a family business, but only a fraction of the food produced is used for home consumption. Most of it is sold at local markets, which are mainly informal markets. Pathogenic diseases are one of the constraints that limit livestock production, often resulting in death of animals and loss of income and livelihoods for livestock keepers. Zoonotic diseases such as brucellosis and Rift Valley fever threaten the health of producers, processors and consumers. Improved animal health, therefore, directly contributes towards improved livelihoods and human health through better diets and fewer zoonotic diseases.

Knowledge and awareness about animal diseases, their risks and intervention options are limited in Uganda. For many of the animal health problems, there are effective solutions at hand, for example, vaccines. However, lack of infrastructure and institutions in low- and middle-income countries does not allow last-mile delivery of solutions or implementation of disease control. Lack of awareness on the benefits of vaccines results in unwillingness to purchase them. This problem is compounded by lack of trained personnel to deliver vaccines. There is little investment in capacity building and professional development of processors, which leads to gaps in research and surveillance of transboundary and zoonotic diseases. This project thus aims to support existing structures by helping to scale solutions through a collaborative effort in research, extension and partnerships.

The project has four main components:

•     Support for ongoing campaigns to eradicate the transboundary disease, peste des petits ruminants
•     Control of zoonotic diseases
•     Control of antimicrobial resistance
•     Improved veterinary public health at the point of slaughter

Food loss and waste drains $940 billion from the global economy each year. The private sector, with support from government and partners, can change that.

The incredible scale of global food loss and waste – an estimated one-third of food produced – causes economic losses of US$ 940 billion per year. Besides economic losses it also consumes a quarter of all water used by agriculture and accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gases. Reducing food loss and waste is a critical strategy for addressing sustainable development goals to reduce poverty, improve nutrition and take climate change mitigation action.

In a peer-reviewed study published this month, we examined the business case for reducing food loss and waste in three supply chains: dairy in Kenya, grains in Tanzania and tomatoes in Nigeria. We found that reducing food loss in these supply chains is a low-hanging fruit; investments are profitable and benefit supply chain actors.

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By: Catherine Mungai (CCAFS), Maren Radeny (CCAFS), Seble Samuel (CCAFS), Hayden Montgomery (GRA) and Dawit Solomon (CCAFS)

Research findings on livestock greenhouse gas emissions in Eastern Africa are helping governments develop low-carbon and resilient livestock systems.

Climate change is transforming the planet’s ecosystems and threatening the wellbeing of current and future generations. To keep the increase in global temperature below 2°C and avoid dangerous climate change, reductions in global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are urgently required.

Globally, the livestock sector contributes a significant share to anthropogenic GHG emissions, but the sector also has the capacity to deliver a significant share of the necessary mitigation effort. As such, low emissions livestock development offers countries an opportunity to achieve economic gains and respond to climate change simultaneously.
Three Eastern African countries join the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases

African countries are taking ambitious actions towards reducing GHG emissions from agriculture. Ethiopia, Malawi and Uganda are now among the 56 countries and the first three in Eastern Africa who have joined the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA). This development originates from discussions initiated during the regional awareness raising workshop: 'Low emissions livestock: Supporting policy-making and implementation through science in East Africa'. The workshop was held at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 2-4, 2018.

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 By: Gloria Otieno (Bioversity International)

Climate change is leading to the shifting and shortening of seasons, erratic rainfalls, prolonged droughts and higher mean temperatures in the Nyando basin in Kenya. As a result, the varieties that farmers use do not perform well under the changing climatic conditions. Therefore, there is a need to mobilize locally viable options for adaptation through efficient methods, such as participatory research.

A project led by Bioversity International on "open source" seed systems for beans, sorghum, and finger millet for climate change adaptation in East Africa aims to address these challenges. Some of the main strategies include increasing farmers’ access to a wider range of agricultural biodiversity, in order to arm them with options to better manage climate risks and biotic stresses, such as pests and diseases.

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By: Julianna White (CCAFS Low Emissions Development)

Expected population growth and increasing consumption of dairy and meat are driving demand for climate-smart livestock production in East Africa.

Livestock—key to livelihoods and food and nutrition security for millions—is responsible for 40% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture. And emissions are increasing year upon year, as production increases. One way to bend the curve of emissions is to reduce the emission intensity of dairy and meat, which means producing the same amount of dairy or meat with fewer emissions.

Reducing emission intensity is especially important for countries like Ethiopia and Kenya, where the livestock sector accounts for 12% and 25% of gross domestic product (GDP), respectively, and current livestock production is emission-intensive. As both Ethiopia and Kenya raised livestock as a component of their Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to global climate change mitigation, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)—with its partner the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)—recently published reports on the feasibility of various low-emission livestock options in the countries and an investment case for one LED option.

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