Livestock is crucial to Kenya's economy and socio-cultural practices, but it also contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. Climate-smart agriculture and sustainable livestock management practices can help Kenya achieve its climate change targets and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while ensuring food and nutrition security. This report presents the key outcomes and recommendations of a national stakeholder workshop FAO organized in December 2022 to address climate change in Kenya's livestock sector.
Climate change is expected to bring new challenges and opportunities for the livelihoods of rural communities in Uganda, where more than 80% of the population depends on rain-fed agriculture. The purpose of this review was to analyze national policies on climate change adaptation, agriculture, forests, management of forested and agroforested landscape ecosystems and their goods and services, and the roles of stakeholders in the national arena. Recognizing the role of forest cover in climate change mitigation and adaptation, this review is based on stakeholder engagement and analysis of published literature on the policy, institutional and socioeconomic drivers of forest cover change around Mount Elgon. The bulk of Ugandas forests are on land under private ownership and deforestation has occurred mainly in such forests. Several national laws and international conventions ratified by Uganda offer a framework under which forests are managed. Management of protected forests is shared between central and local authorities. Several natural resource policies are likely to have significant unintended impacts that may enable or limit the adaptation of stakeholders and ecosystems to climate change. The current climate change policy, which is an overarching document that addresses climate change in Uganda, suggests that policy responses, either sector specific or crosscutting in nature, be harmonized in order to better address the challenges associated with climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Greenhouse gas emissions by the livestock sector could be cut by as much as 30 percent through the wider use of existing best practices and technologies. FAO conducted a detailed analysis of GHG emissions at multiple stages of various livestock supply chains, including the production and transport of animal feed, on-farm energy use, emissions from animal digestion and manure decay, as well as the post-slaughter transport, refrigeration and packaging of animal products. This report represents the most comprehensive estimate made to-date of livestocks contribution to global warming as well as the sectors potential to help tackle the problem. This publication is aimed at professionals in food and agriculture as well as policy makers.
African swine fever is a viral hemorrhagic disease of domestic and wild pigs. The disease has recently become one of the major global concerns for the livestock sector. While eradication remains a distant goal in several endemic countries, updated and science based control strategies are important for mitigating risks and reducing the socio-economic impact of the disease, for protecting the livelihoods of the most vulnerable along the value chain and for ensuring business continuity for the pork industry. To support countries in their endeavor to manage the ASF risk, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), in collaboration with the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), has brought together ASF experts, risk managers, and private sector representatives to provide latest scientific knowledge and consult on recommendations for updated, more effective and sustainable disease management approaches. The consultation was held in FAO HQ in Rome on 12-14 December 2023 and was attended by more than 200 participants in person and online. Key recommendations include addressing human behavior along the value chain; updating international strategies based on scientific evidence; promoting passive surveillance in domestic pigs and wild boars; finding innovative ways for improving biosecurity along the value chain by understanding motivations, disincentives and incentives; foster collaboration between stakeholders and engage the private sector; carefully assess vaccination options; explore the possibility of partial culling; promote and further develop costing tools for better preparedness and economic estimations; promote compartmentalization and regionalization/zoning while working on improved trade strategies.
Unless action is taken now to make agriculture more sustainable, productive and resilient, climate change impacts will seriously compromise food production in countries and regions that are already highly food-insecure. The Paris Agreement, adopted in December 2015, represents a new beginning in the global effort to stabilize the climate before it is too late. It recognizes the importance of food security in the international response to climate change, as reflected by many countries prominent focus on the agriculture sector in their planned contributions to adaptation and mitigation. To help put those plans into action, this report identifies strategies, financing opportunities, and data and information needs. It also describes transformative policies and institutions that can overcome barriers to implementation. The State of Food and Agriculture is produced annually. Each edition contains an overview of the current global agricultural situation, as well as more in-depth coverage of a topical theme."
FAO’s “Increasing smallholder productivity and profitability” (ISPP) project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by FAO in Kenya had the objective to improve livelihoods through enhanced productivity, market linkages and better nutrition. The evaluation assessed the relevance of the project and the achievement and sustainability of results. The evaluation found increased technical capacity among farmers, but significant limitations to apply the knowledge. Increased access to diverse types of fruits and vegetables at household level was reported. Anecdotal evidence shows change of dietary habits. Farmers were trained on contract farming, negotiation skills, marketing strategies, financial access and agro-entrepreneurship, but access to markets remained a challenge across all value chains promoted, and equitability of support services could not be established. For future, similar projects, the recommendations include i) the establishment of a community-based collaboration platform to foster long-term sustainability; ii) framework and guidelines for gender mainstreaming; iii) enhancing operational transparency and adaptive management; iv) exit strategy with sustainability action plan; v) comprehensive support for access to markets; and vi) focus on monitoring, learning and evaluability when designing and implementing reporting mechanisms.
The first of three books in IFPRI's climate change in Africa series, West African Agriculture and Climate Change: A Comprehensive Analysis examines the food security threats facing 11 of the countries that make up West Africa -- Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo -- and explores how climate change will increase the efforts needed to achieve sustainable food security throughout the region. West Africa's population is expected to grow at least through mid-century. The region will also see income growth. Both will put increased pressure on the natural resources needed to produce food, and climate change makes the challenges greater. West Africa is already experiencing rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, and increasing extreme events. Without attention to adaptation, the poor will suffer. Through the use of hundreds of scenario maps, models, figures, and detailed analysis, the editors and contributors of West African Agriculture and Climate Change present plausible future scenarios that combine economic and biophysical characteristics to explore the possible consequences for agriculture, food security, and resources management to 2050. They also offer recommendations to national governments and regional economic agencies already dealing with the vulnerabilities of climate change and deviations in environment. Decisionmakers and researchers will find West African Agriculture and Climate Change a vital tool for shaping policy and studying the various and likely consequences of climate change.
Adaptation is a process by which individuals, communities and countries seek to cope with the consequences of climate change. The process of adaptation is not new; the idea of incorporating future climate risk into policy-making is. While our understanding of climate change and its potential impacts has become clearer, the availability of practical guidance on adaptation has not kept pace. The development of the Adaptation Policy Framework (APF) is intended to help provide the rapidly evolving process of adaptation policy-making with a much-needed roadmap. Ultimately, the purpose of the APF is to support adaptation processes to protect - and enhance - human well-being in the face of climate change. This volume will be invaluable for everyone working on climate change adaptation and policy-making.
Climate change is a cause for concern both globally and locally. In order for it to be tackled holistically, its governance is an important topic needing scientific and practical consideration. Climate change governance is an emerging area, and one which is closely related to state and public administrative systems and the behaviour of private actors, including the business sector, as well as the civil society and non-governmental organisations. Questions of climate change governance deal both with mitigation and adaptation whilst at the same time trying to devise effective ways of managing the consequences of these measures across the different sectors. Many books have been produced on general matters related to climate change, such as climate modelling, temperature variations, sea level rise, but, to date, very few publications have addressed the political, economic and social elements of climate change and their links with governance. This book will address this gap. Furthermore, a particular feature of this book is that it not only presents different perspectives on climate change governance, but it also introduces theoretical approaches and brings these together with practical examples which show how main principles may be implemented in practice.
