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ISSUE #32 SEPTEMBER 2014
Feed the Future is the U.S. Government's global hunger and food security initiative. For more information, or to subscribe to this publication
please visit www.feedthefuture.gov.
ADVANCING GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY IN A 
CHANGING CLIMATE
In Nepalese communities where climate change threatens water availability, Feed the Future is installing solar-powered water systems - like drip irrigation - that families can use at home and on farms. These women use drip irrigation to grow high-value vegetables during  off-seasons. Credit: Bimalo Rai Colavito/USAID

 

Last week, as global leaders gathered in New York City for the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly, U.S. Government officials helped launch the Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture during the United Nations Climate Summit, which called on government, finance, business and civil society leaders to take action on climate. The Alliance advances a global, evidence-based approach to food security and represents an ambitious step in U.S. efforts to integrate a holistic approach to climate change in every area of our work.

 

Speaking at the Summit, President Obama called climate change the one issue that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other. Climate change is a critical challenge for food production around the world, affecting global temperatures, precipitation patterns and oceans. As climate-related threats grow more severe, decisions about where and how food is produced can either accelerate or help put the brake on climate change. Unfortunately, in many countries, those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change are also the most food-insecure.


 
Feed the Future is working in concert with the U.S. Global Climate Change Initiative to develop strategies, undertake research and implement programs to increase food security despite changing climate patterns. Through climate smart agriculture, Feed the Future is helping smallholder farmers and others who make up the food system to build resilience, adapt to climate change stress and, where appropriate, reduce emissions from agricultural activities. Feed the Future utilizes a sustainable intensification approach, working with researchers and local actors to produce more and higher quality food, stimulate economic growth and increase resilience while achieving more efficient use of land, water and inputs.

 

Learn more about Feed the Future's work on climate change and food security, or read on for stories of how the U.S. Government is partnering to meet the challenge of increasing global food production by at least 60 percent by 2050 to feed a growing population while sustainably managing natural resources and adapting to a changing climate.

Obama Administration Launches Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture

 

By John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State, Tom Vilsack, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, and Rajiv Shah, USAID Administrator


From record droughts in Kansas to deadly wildfires in California, the United States is feeling the effects of climate change. These same conditions have a dire impact across the developing world, especially for poor, rural smallholder farmers whose lives are threatened every time the rains arrive late, the floods rush in or the temperature soars.


By 2050, the world's population is expected to reach nine billion people. Feeding them will require at least a 60 percent increase in agricultural production. There is no greater challenge to meeting this need than climate change. It poses a range of unprecedented threats to the livelihoods of the world's most vulnerable people and to the very planet that sustains us. In order to ensure that hundreds of millions of people are not born into a debilitating cycle of under-nutrition and hunger, we must address the urgent threat that climate change poses.


That's why we're announcing the launch of the Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture. The idea was born eight months ago, when an international delegation of leaders - including many from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the State Department, and USAID - met in South Africa for the Global Conference on Climate Change, Food Security and Agriculture. There, we charted a more sustainable path to food security - one that preserves the environment while driving broad-based economic growth. Read more.

Climate Snapshot: Promoting Water-Efficient 

Maize in Kenya

Credit: USAID

 

Mrs. Muthira, a smallholder maize farmer in Kenya, proudly shows off her crops at her farm in Migori Country. A Feed the Future partnership with Kenya Agriculture Value Chain Enterprises and the African Agricultural Technology Foundation has been testing the effectiveness of water-efficient maize in Kenya. While Kenya's semi-arid region receives unreliable rainfall, improved varieties of water-efficient maize have the potential to improve yields and equip farmers to withstand increasingly frequent droughts. Credit: USAID. 

 

Building Resistance to Climate Change through Irrigation Development

 

Agriculture is the cornerstone of rural livelihoods in the developing world, and irrigated agriculture contributes to rural economic growth and food security through more reliable water supplies in the face of low and unevenly distributed rainfall. In partner countries around the world, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is supporting irrigated agriculture, ensuring that farmers have access to the water they need to grow crops and earn income.

 

But agriculture in arid regions can be difficult even without climate change, and shifts in historical temperatures and rainfall patterns that alter the timing and quantity of annual water flows pose ever-increasing challenges to irrigation.


That's why MCC develops its irrigation investments with climate variability and long-term climatic changes in mind. In the Sahel region and North Africa, MCC projects are reducing vulnerability and improving resilience to the potential effects of climate change. Read more.

Climate Snapshot: Developing Climate-Resilient 

Bean Plants

Credit: USDA


 
Under Feed the Future, scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are researching abiotic stress - i.e. stress from sources other than pests or diseases - which can be caused by climate change and is damaging to crops. At USDA Agricultural Research Service hubs in Puerto Rico and Washington State, scientists are evaluating bean plants for heat stress and drought response. The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Climate-Resilient Beans, based at Pennsylvania State University, is also investigating drought tolerance of beans in Mozambique. As scientists determine which bean populations are most promising, they will select and breed them in Africa during the coming growing season. This process of selecting for abiotic stress tolerance in bean populations is already underway in Honduras.

 

See more climate snapshots.

With Crop Diversification, Farmers Get the Most out of their Land

Cambodian horticulture farmers like this one in Kampong Thom province are alternating crops to mitigate their vulnerability to climate change. Credit: HARVEST

In Cambodia, diversifying crops is uncommon. The majority of farmers grow only rice, and they do it during the six-month wet season, leaving their fields unsown for half of the year. This practice limits the country's agricultural productivity and leaves farmers vulnerable to a variety of problems, including pests, market fluctuations and the effects of global climate change.


 
Through a program supported under Feed the Future and the Global Climate Change initiative, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is working with Cambodian farmers to change the country's reliance on cultivating a single crop by promoting crop diversification as part of a broader agricultural technical package. Crop diversification encourages farmers to plant a number of crops including different varieties of rice and vegetables on the same plot throughout the year, reducing the risk that a particularly long, hot dry season will threaten their food security or incomes. Read more.

Climate Snapshot: Peace Corps Volunteers Promote Cleaner, Cheaper Fuel
Credit: Peace Corps

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Senegal, Peace Corps Volunteer April Muniz works with youth in her community to make briquettes out of waste paper, peanut shells, sawdust and water. These briquettes are more sustainable and have a lighter environmental footprint compared to traditional charcoal, gas and wood sources of cooking fuel. The cost of making a single brick is little more than a few cents, and each one burns long enough to prepare a local meal of rice and fish.

 

See more climate snapshots.

Feed the Future Researchers Fight Back as Climate Change Exacerbates Crop Contamination

Aspergillus flavus blooms on a corn plant. Credit: USDA

 

Aspergillus flavus (A. flavus) is a fungus that attacks corn and other plants and can contaminate the grain from these crops with a potentially lethal toxin called aflatoxin. Aflatoxin at low, chronic levels can cause stunted growth and impair immunity; at higher levels it can cause liver cancer or even death in humans and animals that ingest it. Once harvested, poor storage conditions of contaminated grains can lead to more aflatoxin accumulation, making the grain even more toxic and unfit to be sold on the market.


 
Aflatoxin is of particular concern for developing countries in Africa, as farmers and consumers are often unaware of or ill-equipped to deal with contaminated grains, and crop insurance for losses may be non-existent. The fungus, which grows better on corn plants during drought conditions, is becoming more common with the effects of climate change, such as increased temperatures and more unpredictable rainfall. Read more.

Climate Snapshot: Addressing the Impacts of Climate Change in Mali
Credit: Devan Wardwell/Abt Associates

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Young farmers plant rice in Mali, where changes in rainfall and temperatures are challenging the resilience of farming systems. The United States is supporting the Government of Mali's efforts to advance understanding of the impacts of climate change: this month, USAID hosted an event in Bamako attended by Mali's Secretary General of the Ministry of the Environment as well as more than 50 other participants from government, NGOs, research institutions and the private sector. The workshop analyzed how climate change will impact water resources, crop productivity, pests and diseases, farming methods and other aspects of agriculture and food security in Mali. 

 

See more climate snapshots.

In Central Asia, Improving Agriculture and Natural Resource Management

Selling food at a marketplace in Tajikistan, where bread accounts for half of people's daily calories on average. Credit: USAID

In countries where the vast majority of the rural poor depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, the effects of climate change are often most immediately felt and can be devastating. Central Asia is no exception: more extreme temperatures, erratic precipitation, more frequent droughts and other threats are all becoming increasingly common experiences among smallholder farmers, yet local awareness and action on climate change in the region has lagged behind. 


 
From wheat farming to water management, the U.S. Government is supporting climate smart agriculture and the sustainable use of natural resources in the Central Asian Republics to help ensure that farmers will be able to feed their families for a long time to come. Read more.

Climate Snapshot: Reducing Farmer Vulnerability in East Africa
Credit: Jenny Olson/MSU

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


 

A researcher examines a rice variety trial in Zambia. With support from Feed the Future, a team of researchers from Michigan State University, Kenya and Zambia are linking computer models of climate change to investigate how crop production and household food security are being affected and how agronomic practices may reduce smallholder farmers' vulnerability. Strategies like using several smaller doses of fertilizer, planting earlier-maturing seed varieties and switching crops can help reduce the negative effects of rainfall variability and shorter rainy seasons to provide better and more regular harvests. 

 

See more climate snapshots.

Climate Change Analysis Strengthens Early Warning of Food Insecurity

A farmer in Ethiopia, expecting poor wheat yields, shows the few grains produced by a single shaft. As climate change alters rainfall patterns across East Africa, FEWS NET scientists are developing more precise tools for forecasting the impact of weather on crop production. Credit: FEWS NET

 

As populations grow and agricultural seasons shift, insights into historical climate patterns are helping forecast future conditions with increasing accuracy and geographical precision.


 
"It's one thing to look back historically and say that East Africa is getting drier, but what's really valuable is using three decades of data to help anticipate the upcoming season in a specific area," says Chris Funk, a climate expert with the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS's) Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, who is based at the University of California Santa Barbara. "In some cases, we are able to make some quite skillful predictions." Read more.

Climate Snapshot: Building Community Resilience and Climate Adaptation
Credit: USAID/Ethiopia

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

In Ethiopia, Matthew Davis of Catholic Relief Services (left) and Anthony Amerson of USAID (right) formalize a grant for a new climate resilience project under Feed the Future and the Global Climate Change initiative, with additional funding from USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. The project will build community resilience to climate-related shocks and disasters in six of Ethiopia's most vulnerable districts while improving long-term capacity to adapt to climate change in drought-prone areas. A similar agreement recently signed with Project Concern International brings the total of these two grants close to $12 million. 

 

See more climate snapshots.

Weathering Climate Change Effects with Stress-Tolerant Rice Varieties

 

In Bangladesh, smallholder farmers are facing more extreme weather shocks and depleted soil, which can lead to devastating crop losses and reduced agricultural productivity. But with newly developed stress-tolerant rice varieties, rural poor farm households have been able to adapt to these new realities and overcome some of the challenges to rice production.


 
Stress-tolerant rice varieties are part of Feed the Future's broader work in Bangladesh to introduce game-changing agricultural technologies to increasing numbers of smallholder farmers and help them diversify into higher-value, nutrient-dense commodities such as horticulture and fish. But rice remains the country's most important staple crop, and targeted investments in that sector are helping Bangladesh approach self-sufficiency in rice, a remarkable achievement for one of the world's poorest and most densely populated countries. Read more.

UPCOMING EVENTS UE
NEWS & NMMEDIA
News News
Obama at climate summit: 'We have to lead'
September 23, 2014, Elana Schor and Bob King (Politico)
 
September 23, 2014, Chris Arsenault (Reuters)


Why climate change is back on the agenda

September 22, 2014 (The Economist)

Feed the Future Legislation Introduced in Congress

September 19, 2014 (PR Newswire)
Opinions & Blogs Op-Eds
September 25, 2014, Ban Ki-moon (Wall Street Journal)

September 23, 2014, Mark Suzman (CNN)

September 22, 2014, Tom Daschle (The Hill)
Videos Blogs
ABOUT TATNHIS NEWSLETTER
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information about Feed the Future, please visit our website. 
In This Issue
ADVANCING GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY IN A CHANGING CLIMATE
Obama Administration Launches Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture
Climate Snapshots from around the World
Building Resistance to Climate Change through Irrigation Development
With Crop Diversification, Farmers Get the Most out of their Land
Feed the Future Researchers Fight Back as Climate Change Exacerbates Crop Contamination
In Central Asia, Improving Agriculture and Natural Resource Management
Climate Change Analaysis Strengthens Early Warning of Food Insecurity

World Food Prize 2014 Borlaug Dialogue
World Food Day


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