FAO Mitigation of Climate Change in Agriculture Programme

Abstract

The FAO Mitigation of Climate Change in Agriculture (MICCA) programme is to facilitate developing countries pursue climate change mitigation measures in agriculture and move towards low-emissions agricultural practices http://www.fao.org/climatechange/micca/79677/en/ The project is funded by the Government of Finland through UN - FAO Goals and activities The main goal of the MICCA pilots project implemented by ICRAF, is to show results on the ground to provide quantifiable evidence that climate-smart agricultural practices can mitigate climate change, improve farmers' lives and make local communities better able to adapt to climate change , and thus persuade farmers, national policy-makers, international organizations and donors that climate-smart agriculture is a priority. To address this need, MICCA is carrying out two pilot projects in Africa. http://www.fao.org/climatechange/micca/79578/en/ i. Enhancing agricultural mitigation within the East African Dairy Development Project (EADD), Kaptumo, Western Kenya This project builds upon sites of the Gates funded East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project. The EADD project is a regional industry development program led by Heifer International in partnership with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), TechnoServe, the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the African Breeders Service (ABS) Total Cattle Manage ment. Working with the EADD partners at the Kenya site in Kaptumo, MICCA efforts aims at adding value to the dairy development efforts by building capacity for the integration of climate-smart practices that simultaneously increase productivity, income and ecosystem resilience within the farming systems of small holder farmers and along the value chain - quantifying subsequent greenhouse gas reductions along with other benefits. This is being done by establishing a baseline and monitoring changes in GHGs and ecosystem processes and productivity with and without the implementation of climate smart practices agreed upon by the Dairy Farmers Business Associations. We measure GHGs emissions from a complete zero grazing set up, semi- zero grazing and non- zero grazing farm system to compare the systems and thereafter advice farmers on the best practice that reduce emission and increase agricultural productivity. ii. HICAP (CARE Tanzania) - Hillside Conservation Agriculture Project. The CARE Hillside Conservation Agriculture Project in the South Uluguru mountains of Tanzania is aimed at improving livelihoods through the integration of conservation agriculture into farming systems. The MICCA project offers an opportunity to add further value to community based conservation agriculture practices being implemented by clarifying the mitigation potential of these practices as well as the integra tion of trees on farm and in the landscape. With suitable methodologies the project will measure the increase in carbon accumulation across the landscape as a result of climate smart practices, thus providing evidence for the contribution of small-holder farmers to mitigating the impacts of climate change. MICCA aims at developing the capacity for the integration of additional climate-smart practices that simultaneously increase productivity and ecosystem resilience within the farming systems of small holder farmers - quantifying subsequent greenhouse gas reductions along with other benefits associated with risk reduction and adaptation. This is being done by establishing a baseline and measuring above and below ground carbon as well as monitoring changes in non CO2 GHGs and ecosystem processes and productivity with and without the introduction of climate smart practices on farms.