What is CSA?

Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) is a framework that provides a range of options, encompassing sustainable agriculture systems and ensures food security in a changing climate, (FAO, 2019). FAO has identified Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies, practices and services as providing several adaptation options that can sustainably increase agriculture productivity and income, enhance resilience to climatic stresses, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, services (FAO, 2010).

While CSA focus is on climate change and food security, it also considers synergies and trade-offs within socio-economic context of allocation and between productivity, adaption and mitigation as well as seizing new funding opportunities for investments. The use of CSA practices also implements SDG’s within safe planetary boundaries.

Example of CSA: CSA practice of homestead pond intervention – project carried out by World Fish in rural Bangladesh. Provides example of how csa can in crease income food security cc resislienct foosd system while also enabling the empowerment of women.

Link to report: https://www.worldfishcenter.org/content/can-climate-smart-aquaculture-enable-womens-empowerment-rural-bangladesh

Past IIRR project in the Philippines has exhibited how CSA can address many important issues such as, economic empowerment of farm households esp. women, food security- providing safe and healthy food supply, increase gender balance while adapting to  cc and helping CSV develop and maintain low carbon foot print approaches. Key to this study was the Community Based Approach – which allowed the participation of every village member. Thus  through conducting participatory vulnerability analysis (PVA), it enabled researchers to understanding  the vulnerabilities of each village, identifies the needs of each villager and risks to their environment  while also gaining an insight into site specific factors i.e. socio-economic, religion, etc. which influence these vulnerabilities. This through analysis lead to the development of approaches and technologies that successfully address gender issues and improved gender empowerment, (Rosimo. M., 2018).

Links to IIRR Report: https://ccafs.cgiar.org/publications/equity-empowerment-and-gender-relations-literature-review-special-relevance-climate#.X2H7cD-SnD4

https://ccafs.cgiar.org/news/climate-change-shrinks-world%E2%80%99s-resources-gap-between-men-and-women-widens#.X2H73T-SnD4

There is robust evidence to show that disasters and shocks of Climate Change are more acutely felt at local levels. These localised impacts can then cascade to have national and international consequences, (Cutter et al., 2012). Given that 70% of Myanmar’s population live in rural areas – most vulnerable to cc impacts due to dependence on natural resources for their livelihoods. This provides reason to use localized approaches to build resilience against climate change as well as other risk associated to climate change that we may face, like Covid-19. The CSVs when established will be used as platforms for neighboring villages as example of CSA field trials and from these can learn how best to adapt CSA options to suit their needs and specific requirement of their location.

As we know Impacts of climate change manifest differently across different sites. Therefore, IIRR project worked with 4 agro-ecologies across Myanmar to address the country’s diverse topography and specific sites conditions aa well as the country’s Myanmar’s 135 ethnic groups. ethnic groups and social norms that also influence the agri practices carried out across Myanmar. The villages identified by rapid scoping study  are referred to as climate smart villages (CSVs) and represent 4 major agro-ecological regions of Myanmar namely; the central dry zone (Htee Pu village, Nyaung U township), mountain uplands (Sakta village, Hakha township), upland-plateau (Taung Kha Mauk village, Nyaung Shwe township) and delta (Ma Sein village, Bogale). These villages also represent areas of the country experiencing the lowest levels of poverty.

Due to CSA’s achievement in long-term improvements in income, food security, resilient food systems and gender empowerment, CSA has been identified as a long-term strategy to promote climate change adaption in Myanmar’s agriculture sector by the country’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation and CCAFS. At the 24th ASEAN summit in 2014, the country committed to apply CSA to its regional food security and environmental protection plan therefore helping to building climate change resilience at local to national level.

Bibliography:

Colgan, J., McDougall, C., Murray, U., Spillane, C., McKeown, P., & Hossain, M. (2019). Can climate-smart aquaculture enable women’s empowerment in rural Bangladesh?

Cutter, S., Osman-Elasha, B., Campbell, J., Cheong, S., McCormick, S., Pulwarty, R., . . . Mutabazi, K. (2012). Managing the risks from climate extremes at the local level.

FAO. (2016). MYANMAR: National Action Plan for Agriculture (NAPA).

FAO. (2019). Good Practices for Integrating Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Climate-Smart Agriculture Programmes. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/3/ca3883en/ca3883en.pdf

Rosimo, M., Gonsalves, J., Gammelgaard, J., Vidallo, R., & Oro, E. (2018). Addressing gender-based impacts of climate change: A case study of Guinayangan, Philippines.