The Relation between Agriculture and Climate Change: Reducing the Vulnerability of the Agriculture Sector

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The Relation between Agriculture and Climate
ChangeReducing the Vulnerability of the
Agriculture Sector

• Oscar Rodas
• Asociación Guyra Paraguay (NGO)
• Paraguay, South América
• oscar_at_guyra.org.py

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Global emissions of GHG related to human
activities
Deforestation (land use changes) and degradation
Fossils fuels
In Paraguay in 2011 soy growers will require
massive amount of fossils fuels to transport
around 10,000,000 tons of soy bean at an
equivalent of 1 truck transporting 20 tons in 1
trip (around 500,000 roundtrips!). Additional to
by truck transportation internally in the
country, fossils fuels are used to export the soy
bean by boats using the Paraguay Parana rivers
hydroways.
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AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE CHANGE NEED TO CHANGE
AN PERFECT VICIOUS CIRCLE
AGRICULTURE REDUCES FOREST ECOSYSTEMS, CLIMATE
STABILIZATION, GLOBAL SERVICE
CLIMATE CHANGE INCREASES VULNERABILITY OF
AGRICULTURE
AGRICULTURE CONTRIBUTES TO CLIMATE CHANGE
AGRICULTURAL FRONTIER EXPANSION IS BASED ON
DEFORESTATION
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AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE CHANGE VIRTUOUS CIRCLE
AGRICULTURE INCREASES AGRO ECOSYSTEMS AND FOREST
ECOSYSTEMS CLIMATE STABILIZATION GLOBAL SERVICE
AGRICULTURAL VULNERABILITY IS REDUCED
AGRICULTURE CONTRIBUTES TO FIGHTING CLIMATE
CHANGE
AGRICULTURE BUSSINES EXPANSION IS BASED ON
SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES INCLUDING FOREST AREA
INCREMENT, PROTECTION AND RESTORATION
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AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE CHANGE IN LAC

• Agriculture is in the broad sense critical for
  LAC.
• Agriculture tied to LAC physical resource base
  and natural assets.
• Especially in South American countries, a great
  part of GHGs come from the agricultural sector.
• 2007 IPCC Report
• reduced yields in warmer environment (for
  temperate climate crops)
• growing incidence of heat waves
• increased heat stress
• wildfires
• land degradation
• crop damage
• soil erosion,
• heavy precipitation events
• saltwater intrusion
• soil salinization
• The impacts of CC on agriculture are expected to
  be substantial
• Natural resource base, livelihoods, economy,
  etc.
• Lack of plans for resource management strategies
• public and private investments
• policy changes

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AGRICULTURE AND LAND-USE CHANGE

• DETER deforestation monitoring system from Brazil
  report 1,920 hectares of deforestation in
  Amazonas Region, Brazil, between January and
  February in 2011.
• Asociacion Guyra Paraguay Great South American
  Chaco deforestation monitoring system reports
  232,000 hectares deforested in this region
  (including portions of Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil
  and Paraguay ) in 2010. The deforestation rates
  in Paraguayan Chaco in 2011, is around 400
  hectares per day.
• In general, in South America agriculture is
  related to exotic pastures implementation for
  cattle ranching (mainly to beef export business)
  and soy/sugar cane plantations.

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AGRICULTURE AND LAND-USE CHANGE

• Asociación Guyra Paraguay WWF
  Agrupación de Policía Ecológica y Rural

Asunción Paraguay - Junio de 2009
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REGIONAL EFFECTS IN THE RURAL SECTOR

• Projected regional impacts of global warming and
  climate change in Latin America
• a transformation of tropical forest to savanna
  lands
• transition from semi-arid vegetation to arid-land
  vegetation
• Significant biodiversity loss with species
  extinction
• In terms of agriculture, projected effects
  include
• declining productivity of some important crop and
  livestock systems
• adverse impacts on food security
• changes in precipitation patterns
• water availability disrupted for agriculture,
  human consumption and energy generation
• degradation (and loss) of farming systems
• overall increased number of people at risk of
  hunger

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AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION
REDUCED VULNERABILITY MEANS INCREASED ADAPTATION
AND MITIGATION CAPACITY AT THE SAME TIME!

• In terms of adaptation, a wide variety of
  strategies should be used in agriculture
• Response to climatic variability to benefit
  farmers
• Knowledge about options to maintain production
  levels and yields by farmers (crops, cattle,
  water use, etc.)
• response to short-term climatic variations
• long-term, planned adaptations to help anticipate
  and minimize the effects
• To balance agricultural expansion and ecosystems
  services (especially forests providing climate
  stabilization services)
• To create possitive incentives for private land
  owners, especially ranchers and soy growers to
  preserve forest (In Paraguay the Enviromental
  Services Law 3001/06 is active from 2006, but
  still with few participants)
• In Brazil, a private sector initiative leaded by
  Soy Growers and Processors Group are implementing
  a system not to buy or commercialize soy products
  from deforestated areas in Amazonas

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What the regional needs are

• Climate information systems in place (Systems to
  enhance climate predictability)
• Water management technologies adopted
  (Improvements in water collection, drainage,
  irrigation distribution systems, maximize use of
  water in livestock production, etc.)
• Better integrated management of natural resources
  and production systems (this includes water
  management, conservation agriculture, crop and
  pasture rotations, adjustment of planting dates,
  etc.)
• Technological innovations to reduce climatic
  risks (biotechnology innovations to improve
  drought resistance and pests and disease
  resistance, invasive species, and improvements in
  irrigation infrastructure).
• Institutional innovations with capacity built for
  early warning systems for climate (improved
  policy and regulatory frameworks for water
  management, agricultural and catastrophic risk
  insurance, etc.).
• Bottom-up participatory processes for climate
  change adaptation and reduce threats to climate
  variability.

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What can be done today to improve the management
of climatic risks and improve the adaptation?

• 1. Identificate vulnerabilities and opportunities
  (with the agriculture sector)
• 2. Reduce uncertities (learn from the past,
  monitor the present and information for the
  future)
• 3. Identify technologies to reduce
  vulnerabilities (Diversify, store and efficient
  use of water, genetics, etc.)
• 4. Identify institutional architecture and policy
  interventions to reduce or transfer risks
• Systems for early alert and response systems
• Insurance, recovery loans, etc.
• Institutional arrangements specific policies

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CHALLENGES FOR AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE CHANGE

• Inter and intra-institutional coordination for
  State policies
• Technologies available and duly tried to face
  mitigation and adaptation
• Technical capacity to face technological
  challenges
• Capacity to promote public-private coalitions
• Capacity to provide bottom-up capacity for
  understanding variability and be prepared to face
  it.
• Sustainability of actions

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SOUTHERN SOUTH AMERICA ACTIONS RELATED TO
DEFORESTATION

• Paraguay has a Zero Deforestation law (2004 to
  2013) in the Oriental Region of the country.
• Argentina is implementing the federal forest law,
  giving the mandate to the provinces to design and
  implement land-use plans related to native forest
  defined by three categories (no restrictions to
  forest conversion, sustainable use areas and
  protected forest areas). A map with three
  colors Green, yellow and red

4.112
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NEW AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES AND TECHNOLOGIES AND
CLIMATE CHANGE

• Zero tillage in soy and othes related crops is
  proposed by the agricultural sector as a
  mitigation option related to climate change.
• Paraguay, Brasil and Argentina are increasingly
  using Zero Tillage Agricultural Practices.
  Paraguay has 80 of the total soy crops under
  Zero Tillage. Paraguay soy plantation area is
  around 2.5 million hectares it is the 4th global
  exporter of soybeans and the 10th exporter of
  beef products

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AGRICULTURE, VULNERABILITY, REDD AND SOCIAL
ISSUES

• Paraguay is still implementing the Agrarian
  Reform Proccess. 300,000 families of small
  farmers with an average of 10 hectares of land
  per family represent the main social factor of
  agriculture in Paraguay. The majority of the
  small farmers do not have any capacity for
  adaptation to climate change.
• Brazil and Bolivia have a similar situation of
  small farmers colonies as Paraguay.
• Asociacion Guyra Paraguay already obtained a
  gold-level certification of CCBA standard for a
  REDD pilot project involving small farmers
  settlements and are now going for the VCS
  standard certification. There is a potential of 3
  million hectares to replicate the pilot project.

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AGRICULTURE, VULNERABILITY, REDD AND SOCIAL
ISSUES

• In Southern South America, agricultural expansion
  is not only related to forest loss. Deforestation
  is affecting indigenous peoples territories.

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SOME GENERAL IDEAS TO EXPLORE

• Zero Tillage with no forest preservation is not
  an option to fight climate change.
• Agro Forestry systems have been explored as a
  climate change adaptation option, especially for
  medium and small farms.
• REDD including incentives related to payment for
  environmental services could be applied to a wide
  range of situations in agriculture and
  agriculture frontier expansion situations
  (example indigenous territories ).
• Alternative options, like binational
  hydroelectric enterprises paying for forest
  providing water services, have being tested to
  stabilize agriculture expansion over forests in
  rural municipalities near hydroelectric
  facilities watershed areas.