ICT4S2013 ICT forClimate Change Adaptation and Mitigation through Agro-ecology in the Developing World

1WWW.VU.EDU.AU

Using ICT for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigationthrough Agro-ecology in the Developing World

ICT4S-2013: The First International Conference onInformation and Communication Technologies for Sustainability, ETH, Zurich, February 14-16, 2013.Helena Grunfeld, John HoughtonVictoria University, Melbourne, Australia

2CENTRE FOR STRATEGIC ECONOMIC STUDIES – VICTORIA UNIVERSITY

• Motivation for the paper• Agro-ecological farming• Agriculture, climate change, poverty reduction, ICT• Using ICT for scaling organic input• Enabling conditions at the macro-level• Research agenda• Recommendations

Outline


Focus of paper and presentation

Agriculture

Poverty reduction and

human development

ICT

Use of ICT for agroecological farming for

• climate change adaptation and mitigation and• poverty reduction and human development

Climate change adaptation and

mitigationWorking

hypothesis for scaling organic input to agro-

ecological farming,

facilitated by ICT


Motivation for study

How can ICT be used to support sustainable farming methods?

• Working hypothesis for scaling of organic input to agriculture

• Use ICT to achieve sustainability and poverty reduction


Agro-ecological farming

• Convergence of agronomy and ecology • Enhances agricultural systems by mimicking natural processes• Based on science and practices• Improves the resilience and sustainability of food systems• Strong conceptual connections with the right to food • Supported by an increasingly wide range of experts within the scientific

community, international agencies, incl. FAO and UNEP.

From Report submitted by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right tofood, Olivier De Schutter to the UN General Assembly, 2010


Agriculture/climate change/poverty reduction

• Agriculture: 30% of GHG emissions causing global climate change• Indirectly: 13%, including from fertilisers and livestock• Indirectly: 17%, mainly through deforestation and land use changes

• Agro-ecological agriculture suggested as suitable for adaptation and mitigation• Also poverty reduction properties – potentially cheaper inputs• Potential for unskilled job opportunities

• Conflicting views re impacts of agro-ecological farming• Africa: yields of small-scale farmers have doubled• Meta-analysis: lower yields encourage land clearing• Can take several years to reach comparable yields


Agro-ecological farming requires different inputs and is knowledge intensive

Information Decision by farmer

Application of new

methodsKnowledge

Different inputs

Awareness


Inputs into agro-ecological farming

Composting at Trorkeat Village, Mesang District, Prey Veng Province, Cambodia


Inputs into agro-ecological farming

CSARO: Community Sanitation and Recycling Organisation – outskirts of Phnom Penh


Roles of ICT in scaling inputs to agro-ecology

• Information for knowledge exchange• Open distance learning• Open educational resources• Open access to research

• Communication: farmers-researchers-markets• Facilitates transparency critical for trust in organic supply chain

• Market information, e.g. price• Reduces asymmetry between farmers and traders• But also requires access to other resources to be effective

• Supply chain productivity improvements and innovations


Enabling macro-level conditions

• Policy intervention required: market does not pay for negative externalities of agriculture

• Must pay attention to interconnected dimensions of• sustainable agriculture,• food security, • climate change, • poverty reduction, and • Information systems to support these linkages

• Enabling policies likely to be more successful than coercive• Property rights (address “land grabs”)• Funding

• Governments, NGOs, aid agencies• Climate change funding sources, e.g. Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and

Payment for Environmental Services (PES).


Research agenda

• Ascertain sustainability and poverty reduction outcomes of such initiatives – requires the development of models for evaluation

• How is ICT used and how could it be better used in the value chain in agro-ecological farming• What software tools would be appropriate in the different stages of the value chain

• Investigate potential market for commercial input into organic farming in developing countries:• What are the constraints facing this sector – supply and demand?• What role can ICT play to overcome constraints?


Recommendations

• The United National Environment Programme - 2011 report “Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication” – to act on its recommendations about up-scaling green inputs into agro-ecological agriculture

• Donors supporting agriculture and/or ICT4D (implementations and research) projects to encourage agro-ecological farming, incorporating human development and poverty reduction objectives.

• Agro-ecological farming to become eligible for funding from clean development mechanism sources, subject to meeting human development and poverty reduction criteria

Technology

ICT4S2013 ICT forClimate Change Adaptation and Mitigation through Agro-ecology in the Developing World