Strengthening Smallholder Farmer Resilience to a … Strengthening Smallholder Farmer Resilience to a Changing Climate Patrick Kiirya, Director, Busaino Fruit and Trees Richard Ndou,
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www.FSNNetwork.org Strengthening Smallholder Farmer Resilience to a Changing Climate Patrick Kiirya, Director, Busaino Fruit and Trees Richard Ndou, Deputy Chief of Party, ENSURE Program, World Vision Zimbabwe Andrea Mottram, Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Senior Specialist, The TOPS Program 1
Changing Climate Patrick Kiirya, Director, Busaino Fruit and Trees
Richard Ndou, Deputy Chief of Party, ENSURE Program, World Vision Zimbabwe
Andrea Mottram, Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Senior Specialist, The TOPS Program
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Presenter
Presentation Notes
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Resilience Design in Smallholder Farming Systems
Andrea Mottram, Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Senior Specialist, The TOPS Program
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Presenter
Presentation Notes
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Resilience Design in Smallholder Farming Systems - Objective Strengthen the resilience of smallholder farming systems to climate-related shocks and stresses
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Resilience Design in Smallholder Farming Systems - Aims
• Enhance natural resources and ecosystem services
• Increase energy efficiency • Increase economic income • Contribute to increased
nutritional status
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Presentation Notes
To reach this objective, the RD Approach aims to: - Enhance natural resources and ecosystem services through: improving soil and water health, increasing biodiversity, and reducing erosion. - Increase energy efficiency through: better farm design that works with natural influences to reduce time and energy expended tending crops and animals. - Increase economic income by: reducing input cost, and diversifying and intensifying production. - Contribute to increased nutritional status by: increasing access to a diverse diet, and improving critical nutrient uptake. Important to note - this approach should be combined with market development activities to improve the economic systems that support the production and consumption activities in the target areas.
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Resilience Design in Smallholder Farming Systems - Origins
• Is based on agroecology principles and practices • Replicates design elements of permaculture • Incorporates conservation agriculture practices • Is guided by climate smart agriculture
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The RD Approach is developed from a number of well-known and tested approaches: It is based on agroecology principles and practices that enhance the resilience and ecological, socio-economic and cultural sustainability of farming systems. It replicates design elements of permaculture that mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature. It Incorporates conservation agriculture practices that minimize the disruption of the soil structure, composition and natural biodiversity. It is guided by climate smart agriculture objectives that aim to ensure food security in a changing climate. Agroecology has three facets: 1. a scientific discipline involving the holistic study of agro-ecosystems, including human and environmental elements; 2. a set of principles and practices to enhance the resilience and ecological, socio-economic and cultural sustainability of farming systems; and 3. a movement seeking a new way of considering agriculture and its relationships with society. Permaculture is a philosophy and an ethical design system developed by David Holmgren and Bill Mollison in the late 1970s. It aims at consciously designing landscapes which “mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fibre and energy for provision of local needs”. Conservation agriculture is founded on three interrelated principles: (1) minimum mechanical soil disturbance; (2) soil protection through permanent organic soil cover and (3) crop rotation and intercropping. Farmers are encouraged to apply all three principles, but this may not always be the case. Minimum and no-tillage and intercropping can be practiced on a very large scale under highly mechanized systems that use chemical inputs, or tailored for small-scale, resource poor farmers. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an “approach that helps to guide actions needed to transform and reorient agricultural systems to effectively support development and ensure food security in a changing climate. CSA aims to tackle three main objectives: sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes; adapting and building resilience to climate change; and reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions, where possible ”.
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Resilience Design in Smallholder Farming Systems – Project Integration • It builds on strategies that development projects already use,
which means it can be layered into existing programming. • However, it is different in the way it approaches identification and
implementation of these practices, and how farmer knowledge is incorporated into the design process.
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Presentation Notes
The RD approach builds from these other key approaches, but outlines a process developed to specifically meet the demand of smallholder farmers and their environments and build climate resilience within a development project context. Read slide
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Resilience Design in Smallholder Farming Systems – The Approach Three core elements:
Observation
Principles
Techniques
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Resilience Design in Smallholder Farming Systems – Observation In-depth understanding of local landscape, natural influences (sun, rain, wind) that affect the site, and other impacts such as social and economic.
• Community engagement • Observation of the site and its influences • Data gathering
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Before selecting agricultural techniques to build soil and water health, it is essential that farmers have an: more in-depth understanding of their local landscape and understand natural influences such as rain, sun, wind, water flow, energy, gravity, as well as cultural and economic trends, and man-made impacts such as land use and soil disturbance. In terms of practical implementation that means: Community engagement Observation of the site and its influences Data gathering
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Resilience Design in Smallholder Farming Systems – Principles Application of guiding questions that help to inform the site design • What healthy and resilient living systems are there locally
that I can mimic in my farm system? • What resources can I grow? • How can a resource in the system be used to serve multiple
functions?
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Presentation Notes
In designing a site, it is important to think through guiding principles or questions that help to inform the design using knowledge gained through deeper observation. What healthy and resilient living systems are there locally that I can mimic in my farm system? (Mimic healthy and resilient living systems) - Observe patterns in healthy systems within the local landscape and identify how they could be used to inform the site design Mimic a productive perennial system that occurs naturally in or near the site by for example growing beans (that provide nitrogen and create a living mulch) up a maize crop, planting squash underneath, and creating an edge with perennial fruit trees and nitrogen-fixing legume trees to provide more high value mulch, shade, building materials, etc., to get multiple crops from one space What resources can I grow (Grow natural resources) - Grow some natural resources that can be used in the farming system rather than having to buy or build them. Grow a fence that also provides mulch, fertility and fodder rather than build one. How can a resource in the system be used to serve multiple functions? (Ensure every resource in the system serves multiple functions). Situate and use resources that are grown or built in such a way to provide several benefits to the farming system, instead of just one. Ensure the resource has at least 3 functions Place a small water tank (a resource) at a homestead so that it provides water, provides shade and provides trellis for vines to grow.
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Resilience Design in Smallholder Farming Systems – Principles • What multiple resources are there in the system to ensure
every function is supported by more than one resource? • Where can I place every resource for energy efficiency • What opportunities are there to transform waste into
resources? • When I come across a problem, how might I look at that
differently to potentially become a solution?
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Presentation Notes
What multiple resources are there in the system to ensure every function is supported by more than one resource? (Ensure every function is supported by multiple resources in the system) - Ensure critical functions (e.g., accessing water, accessing food, conserving energy) are supported in a number of ways so there is always a backup. Ensure functions are supported by at least 3 resources If accessing water is the critical function see if there are opportunities for the household to access water from a water tank, a well, a river, and a road. Where can I place every resource for energy efficiency (Place every resource for energy efficiency) - Place resources in a location and zone so that they are the most energy efficient If a farmer visits the chicken coop four times a day, place it near the house to reduce time spent visiting the coop, and up slope, so nutrients flow down slope into their kitchen garden or croplands. What opportunities are there to transform waste into resources? (Transform waste into resources) - Turn waste into resources to get the maximum efficiency from the system. Hot compost crop residues and weeds (killing any pests and diseases and denaturing the seeds), and then use as fertilizer for the soil. When I come across a problem, how might I look at that problem differently to potentially become a solution? (Change a problem into a solution) – Think about how a problem on or around the farm site could be transformed into a solution If a road channels rainfall, creating a gully and causing erosion, consider channeling the rain at different access points along the road and slow, spread and sink that resource into their land to help irrigate their crops.
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Resilience Design in Smallholder Farming Systems - Techniques Selecting and combining techniques to improve soil and water health
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• Sighting water and nutrient harvesting structures
• No or minimum tillage • Cover crops and mulching • Intercropping • Crop rotation and fallowing • Agroforestry • Integrating livestock • Integrated pest management
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Techniques – it is only once farmers have a deeper understanding and think through the site design that techniques can be selected and combined to result in improved soil and water health and an increased resilience to a changing climate. By understanding and applying these three core elements, farmers are more able to understand and then adapt their farming system in response to environmental changes, and rely less on external guidance.
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1. Site Assessment Observation and data
gathering
2. Site Analysis Analyzing external
influences
3. Site Design Applying principles; planning for
energy efficiency; combining techniques
4. Monitoring & Feedback
integration
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Presentation Notes
What does this look like practically on the ground?
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Resilience Design in Smallholder Farming Systems – Project Integration Helps smallholder farmers and project staff to:
• Think more broadly about the farm system within its agroecosystem. • Take a deeper observation and understanding of their farms and their
surrounding landscapes • Better design and optimize the use of available resources over the long
term and in response to environmental changes.
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Resilience Design in Smallholder Farming Systems – Opportunity
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Presentation Notes
This is an example of a degraded landscape that Warren worked with over a number of years at an orphanage site outside of Nairobi in Kenya. This site had been used as a dump site for 5 years, and the land was really degraded. They started to design the site building swales and designing locations for specific activities
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Resilience Design in Smallholder Farming Systems – Project Integration
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3 years later…..
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Resilience Design in Smallholder Farming Systems – Activities TOPS • Training – Malawi & Zimbabwe 2015/16 • Training – Ethiopia/Nepal 2017 • Toolkit – 2016 • Training materials – 2017
Mercy Corps • RD in program design & implementation • Adapting the approach for Mercy Corps • Implementing a small grant to develop a
measuring tool for the Resilience Design Approach and soil/water interventions
Questions for discussion From your experience or knowledge of other programs, what have you seen work with regard to: 1. Collaborating with government to improve the enabling environment
for smallholder farmers to adapt to a changing climate?
2. Integrating ‘new’ agricultural techniques and indigenous practices to enhance the ability of smallholder farmers to adapt to a changing climate?
3. Strengthening farmer capacity to make strategic agricultural decisions to respond to a changing climate?
