Page 18 - FAO-IPCC Expert meeting on climate change

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Adaptation to pollination loss
We need to quantify better the relative impact on pollination from climate factors vs human activities and production practices (pesticides, monoculture) under specific agro-ecological conditions. We should also identify alternative cost effective practices to minimize the loss of production and lower quality arising from insufficient pollination.
Rebuilding land productivity in rangelands
We need better testing of dryland resistant plant species coupled with assessments of socio-economic and institutional constraints to adoption of alternative technologies, including water conservation techniques.
Greater research is required to evaluate farmers’ needs, objectives and constraints, integrated into socio-economic research to derive policies and innovative institutional schemes to improve adoption of proven technologies.
We should devise integrated schemes that combine newly adapted species (plants and animals) with conservation agriculture, sustainable grazing techniques and water harvesting.
More interdisciplinary research can promote dialogue across disciplines, especially between economists and ecologists and between environmental specialists and agriculturalists.
Support community level responses and the building of mutual synergy on poverty reduction.
Harness and mainstream indigenous knowledge and local adaptation practices and lessons learned in planning at all levels.
Agricultural intensification and diversification
Promoting crop genetic diversity should be expanded and scaled up beyond basic research and moved into project development/deployment combined with market analyses to evaluate possibilities for greater adoption and for scaling up successful pilot projects.
More economic research is needed to examine the impact of incentives on farmers’ crop choices and agricultural practices with particular attention on those subsidies and technologies that support more diverse ecologically sound and climate-adapted production systems.
Adaptation and resilience options for livestock systems
Examining the socio-ecological context of livestock systems is critical to identifying, testing and deploying resilience-supporting livestock technology under grazing or crop-livestock mixed extensive systems.
Research and development of drought and disease resistant animal breeds and economic incentives to shift or mix species is another strategy to be explored under drylands conditions.
Technology development has far outstripped successful farm-level adoption suggesting greater focus should be placed on socio-economic and institutional analysis to unpack the constraints preventing farmers’ technology uptake.
Adaptation and coping mechanisms in aquaculture and inland fisheries
Given their strong relevance for food security we need more research and meta-analysis in aquaculture and inland fisheries, especially designing optimal management initiatives that balance resource conservation with fish production.
Additional research into aquaculture is also needed, especially in relation to floods and catastrophic risks with better integration into watershed management systems.
FAO-IPCC Expert meeting on climate change, land use and food security