ISSUES BRIEF

Resilient Food and Agriculture

October 2020

As climate change continues to drive food insecurity, addressing the risks of climate
change across the value chain – especially agricultural products that are important
to food and nutrition security – will yield significant adaptation benefits to vulnerable
small producers and rural communities at large. This will support global efforts
to end hunger and poverty, build more effective farming practices that reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, and accelerate the ambition of Nationally Determined
Contributions to the Paris Agreement.
Agriculture is socio-economic backbone of rural landscapes essential ecosystem services, agriculture is highly sensitive
employing an estimated 2.5 billion people. Over the 20th to changes in climate variability. Climate change exerts
century food and agriculture commodity production and additional pressures on agriculture to produce nutritious
consumption has grown largely at the cost of negative food in sufficient quantity to satisfy increasing demand
externalities that led to social inequalities and environmental of fast-growing population. The current production and
degradation. consumption practices are not adapted to the impacts
of climate change and driving agriculture towards
Agriculture contributes about one-fifth of all greenhouse unsustainable trajectory with multiple human development
gas emissions and is a primary cause of biodiversity loss. impacts.
As relying on topsoil fertility, water resources and other

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Resilient Food and Agriculture
October 2020

COVID-19
The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis on food systems and global supply chains are yet to be
assessed, however some of the weaknesses and vulnerabilities have already been exposed that will need to be tackled
as part of the recovery efforts. With considerable disruptions in input production and supply chains, the pandemic exposes
the needs for diversified food systems and agricultural livelihoods and the need to shift towards low-input sustainable
agriculture. UNDP will continue policy and programme support towards this direction, facilitate the adoption of farm-to-fork
approaches, and support the production and consumption choices that ensure not only food but also nutrition security.
Digital transformation in accessing market and price information, agronomic advisories, and climate information services
is another critical area of support that UNDP can offer in partnership with other agencies and private sector. Furthermore,
UNDP will support the development for food storage facilities that are required to minimize the harvest loss due to climate
events and other shocks, and support the development of urban agriculture to ensure a certain degree of self-sufficiency
during the times of crisis and also develop local market linkages between rural, peri-urban and urban producers.

UNDP’s comparative advantage

UNDP in partnership with other organizations is taking programming and policy measures to shift food systems towards
climate resilient and sustainable pathways. UNDP’s approach is that of food systems approach, which is a departure from a
traditional sectoral approach and addresses their limitations.

Uniqueness of UNDP’s role lies in its ability to work cross-sectorally and connect and reconcile local needs and sub-
national context with national policy change. As outlined in UNDP’s Food and Agriculture Commodity Strategy, UNDP
offers integrated systemic approaches to development issues, catalysing and supporting cross-sectorial policy dialogue at
national and subnational levels. Within countries, UNDP has the ability to work across all levels of territorial governance,
down to provincial, departmental and municipal levels, meaningfully bridging the gap, connecting and improving the
integration between global, national, jurisdictional and local levels. As a result, UNDP can forge collaboration and
partnerships, leverage specialized knowledge, and catalyse public and private finance. UNDP’s Food and Agriculture
Commodities Strategy aims to upscale sustainable production landscapes and jurisdictions, transform food and agricultural
commodity supply chains to become sustainable, and empower all members of vulnerable households and smallholder
producers to become more resilient, attain food security and pursue sustainable livelihoods.

Challenges
There are numerous challenges related to resilient food and agriculture. One of the key challenge that needs to be
addressed is narrowly defined scopes that do not take a whole-of-systems approach. Narrowly defined focus often leads
to siloed technical fixes that do not address the complex interactions of multiple drivers. Such challenges require cross-
sectoral solutions that tackle (i) pre-production, input management, climate risk information and adaptation advisories; (ii)
production at the farm and pastoral systems with the view of functional integrity of productive landscapes; and (iii) post-
production, harvest management, access to market, agricultural entrepreneurship and finance, including risk finance.

Another key challenge is to break away from current unsustainable production and consumption patterns towards more
sustainable practices across the value chain. In relation to this, specific challenges are to achieve transformation in the
supply chain towards climate resilience and sustainability, rehabilitate and maintain ecosystems within which agricultural
productive landscapes are nested, and ensure policies and finances reach the most vulnerable subsistence and small-
scale producers.

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Resilient Food and Agriculture
October 2020

Main areas of work

Pre-production / input management • Technologies for efficiencies in production (drones for
• Climate risk and vulnerability assessment and value chain seed bombs and precision agriculture), renewable energy
assessment to establish the risks of losses and damages technologies for resilient farming (irrigation, greenhouses,
across the entire value chain; market assessments hydroponics)
• Crop residue management (CRM) for soil carbon • Integrated pest management
conservation and sequestration (composting, green manure, • Integrated tree crop livestock farming system
compost extract fertilizer) • Catchment management and rehabilitation through
• On-farm and off-farm water management, including water agroforestry and assisted natural regeneration methods;
storage and supply infrastructure, including, last mile promotion of deforestation free agriculture practice
irrigation and efficiencies in irrigation systems
• R&D for resilient crops and breed varieties and accessible Post-production
multiplication centres • Renewable energy powered and climate proofed storage
facilities
Capacity for the provision of climate information services • Climate proofing of rural infrastructure to ensure local
and advisories mobility and access to services
• Production and delivery of weather forecasts and early • Provision of market information and ensuring access to
warning market
• Provision of extension services, setting up farmers field • Provision of financial services. Innovative agriculture
school networks as field-based advisories; homologue farm finance and insurance (index insurance, disaster risk
networks to facilitate adaptation experimentation and farm insurance, mobile money / banking, revolving funds / MOIs,
transformation crowdfunding platforms, etc.)
• Enabling market innovations for farmers markets,
Production / diversified integrated systems processing cooperatives and agri-business incubation and
• Introduction and promotion of good agricultural practice development.
(GAP), including support to certification

Successes and key programmes

Joint partnership in Zambia. Aiming to limit the negative impact of climate change on farmers, the Government
of Zambia, through a United Nations-led partnership including UNDP, FAO and WFP, accessed US$32m from the
Green Climate Fund for a 7-year, US$137 million project (known locally as the SCRALA project). The project is
designed to indirectly support 3 million small-scale farmers in Zambia in building climate resilient lives. Implemented
by the Zambian Ministry of Agriculture, the SCRALA project is helping farmers in 16 districts across five provinces
cope better with climate change threats through modern technology, sustainable growing techniques and better
understanding of climate issues. Since the project was launched in February 2019, over 170,000 small-scale farmers
have become involved.

Canada-UNDP Climate Change Adaptation Facility (CCAF) - With support from the Government of Canada and
the Global Environment Facility’s Least Developed Countries Fund, the Canada-UNDP Climate Change Adaptation
Facility (CCAF) worked across six countries to build gender-responsive resilience to climate change - Cambodia,
Cabo Verde, Haiti, Mali, Niger and Sudan. CCAF activities supported women to increase food production, diversify
their livelihoods and transform gender-based social norms in food production.

Guatemala. The Climate Change and Resilient Productive Landscapes project in Guatemala bridged the gap
between ecosystem-based approaches and climate-smart agriculture and food security. Funded by the Adaptation
Fund, the project trained farmers in new techniques and land-management practices to not only increase yields but
also adapt farming to better withstand the negative impacts of climate change. Unique projects included everything
from chocolate microenterprises to larger forestry and land initiatives.

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Resilient Food and Agriculture
October 2020

Innovation and looking ahead

• Digitization strategies to help most vulnerable and isolated farming and pastoral communities to access strategic
information, on markets, pricing, weather forecasts and early warning.
o Digitization strategy may also include use of blockchain to verify access to service (e.g. availability of water, resilient
crops) or ability to sell produce at a fair market price (linked with Fair Trade).

• Food waste reduction and management. According to Eat Lancet report if food waste were its own country it would be
the thirds largest greenhouse gas emitter. Crop residue management CRM and compost and green manure production may
offer new agribusiness opportunity.

• Food consumption and dietary choices. This option works to tackling nutrition as part of food security. Taking a farm-to-
fork approach is therefore required to influence consumption and diet patterns. According to the same report, modern diet
is a greater disease risk than alcohol and tobacco combined. Dietary choices must be changed to address both mitigation
and adaptation needs in the food systems.

• Engaging the private sector, adaptation services and technologies. Many adaptation products and services can be
turned into new opportunities for entrepreneurship, private sector creation and engagement. For example, dissemination
of forecasts, adaptation advisories and other digital services; production of green manure, water efficient irrigation
technologies; energy efficient and resilient storage facilities; renewable energy for agriculture services; and technologies
such as solar-powered irrigation, storage, greenhouses and hydroponics. These adaptation services and technologies offer
new opportunities for agri-business incubation and the emergence of private sector engagement.

• Financial services in the remote rural areas. In most LDCs remote rural communities are unbanked and trapped in
highly vulnerable subsistence agriculture with limited opportunities for alternative livelihoods. Creating and supporting
community aggregations, associations, cooperatives and member-owned institutions such as village saving and loan banks
or associations and self-help groups are the ways to address the finance gap and create new livelihood opportunities in the
remote rural areas.

• Last mile investments may offer the opportunities for blended finance through PPP models.

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Resilient Food and Agriculture
October 2020

Partnerships
Existing partnerships
In all the projects, the teams works closely with national and local agriculture research institutes to expand the use of
climate-resilient seeds. Work across the UN System is also expanding. In Madagascar, for instance, a UNICEF WASH
programme is working closely with the ongoing GEF Least Developed Countries Fund-financed project) for access to water
for agriculture and the introduction of tree nurseries. In Mali, where conflict prevents project teams from freely circulating
in some areas, a project has connected with a local organization (OMVF) to bridge the gap in these conflict areas. This
has led to good results in terms of access to water (through the installation of ponds) and a strong ownership by the
beneficiaries (including the local authorities).

Integrating Agriculture into National Adaptation Plans (NAP-Ag) – The joint UNDP-FAO programme supports partner
countries to identify and integrate climate adaptation measures for the agricultural sector into relevant national planning
and budgeting processes. It is a multi-year initiative funded by the German Government that responds to country driven
needs, and is currently being expanded to support improved agriculture and land-use planning to accelerate the ambition
of climate actions.

New and emerging areas of partnerships

Africa Centre for Climate and Sustainable Development. With funding from the Italian Government and joint collaboration
with FAO, this center will provide a fast-track, demand-driven mechanism for African countries to access grant resources
that support policies, initiatives, and best practices on climate change, food security, access to water, clean energy, and
accelerating progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa.

Telecoms. Several countries are exploring the options of extending climate-information and agricultural advisories through
public-private partnerships with telecoms providers.

Global Commission for Adaptation. GCA seeks to increase funding and support to build the resilience of 300 million
small-scale farmers around the world. To achieve this goal, the Commission and its partners will increase investment in
agricultural research, expanding access to crucial farmer advisory services and information, as well as access to improved
risk management and financial services that farmers need to adapt to climate change.

Other Partners. Africa Adaptation Initiative, Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa, Adaptation of African Agriculture
Initiative, the InsuResilience Global Partnership, Africa Risk Capacity, CGAIR, UNEP, FAO, UNICEF

Connecting with the big picture

• Accelerated ambition on Nationally Determined Contributions. To keep temperature rises below two degrees,
countries will need to vastly rethink the way agriculture systems work.

• UNDP’s Climate Promise. Technical support for UNDP’s climate promise will be delivered in close collaboration with
key strategic partners -- most notably the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and UNICEF.

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Resilient Food and Agriculture
October 2020

Impact

Photo: UNDP Guatemala

“These days, families have so many children. And there’s less land available every day. That means fewer crops, less
food. I never know if what my children eat is enough or not. Our land has steep slopes. So when it rains too much,
all the nutrients in the soil are washed away. I want to learn how to take care of my land – how to build ditches and
barriers, so that I can protect my crop from the heavy rains. [Before the project] I neither knew how to get the seeds,
nor how to plant them. Now I do. When I received the seedlings, I was also taught how to plant them. Through a
drawing, they showed me what my garden would look like. I dream that in the future my children won’t have to struggle
for food. I don’t want them to have to go through what we’ve had to go through to be able to have food.” - Marta Ixtós
Ajú, farmer, Guatemala

Marta Ixtós Ajú lives with her husband and children in rural Guatemala. The daily life of her community, the indigenous
people of Maya Quiche, revolves around agriculture and trade. Despite this, 1 out of 2 children in the country suffers from
malnutrition. Through the Adaptation Fund-financed UNDP-supported Climate Change Resilient Productive Landscapes in
Guatemala, Marta finally has a vegetable garden of her own. Supporting communities located in the middle and upper parts
of the Nahualate River basin, the programme also aims to bolster farmers’ work in upkeeping livestock farms and managing
vegetable and medicinal gardens, improve the nutrition of themselves and their families, and create opportunities to
strengthen food security of their communities.

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