AGRICULTURE

THE STATE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE 2016
» The INDCs also highlight how adaptation and
mitigation actions in the agriculture sectors are
particularly rich in potential co-benefits. As
countries move from intentions to
implementation, many have expressed concern
about the adequacy of available financial
resources and about their own institutional
capacity. Countries of sub-Saharan Africa express
such concerns most often, and their INDCs are
also among the most detailed and exhaustive
when it comes to agriculture. •
FROM INTENTIONS TO
ACTION: AGRICULTURE
IN CLIMATE
STRATEGIES
Since the Nationally Determined Contributions
are general, non-binding commitments, and not
action plans, the commitments undertaken need
to be translated into action at the national level.
This directly concerns agriculture and food
security policy-making. However, it also entails
the mainstreaming of climate change
considerations into a range of other policies and
action areas that are highly relevant to
agriculture and food security, such as land and
water management, but also disaster risk
management and social protection. The challenge
is to incorporate the agriculture sectors into
national climate change strategies, which are
themselves linked to UNFCCC mechanisms
(Figure 16).
A series of instruments have been designed under
the UNFCCC for linking international climate
change commitments to concrete action for
mitigation and adaptation at the country level:
National Adaptation Programmes of Action
(NAPAs) were originally established by the
UNFCCC as a dedicated, harmonized, countryled
instrument for least developed countries.
The programmes identify priority activities
responding to “urgent and immediate needs” –
for which further delay could increase
vulnerability or lead to increased costs at a
later stage – for climate change adaptation. To
date, 50 countries have submitted NAPAs to
the UNFCCC Secretariat (UNFCCC, 2016a).
Agriculture and natural resource management
issues are particularly prominent in them. The
great majority of priority projects are related to
the agriculture sectors and food security
(Meybeck et al., 2012), and most belong to one
of five main categories: cross-sectoral
(including early warning systems, disaster
management, education and capacity building),
management of ecosystems, water
management, plant production and livestock,
and diversification and income. All NAPAs are
eligible for funding under the LDC Fund,
which is managed by the Global Environment
Facility (GEF) for their implementation.
National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) focus on
addressing medium and long-term adaptation
needs and provide a significant opportunity to
integrate the concerns and needs of the
agriculture sectors and actors in broad national
strategies and policies. Three countries –
Brazil, Burkina Faso and Cameroon – have
each completed a NAP, and all give importance
to adaptation in agriculture.
Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions
(NAMAs), as defined by the UNFCCC, are
prepared by national governments in the
context of sustainable development and
provide for nationally appropriate actions that
reduce emissions in developing countries
(UNFCCC, 2016b). They typically include more
detailed actions than INDCs and can be
project-based, programmatic, sector-wide, or
focused at the policy level (Wilkes, Tennigkeit
and Solymosi, 2013). Sectoral policies need to
be defined or revised and aligned with climate
policies and priorities. Baseline scenarios have
to be constructed and the mitigation potential
of different options estimated. The barriers to
implementation of these options need to be
identified. Institutional arrangements for
coordination and financing, as well as for
measuring, reporting and verification, must be
established. Some 13 percent of the NAMAs in
the convention’s NAMA registry are in the
AFOLU sector (UNFCCC, 2015). •
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