The magnitude, immediacy and broad scope of the effects of climate change on agricultural systems create a compelling need to ensure comprehensive integration of these effects into national agricultural planning, investments and programs.
For this reason, the FAO developed the concept of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) and officially presented it at the Hague Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change in 2010, through the paper "Climate-Smart Agriculture: Policies, Practices and Financing for Food Security, Adaptation and Mitigation".
The three pillars of CSA: food security, mitigation and adaptation and the CSA approach is based on developing the technical, policy and investment conditions to achieve sustainable agricultural development for food security under climate change. Achieving the transformations required for CSA and meeting these multiple objectives requires an integrated approach that is responsive to specific local conditions. Coordination across agricultural sectors as well as other sectors is essential to capitalise on potential synergies, reduce trade-offs and optimise the use of natural resources and ecosystem services.
Yes, SRI is a CSA. In fact, SRI practices enhance food security while also increasing the mitigation and adaptation potentials of rice crops, therefore contributing to all three pillars of CSA. Also, SRI methods allow positive interactions with other CSA like Conservation Agriculture, Agroforestry, Integrated Pest Management, organic farming etc. For a more extensive explanation of how SRI methods contribute to the CSA pillars, please have a look at the brief that Erika Styger and Norman Uphoff, two great experts of SRI, wrote for GACSA.
GACSA is a multi-stakeholder platform on Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) which is inclusive, voluntary and action-oriented. The Alliance aims to catalyse and help create transformational partnerships to encourage actions that reflect an integrated approach to the three pillars of CSA for improving food security, nutrition and resilience while mitigating climate change. GACSA facilitates dialogue, knowledge exchange and partnerships through an open, diverse and inclusive multi-stakeholder platform, to catalyse actions on enhancing agriculture, forestry, livestock and fisheries practices and systems that increase productivity in a sustainable way, improve resilience and adaptation and reduce/sequester emissions.
At SRI-2030 we focus on SRI, one agro-ecological, climate-smart set of practices for rice cultivation and we work to foster systemic changes in the rice sector through policy influencing, creating awareness among implementing and funding agencies, and promoting synergies between stakeholders and our global network of SRI experts.
SRI-2030 just joined the GACSA to benefit from additional contacts and possible partners that could participate in scaling SRI. Also, SRI-2030 aims to actively engaging with the three action groups i.e. Knowledge, Investment, and Enabling Environments to coordinate its activities with those of the other GACSA members and coherently frame the promotion of SRI methods within a broader agroecological approach to sustainably intensify the agricultural sector.
SRI-2030 would contribute to the GACSA community by mobilising the global and national networks of SRI experts and by providing regular updates on the progress toward a more sustainable rice sub-sector. Also, we would facilitate the communication with on-the-ground organisations and research institutions within our network and we could contribute to the communication and advocacy required to leverage on policy support, finance, knowledge and technology use.
Being a GACSA member can enable synergistic collaboration and the sharing of knowledge, ultimately benefiting both SRI-2030 and the entire GACSA community.
GACSA regional alliances, like ASEAN-CRN contribute with inputs to countries’ NDCs and to the Koronovia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA) which is the first substantive COP decision in the history of the agenda item on the next steps for agriculture within the UNFCCC framework. The KJWA provides a road map to address issues related to agriculture in a holistic manner through a series of international workshops.
SRI methods are already recognised as CSA and are implemented within multiple projects. However, SRI-2030 aims to facilitate a systemic approach to SRI dissemination under the UNFCCC framework by making this context-adaptable set of CSA practises a key component of national (NDCs) and international (KJWA) strategies to sustainably intensifying the rice sector for improving food security, saving resources and mitigating climate change.
