Category: Climate change

I don’t want to leave you with the impression that the Amman conference on food security in the drylands has been all about germplasm and breeding, as far as adaptation to climate change is concerned. Cultural practices did get a look-in. Conservation agriculture in general, and zero tillage in particular, came up repeatedly, in fact. But of course, even when it’s not about germplasm, it’s really about germplasm. Because landraces and varieties are probably going to differ in their adaptation to these conditions. In fact, evidence to that effect is already there. An experiment at ICARDA showed last year that recently released varieties don’t do very well under zero tillage in general, but some do better than others. There’s bound to be a rush to screen all kinds of material under such practices.

Anyway, the highlight of the last day was a magisterial keynote from Peter Hazell of IFPRI on the role of agricultural policies and institutions in coping with climate change. It featured the first explanation of private weather index insurance that I’ve actually understood. He was very hopeful about the potential of such schemes, but said that the barriers to entry are still too high, which is why the 37 such programmes in 35 countries only add up to about a US$ 1 billion. Many many many times that will be needed. One of the main problems is the inadequacy of the system of weather stations in many countries. Another bit of infrastructure that is holding development back in rural areas.

Hazell also took part in the final panel discussion, which was very lively and lasted over two hours. He pointed out that the return to investment in agricultural research has really been rather good, and that probably the best hope for adaptation is more science. However, he did say that a breakthrough was needed from somewhere on the scale of the Green Revolution, and he did not see where that was coming from. He pointedly, I thought, did not mention biotechnology.

Well, it’s all over now. The panel session was followed by discussion of the draft Amman Declaration. Comments and amendments were considered, and the final version will be available in due course. But be not afraid, it features strong recommendations to collect and conserve biodiversity, and use it to breed new “climate-ready” crop varieties and build resilient production systems. And so to bed.

Read more on the conference at Rural Climate Exchange.