Roughly 75% of the world's poor live rurally, and agriculture remains the largest contributor to their livelihoods. In addition, developing countries account for approximately 70% of global carbon emissions from agriculture. This suggests that mitigating agricultural emissions can serve as a vehicle for climate compatible development. But there are institutional barriers to unlocking this mitigation potential. Developing Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) for the land-based sector can help overcome these barriers.

Research suggests effective and economically efficient mitigation measures are available in the sector and applicable in a variety of developing country systems. Policy-makers face two challenges: (i) to identify cost-effective climate compatible agricultural options that also support achievement of other key policy goals (e.g. food security); and (ii) to identify modalities for accessing support through emerging international opportunities, such as provisions for support to NAMAs.

This project will demonstrate methods for investigating the scope of NAMAs in the sector (i.e. identifying climate compatible practices and their synergies and trade-offs with other policy goals) and will identify pathways to link high-potential options to national and global support. In this context the researchers will work with policy-makers to design key NAMA examples, including developing appropriate monitoring reporting and verification protocols, as well as institutional arrangements to link international support to the equitable participation of smallholders. The research will be based on examples from Malawi, but will aim to produce results that can be generalised to other developing countries.

The project is funded by CDKN’s pilot research grant.

Lead Investigator: Prof. Dominic Moran (United Kingdom, Scottish Agricultural College)

Partners and Partner organisations:

-       Dr Tim Tennigkeit and Dr Andreas Wilkes (Germany, Unique Forestry GmbH)

-       Dr Patson Nalivata and Dr Timothy Gondwe (Malawi, Bunda College of Agriculture)

-       Charles B.L. Jumbe (Malawi, University of Malawi, Centre for Agricultural Research and Development, Bunda College of Agriculture)

Image: Young boy with herd. Kenya. Photo © Curt Carnemark - World Bank