Project Link: https://acasa-bisa.org
Background
The vulnerability of South Asian countries to climatic risks and their potential impacts on agricultural commodities have necessitated a concerted effort to identify adaptation solutions and strengthen regional collaboration for ensuring food security. This urgency was emphasized and endorsed by the senior management of all countries in the region during the High-Level Meeting on "Strengthening AR4D in South Asia" held at the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) in New Delhi on September 1-2, 2022. To address these challenges, the BISA has proposed the development of the South Asia Climate Adaptation Atlas for Agriculture in collaboration with the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) of the region. The project aims to consolidate and standardize various spatially explicit datasets related to climate hazards, population exposure, vulnerability, and impacts on critical commodities, and evidence of the efficacy of climate adaptation interventions. The project seeks to provide a comprehensive resource that will offer tools for improved investment targeting, priority setting, and informed decision-making processes. It is expected to benefit governments, industries, international and national donors, as well as adaptation-focused entities in their efforts to address climate risks effectively. By utilizing the Atlas, stakeholders will be empowered to make well-informed decisions and investments in agricultural technologies, climate information services, and policies that can mitigate the negative effects of climate change.
Besides, an integral part of the project is the capacity development of all stakeholders involved. This includes researchers, policy planners, industry representatives, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). By enhancing their understanding and utilization of the Atlas's tools and insights, capacity development efforts aim to stimulate their interest and engagement in effectively addressing climate risks in the south Asian region. It represents a significant step towards enhancing the resilience, food security, and sustainable development of south Asian countries. Through the consolidation of data, identification of adaptation options, and promotion of collaboration, this project aims to support evidence-based decision-making and investments that will safeguard agricultural systems and ensure the well-being of communities in the face of climate change.
Objectives
1. To develop and implement a standardized methodology at the local scale for estimating commodity-specific climate risks and vulnerabilities, likely impacts on yields, and possible technological, institutional and policy adaptation options to mitigate these impacts.
2. To determine the implementation feasibility and scalability of the key adaptation options identified, including the finance required.
3. To develop an open access standardized digital Atlas populated with generated results.
4. To migrate the country-specific version of the digital open access Atlas to the NARS system to maximize opportunities both for Atlas’s continued relevance and maintenance.
5. To use the Atlas data to identify risks, impacts and their management analogues for strengthening regional cooperation in adaptation.
Expected Outputs
Climate change adaptation solutions to agriculture commodities based on risk analysis identified
Digital Agriculture Adaptation Atlas for Nepal prepared, validated and disseminated
Capacity of NRS for DAAA preparation, and stakeholders for utilization enhanced
Milestones and Deliverables
Partnerships developed with end users such as National Planning Commission and other stakeholders.
Conduct a systematic risk analysis following IPCC methodology for at least 10 commodities of interest in the country using local, granular, measured data.
Contribute to the development of a regional database based on the literature review and a meta-analysis identifying the key climatic risks for important agricultural commodities, their relationship with likely impacts of current and future climatic risks and possible adaptation solutions.
Use district-level data to identify statistical/ econometric relationships between specific climatic risks, impacts and adaptation solutions by commodity and agro-ecological region.
Organize region-specific workshops of relevant and important stakeholders to validate the results and fine-tune prioritized adaptation solutions.
Do a gender suitability analysis of the prioritized adaptation solutions.
Calculate implementation feasibility and investments required to implement the prioritized solutions at various scales to determine their scalability.
Work with the BISA team and software developers to identify the software and hardware required to deploy Atlas on the country website.
A database of all current and past projects related to climate adaptation in agriculture in the country implemented by NARS, the government, civil society, and the private sector.
Populate South Asia Adaptation Atlas version 1 with the results and data obtained.
Publish at least 2 blogs, 2 newspaper items and digital mass media stories.
A workshop with various stakeholders, including the Ministry of Agriculture, the Planning Commission and State/Provincial Governments to identify specific use cases
Work with the use case stakeholders to develop specific thematic versions of the Atlas for the use cases where the results of the Atlas are used to support the prioritization/planning and implementation of climate adaptation investments.
Migrate the country version of the Atlas to the NARS server and take over its subsequent development and be responsible for its updating and maintenance even after the project has concluded.
Raise the capacity of national stakeholders in using the Atlas
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