To solve the problem of food insecurity, invest in agricultural digital climate services

To solve the problem of food insecurity, invest in agricultural digital climate services

This work was originally created by Cristina Rumbiatis del Rio and Katiuscia Fara. Published by the World Resources Institute.

Severe food insecurity is on the rise.almost 750 million people Global food insecurity in 2019, at least 121 million people Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is estimated that it has been pushed to a similar level of risk.

Due to the impact of climate change on the global food system and crop production, this number is expected to increase: smallholder farmers are increasingly facing the cumulative effects of droughts, floods, heat waves and wildfires, as well as crop pests and diseases.Without adaptation, climate change may reduce global crop yields Reduce by 5-30% by 2050If the supply decreases Cause prices to rise, At least Can add another 50 million people Facing food insecurity.

Digital climate information advisory services (DCAS)-such as mobile apps and broadcasting-can play a key role in helping smallholder farmers adapt and mitigate some of these effects, enabling them to make informed decisions and adapt to traditional practices to minimize loss.

“This blueprint is derived from decades of real-world experience, working directly with stakeholders to build useful, sustainable and scalable climate services for agriculture.”

-Stephen Zebiak, IRI

One such solution comes from Malawi, where vulnerable communities Using weather forecasts and agricultural advice Provide information for decisions about livestock, nutrition and health. The information provided to the community through radio programs and mobile news helps farmers cope with changes in rainfall and make better decisions about different livelihood strategies. The content of the news was created by the Inter-Ministerial National Agricultural Content Development Committee, bringing together expertise from different national institutions.

By providing information that can be integrated into agricultural decision-making, digital climate informed advisory services have been designed to help millions of small-scale agricultural producers better adapt to a more volatile and ever-changing climate.Digitizing Enable Services such as announcements and alerts from extension services can also help support agricultural producers who may not be digitally literate or may not have access to digital technology.

But while current efforts to provide such services to farmers (the backbone of our global food system) are promising, they are not enough. New Global Adaptation Research Council Shows that increasing international commitments and investment is essential to expand efforts, protect smallholder farmers and promote global food security.

300 million small-scale producers still have no access to services

As of 2018, Africa has 33 million farm registrations Agroclimatic services-approximately 13% of all smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. By 2022, this number is expected to expand to 47 million registered farms.

“We must also ensure that marginalized communities receive equal counselling services, including those that may not be able to use digital tools.”
– Alison Rose, IRI

Despite the rapid increase in the number of registrations for these critical services, there are still an estimated 300 million small-scale agricultural producers globally that are not available.

A paper from the World Resources Institute, Digital climate information consulting service blueprint, Found that expanding the scope and quality of these digital services will require the government and the private sector to invest approximately US$7 billion in the next ten years. Given that the investment in DCAS in the past five years is approximately US$1 billion, this means that the collective investment required for public and private sector participants will increase exponentially in the next few years.

This will help fill key gaps. Although more people sign up for consultation every year, farmers’ participation in these tools is not high, because service delivery is still fragmented, it is unsustainable beyond the traditional project cycle, and the last mile is not reached—for example, difficult to access. Community.

Benefits in return on investment and productivity gains

Digital climate-informed advisory services not only increase yields—they provide a range of benefits for smallholder farmers, including risk reduction, income increase, and efficiency improvement, as well as actionable information to promote changes in farmers’ initiative as climate decision-makers.

The World Resources Institute, together with Columbia University’s International Climate and Society Research Institute (IRI), the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the World Food Program, and the Global Adaptation Center, found that, on average, such services provide 1:24 With a return on investment, the average productivity of smallholder farmers may increase by 30%. For African countries with many smallholder farms, these services can also promote economic development and increase the gross domestic product of using services.

As part of the working paper, the following six core principles developed by more than 150 stakeholders will help guide investors who want to support the effective implementation of such services (regardless of scale or good practice), while highlighting successful implementation cases Research:

1. Ensure data quality and assurance

Digital climate information consulting service data should meet the needs of users, including accuracy and tailoring for specific purposes. Lack of data quality or adequate governance will reduce the ability of DCAS to support farmers and weaken farmers’ trust and use of consulting services. For example, in Rwanda, IRI Columbia’s Enhanced National Climate Services approach uses interactive maps to simulate past and future high-quality climate data. Then train farmers to interpret map data, analyze and predict climate conditions for themselves.

2. Promote fairness

Designers and implementers should ensure that these services meet the different needs of different people in the community, will not exacerbate existing inequalities, and will not leave the most vulnerable groups behind. For example, livestock keepers in Mongolia are using non-digital methods such as text messaging to receive and respond to weather information to help herders prepare and reduce the risk of livestock loss in extreme winters. Due to the limited Internet coverage and the limited possession of smart phones, SMS technology is considered to be the fairest and most effective way to share information with herders living in remote rural areas.

3. Co-creating with stakeholders

The creation of a digital climate information advisory service should bring together producers of weather and climate information and those who use the information to make decisions. Co-creation builds trust, aligns services with farmers’ actual needs, and strengthens farmers’ ability to use services. In Malawi, as mentioned above, the National Agricultural Content Development Committee included planning and review days into its agricultural-related radio programs. Extension workers use farmers’ feedback to jointly produce seasonal forecasts and customize agricultural recommendations.

4. Establish accountability and transparency

Services should be responsible, which means they can be evaluated based on roles and responsibilities and evaluation indicators. They should also be transparent, and information about service design, implementation, and finance should be open and easy to understand. In India, the global development organization Digital Green has benefited nearly 2 million small-scale farmers, mainly female farmers, through continuous testing, monitoring and evaluation of the services it provides. Transparent monitoring and evaluation can help drive demand, and local partners can see clear evidence of positive results, as well as ways to correct and improve services.

A person who uses a mobile phone in India. Mobile applications can play a key role in helping smallholder farmers adapt to and mitigate some of the effects of climate change, enabling them to make informed decisions and adapt to traditional practices to minimize losses. Photography: Jacquelyn Turner, CCAFS

5. Build financial sustainability

When digital climate information advisory services can generate enough value to continue operating without relying on donor funding, they are financially sustainable. In several countries in Africa, the information service Esoko provides farmers with climate-related agricultural consulting and a range of other services, including market intelligence, farmers’ helplines, and access to finance and insurance. Financial sustainability is achieved through a farmer subscription model and a multi-level income model, in which data collected by Esoko (such as market price data) is provided to farmers and resold to commercial customers.

6. Scale design

Reaching the “scale” of these services means more than just increasing traffic. More important is the scale of impact in terms of building resilience and mitigating risks. This will require innovative solutions, based on existing platforms, and integrated into national and subnational policies and plans. To expand DCAS, it is also important to fill in knowledge gaps, including the lack of common definitions, clear guidelines and standards, and monitoring and evaluation frameworks. Doing so can provide a deeper understanding of the return on investment of these services, especially in terms of elastic gains, such as avoiding losses.

Towards a safer and more resilient future

As the world faces increasing impacts of climate change, it is important to expand the work of digital climate information advisory services to help millions of small-scale producers adapt to the changing world. These services may bring transformational changes, but the premise is that the necessary investment must be made and no one is left behind.

We urge policy makers, investors, and agricultural information service providers to work with us to recognize and apply the above principles to increase the ambition and impact of digital climate information consulting services. With these principles, we can get closer to a food-secure and resilient future.