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CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND

AFRICAN AGRICULTURE GRANTEE CONVENING

24-25 February 2011

Project Name: Strengthening NARO’s Capacity to Develop Climate Change Adaptation Interventions and

Policy Recommendations that ensure their Adoption

Grantee : NARL/NARO Presenter : E. Komutunga and A. Agona

1

Brief Background of the Institution

NARL is one of the 15 Public Agricultural Research Institutes (PARIs),

established by the NAR Act (2005) under the aegis of NARO

NARL-Kawanda is mandated to carry out research in aspects of Soils

& Agro-meteorology, Biotechnology, Plant Genetic Resources, Bio-

control, Post-Harvest, Food Biosciences, Agricultural Engineering

and Appropriate technology, and Agricultural Informatics

Mission: To generate and promote agricultural technologies and

approaches that improve productivity, value addition, income, food

and nutrition security

Vision: A Centre of excellence generating and promoting appropriate

agricultural technologies

2

Your other projects/programs on climate change

adaptation

• Lack of resilience in African smallholder farming: Exploring measures to enhance the

adaptive capacity of local communities to pressures of climate change "Integrated Soil

Fertility Management and alternative crops as coping strategy for erratic weather

pattern in Tororo district, Eastern Uganda" [Kayuki C. Kaizzi] (IDRC/GoU)

• Sustainable land management research (D.N. Mubiru) GoU

• Determination of cereal crops productivity trends under changing weather patterns in

West Nile Agro-Ecological Zone (G. Iwe) GoU

• Assessment of the potential effects of climate change and identification adaptation

and mitigation strategies (A.Nakiganda) GoU

• Effects of water levels on fish breeding/nursery areas in Lake Victoria GoU

• Enhancing Food Security through Improved Seed Systems of Appropriate Varieties of

Cassava, Potato and Sweet potato Resilient to Climate Change in Eastern Africa

(BioInnovate) Sida

• Enhancing the resilience of Mid Western Zone agricultural production systems to

climate change (E. Zziwa E.) ATAAS

3

Your other projects/programs on climate change

adaptation

• Assessing the productivity and carbon sequestering potential of major land

use types GoU

• Conservation Agriculture for improved land management and livelihoods of

smallholder farmers GoU

• Identification and mapping of Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESAs) in Lake

Victoria (LVEMP II)

• Demonstration and popularization of DTM in the MWZ of Uganda (E. Zziwa)

CIMMYT

• Drought tolerant varieties being adapted at Abi Zonal Agricultural Research

Institute West Nile ( sorghum, pearl millet, cassava and ground nut, agro-

forestry activities) GoU

• Targeting gene based marker systems in Cassava “ Millennium Science

Initiative” (MSI)

• Water efficient Maize for Africa (G. Asea) AGRA

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Objectives of the Rockefeller Foundation Grant

Objective 1: Mainstream awareness and understanding of climate change

adaptation concepts throughout NARO by working with management,

researchers and implementers across the 15 units of NARO in order to

prepare NARO to be a champion for climate change adaptation

Objective 2: Deliver agro-meteorological data and analyses to customers, and to

support regional climate risk management and adaptation research

Objective 3: Capture demand of farmers and other stakeholders and translate

their needs into the development of relevant interventions in order to

increase uptake of effective climate change adaptation technologies

Objective 4: Develop and present policy recommendations that address climate

change adaptation at the organizational, local, national and regional levels in

order to facilitate the passage of policies that promote food security and well

being for the region’s population

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Key Activities Related to the Grant

Objective 1:

• Establish National Steering Committee on CC

Adaptation that reports to NARO Secretariat (Year 1)

• Strategy and a framework for developing community

of climate change adaptation champions (Year 1)

• Conduct Workshops that increase awareness and

integration of CC adaptation issues into R4D of

interventions (On-going since Year 1)

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Key Activities Related to the Grant

Objective 2:

Partnership with Makerere University to train key researchers on CC

data analysis and agro-meteorology – using train the trainer approach

(Year 1)

Training researchers and field workers on CC data analysis and agro-

meteorology (Year 1)

Documentation of available climatic data from agricultural estates,

livestock farms, NARO institutes, etc. (Year 1)

Digitization of hard copy data through outsourcing – to use these and

other data for future climate variability and change studies, e.g.,

definitive datasets (Year 1)

Revamping data collection infrastructure: newly equipped weather

observing stations at NARO institutes. (Year 1 and 2)

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Key Activities Related to the Grant

Objective 3:

Technical advisor in CC research that builds institutional capacity and a

change agents within NARO (Year 1)

Workshops with external stakeholders, such as CC agricultural experts,

policy makers etc. (Year 1)

CG fund that invests in climate change “ground-truthing” (adaptation in

action) and CC modeling and forecasting (Ongoing since Year 1)

Tested technologies that address climate change adaptation farmer

needs e.g. water harvesting and storage (Ongoing since Year 1)

Evaluation of effectiveness of adaptation technologies on productivity,

fitness for consumption i.e. taste, ease of processing; involving external

stakeholders in the process; frequency of evaluation depends on length

of growing season (Year 2)

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Key Activities Related to the Grant

Objective 4:

Technical advisor in CC policy that builds institutional capacity and is a

change agent within NARO (Year 1)

Revision of NARO’s existing policies and development documents that

incorporates CC adaptation (Year 1)

A Policy sub-group of the regional community of practice/ network that

includes additional CC adaptation policy experts from Makerere and KARI,

as well as established policy advocates, i.e. ASERECA and IFPRI (Year 1)

Recommendations for incorporating CC adaptation into Ugandan national

bills currently being written, i.e. Biotechnology and Safety and PGRFA

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Key Activities Related to the Grant

List of prioritized policy interventions (Year 1)

Memos that provide recommendations for climate change adaptation around

priority areas for intervention (Ongoing since Year 1)

Feedback forums on climate change adaptation policy recommendations

which include members or parliament (Ongoing since Year 1)

Recommendations for a comprehensive climate change adaptation strategy

for Ugandan agriculture, working within DSIP for agriculture, approved by

the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries. (Year 2)

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Highlight on the Progress to date

Progress

• National Steering Committee formed (18 members)

• Strategy of community of CC adaptation Champions in

place

• Sensitization/awareness campaigns conducted

• ToT conducted (15 technicians trained to Level II)

• 2 MSc registered at MAK

• 8 Automatic weather stations established

• New Climate Expert recruited

• 3 competitive grant projects at various implementation

stages

• Results of farmer perception disseminated in various fora

• Drafts from Policy Expert available

• Climate data digitized

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Early Findings (optional)

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Early Findings (optional)

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1Num

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Years in Record

Tmax historical record in Uganda 1953-2001

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Early Findings (optional)

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Num

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of sta

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Years in Record

Tmin of Uganda

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Early Findings (optional)

No of days when daily max temp is greater than 25oC at Mbarara south western Uganda

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Early Findings (optional)

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Key Challenges

• Sustainability of current initiative after project expiry • Coverage weather stations limited to 8 instead of 15 to

cover all AEZ • Conflict of interest between Meteorology Dept and NARO

in popularizing/disseminating climate data • Climate data gaps • Non-cohesion between partners • Recommendation for experts to source other funding too

ambitious • Time lost in recruitment of Climate Change Expert

advisor

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Lessons Learnt

• Research activities requires a number of replications in various

AEZs to yield conclusive results on CC adaptation

• Climate change research requires long term funding

commitment to sustain activities

• Multi-sectoral approach is key sustainable CC adaptation and

mitigation

• A consortium of partners working in tandem is paramount to

achieving long lasting results

• Establishment of “One-stop-adaptation villages” enhance rapid

adoption of CC technologies

• Integration of ITK with modern technologies encourages greater

community involvement

• Most actors on CC adaptation and mitigation are mainly

involved in advocacy/policy issues other technology generation

• CC issues are not well-mainstreamed in most of the existing

policy

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Emerging Opportunities for Collaboration

• Mentoring of institution with similar agenda within the Network

and beyond

• Collection and dissemination of climate in collaboration with

MTN

• Integration of locally generated climate data with advance

global modelling systems for e.g. forecasting yields, pestilence

and disease outbreaks

• Scaling up/ rolling out CC adaptation technologies, knowledge

and/or information

• Implementation of developed strategies e.g. CC Champions,

communication, capacity building etc.

• Policy dialogues at all levels

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Next steps

• Finalising current activities

• Sourcing for further funding

• Forging of partnerships

• Mentoring other institutions on invitation