|
September 19, 2007
Climate change and
desertification put one billion poor people at risk
There are one billion poor people in the world who are
vulnerable to climate change, desertification, land degradation,
loss of biodiversity, water scarcity and shortage of fossil
fuels. India alone accounts for 25.93% of this population and
China 16.66%. The remaining part of Asia and Pacific accounts
for 18.30%. In short, Asia is a hub where the poor,
undernourished and the vulnerable live. This is followed by
sub-Saharan Africa , which accounts for 23.94% of the one
billion.
The other parts of the world are not far behind, with Latin
America and the Caribbean accounting for 6.22% and the North
East and North Africa 4.57%.
According to Dr William Dar, Director General of the
International Crops Research
Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the Chair
of the Committee for Science and Technology of the United
Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the poor
can be made less vulnerable with greater science and
knowledge-based interventions, and more importantly significant
donor support from the developed and developing countries to
support this research.
“Business as usual will not help us meet the Millennium
Development Goals and much more the goal of reducing poverty by
half by 2015,” Dr Dar said.
Many parts of the world are already showing signs of physical
water scarcity – India , eastern Australia, Pakistan, China,
Central Asia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, North Africa, parts of
southern Africa, southern USA and northern Mexico. With greater
demands from other sectors, the water availability for
agriculture is getting limited.
“The nexus of climate change and desertification, combined with
land degradation, biodiversity loss, water shortage and fossil
fuel shortage, will make it even more riskier for the farmers to
farm in the drylands of the world. They will find it more
difficult to invest in farming, and there could be more diseases
and death” said Dr Dar.
ICRISAT believes that unless the livelihoods and resource base
of such vulnerable rural communities can be made more resilient,
coping with climate change and desertification may be next to
impossible for poor dryland farming communities. Working over
decades with poor farmers in the drylands of Asia and
sub-Saharan Africa , ICRISAT's research shows that a combined
effort to deal with current climate uncertainty, land
degradation and water scarcity is the only way by which the
resilience of these communities can be brought about.
ICRISAT's research is achieving this through improved climate
variability analysis, projects to overcome land degradation and
water scarcity, use of improved crop management options,
improved crop breeding, and a pro-poor BioPower strategy.
With improved tools becoming available in studying climate
uncertainty, it has now become possible for decision-makers and
investors to formulate a development agenda integrating short-,
medium- and long-term timeframes. ICRISAT's integrated climate
risk assessment and management framework enables investors
(governments, donors, researchers or farmers) to understand
better the risks and opportunities and get greater returns from
more diversified and targeted investments.
Land degradation, which is a persistent problem in the drylands
of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa , can be further worsened by
climate change and desertification. ICRISAT has been working
with partners for years on combating land degradation in Asia
and sub-Saharan Africa .
ICRISAT has been working on programs such as the Desert Margins
Program, fertilizer microdosing and Drylands Eco-Farm to help
fight land degradation in the sub-Saharan Africa . These
projects diversify the basket of crops and livestock systems,
and provide appropriate dosage of fertilizers to crops, to
strengthen the resilience of the agro-ecosystems.
In Asia , ICRISAT's watershed development program overcomes both
land degradation and water scarcity through judicious soil and
management practices. This when supported by improved agronomic
practices and integration with livestock systems, it enables the
farmers to overcome the immediate problems of climate
uncertainty and desertification.
Based on our work in the drylands we have proved that farmers
can increase their productivity four-fold and profits
three-fold, using improved management options including use of
water efficient crops. There is also high carbon sequestration
as a result of improving dryland systems with technologies.
All these activities are strengthened with ICRISAT's crop
improvement research through which scientists continuously work
to breed crop varieties and hybrids that are more drought, pest
and disease tolerant. These new varieties strengthen the hands
of farmers to deal with climate change and desertification.
ICRISAT released the world's first pigeonpea hybrids
based on the cytoplasmic male sterility system. The hybrids
developed at ICRISAT have shown 30 to 150% yield advantage. The
hybrids also produce 30-40% more root mass that makes them more
drought resistant. The adoption of hybrid technology has been
rapid. The yield advantages of hybrids and the ease in their
seed production have convinced the seed producers and at present
22 private and 3 public seed companies have adopted the
technology. In 2007, a total of 250,000 kg of hybrid seed is
being produced. This will bring about 50,000 ha land under
hybrid cultivation.
Using the molecular-marker assisted selection and breeding
method ICRISAT developed the HHB 67-2 pearl millet hybrid,
which can withstand downy mildew disease, which devastates pearl
millet crops in the Northern Indian states of Haryana and
Rajasthan.
When there is no natural resistance in crops to pests or
diseases, ICRISAT has been developing transgenic crops with
genes for resistance from outside the crops gene pool. Under
contained field trials are ICRISAT-bred transgenic groundnut
for resistance to the Indian Peanut Clump Virus, transgenic
pigeonpea and transgenic chickpea with resistance to
Helicoverpa armigera.
With the skyrocketing of fossil fuel prices, ICRISAT has
initiated a pro-poor BioPower strategy. Through this BioPower
strategy ICRISAT works on generating biodiesel from jatropha and
pongamia in the wastelands of the villages. ICRISAT and GTZ have
has also initiated a public-private partnership with Southern
Online Biotech and farmers.
ICRISAT scientists bred sweet sorghum varieties and
hybrids that have higher sugar content in the juice in their
stalks. Through the Agri-Business Incubator ICRISAT partnered
with Rusni Distilleries who established a distillery to convert
sweet sorghum juice to ethanol. In June 2007 the plant produced
world's first ethanol from sweet sorghum. The beauty of
ICRISAT-bred sweet sorghum is that while farmers get additional
income from the juice in the stalk, they still continue to get
the sorghum grains.
ICRISAT's package empowers the farmers to meet the present day
uncertainties, so that they can meet the future climate change
and also reverse desertification as it happens. |
|
