Climate Risk Management for agriculture: Research and Tools
AGRICORA
Call for projects
Deadline
January 31, 2016
Applications to be sent to
agricora@ird.fr
samia.zararai-ovalle@ird.fr
1.
Background, objectives and program presentation
The future of West Africa, its economic stability, political and social depend on the capacity of
the agriculture sector to ensure food security in the multiple pressures such as climate
change and population growth. To support this challenge, research has made significant
efforts in recent years by improving knowledge on understanding climate change in West
Africa, its impacts on agro-pastoral systems and the adaptation strategies that reduce
climate risks to facilitate investment and innovation in the agricultural sector. Part of this effort
has
been
done
through
scientific
partnership
and
broad
research
networks in Africa, supported
by
the French Ministry
of Foreign Affairs and International Development (MAEDI).
Research programs accumulated evidence of the risk posed by climatic hazards on
agricultural production, the acute awareness of this risk by producers and new opportunities
for technical adaptation. However this research progress is rarely used in planning and
decision making to reduce this risk.
Thus, the MAEDI is supporting a project of Priority Solidarity Fund FSP AGRICORA (DEF)
for a period of three years and under the coordination of IRD.
The main objective of FSP AGRICORA is to contribute to the development of effective tools
for climate risk management in co-constructing innovative strategies based on the research
results with networks of researchers and stakeholders directly involved in agriculture
activities. To do this, (i) it will mobilize partnership research actions to produce knowledge
and effective tools to better document and if possible reduce uncertainty in decision making
and (ii) it will strengthen research capacity and expertise of the recipient countries.
FSP AGRICORA will be implemented through research and knowledge valorization projects
selected through a call for proposals. These projects will produce significant progress on
three thematic priorities:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
climate services for agriculture,
ecological intensification,
water resources for agriculture.
They will build on existing partnerships between French and African researchers and will
promote a regional approach involving stakeholders in the production of applied knowledge.
The ambition is to enable agricultural stakeholders (farmers' organizations, industries,
agricultural private sector, Agricultural Development Bank, input suppliers, agricultural and
meteorological services) to appropriate new knowledge and new tools for better integration of
climate risks in the management of agricultural production systems.
2.
Objective of the call
To address these issues, IRD launched a call for projects
fund three projects integrating each of the two components below :
to
identify
and
-
Component 1 "Partnership and interdisciplinary research" : Research actions will
associate North and South research partners with local actors of agriculture. They will
aim at mobilizing, producing and transferring knowledge to meet the challenges
of climate risk management. The total amount dedicated to this component is 420,000 €.
-
Component 2 "Valorization of research and capacity building" : Actions of
promoting knowledge exchange through networks of actors directly involved in supporting
agriculture (technical assistance, private sector, NGOs, community associations of
women). This includes the dissemination of knowledge produced by the component 1 but
also knowledge from existing initiatives conducted by local actors to strengthen their
resilience and extend these practices and their use on a larger scale. These networks will
aim to create references, to share knowledge, to develop and to support the
implementation of operational knowledge. The total amount dedicated to this component
is 270,000 €.
3.
Research Areas
The call for proposals includes three themes each targeting different tools of climate risk
management for family farming. One project per theme will be selected.
3 .1 climate services for agriculture
Climate risk management is an emerging discipline based on the use of climate information
in planning and decision making to not only protect producers in case of adverse weather
hazards but also to create opportunities in case of favorable weather conditions.
Among the many climate risk management tools, early warning systems based on satellite
imaging, weather and climate forecasting and index insurances are particularly suited in the
agricultural sector. However, even if there is a large literature and numerous pilot studies on
these tools, their added value has rarely been demonstrated and their potential for the
agricultural sector is to date far from being realized.
This axis will develop services and products from meteorological and hydrological research
and / or economic area (index-based insurance, price forecasts in the market) with high
potential of added value for development, adaptation and decision support in the agriculture
sector.
In evaluating the performance of existing weather and seasonal forecasts (monitoring
systems, forecasts and warning of seasonal and intra-seasonal characters of the coming
rainy season) and examining how they can be integrated in decision-making in different
agricultural production systems (timing cycles and crops, better water efficiency and input
contributions for example), this project will improve the potential of weather forecasts in West
Africa where agriculture is subject to a very high rainfall variability. One of the obstacles to
the operational use of such tools is uncertainty. Developing early warning systems
with confidence indices and accompanying their integration into the process of decision
making is an important point to ensure the actual use of this information.
In addition, it will be necessary to develop innovative tools including satellite imagery and / or
weather prediction and forecasting yields in early warning systems. Get real benefits for
farmers also needs to take into account their needs, their practices and how they manage
agricultural risks (including climate) and make decisions to address them. This
understanding
of
current
practices is a
prerequisite
for the
design
of
appropriate and effective tools and methods and targeted communication with rural
stakeholders so that climate information can be used for decision support. Thus it will be
necessary in the formulation of the project to identify and engage strategic stakeholders and
decision makers of the rural world on many levels to establish a
true targeted research partnership and trust between farmers and proposed solutions. This
axis will also focus on dissemination of tools of climate information such as mobile phones
for the dissemination of meteorological hazards. In addition, knowing that economic issues
and commercialization are important for decision making in agricultural systems, it would be
interesting to combine this information with climate forecasts market prices.
This axis may cover food crops (millet, sorghum, maize, rice) and / or cash crops
(groundnuts, cocoa, cowpeas, cotton) that are essential for food security and the economy
of the West African sub-region. It will conduct case studies on several locations within the
same country and / or more countries whose choice will be motivated by the demand
of agricultural stakeholders, access to agricultural and meteorological data, and a contrast in
conditions socio-economic, environmental and political selected countries to allow
consideration of upscaling of project results at large scale in West Africa. These climate risk
management tools could be implemented on operational platforms in the component 2.
3 .2 Ecological intensification of family farming in West Africa; Which transitions to a
climate smart agriculture?
Agricultural systems, especially those of least developed countries face new challenges: to
produce more to feed a growing population, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, to adapt to
climate change and its variability but also to mitigate its contribution to emissions of
greenhouse gases (the three pillars of Climate Smart Agriculture). These issues lead to a
necessary adaptation for all agricultural systems whose diversity is proven. Among the
pathways that can lead to such a transition, a better mobilization of ecological processes is
the focus of research and development activities. This is primarily to increase production and
improve
its
stability
despite
other
changes, allowing farmers to
improve
their nutrition and generate income. It is also necessary to increase the other
performances of agricultural systems, in particular by reducing their negative environmental
externalities and increase resource use efficiency. This transition should contribute to reduce
or to substitute chemical inputs and transformation of environments by techniques / practices
that
instead
valorize
the biodiversity and positive
ecological
processes
within
cultivated systems. In this approach, the specificity of local contexts in their biophysical,
climatic and socio-economic or cultural dimensions, is a major element to be considered.
This
axis aims
to better
characterize,
valorize
and
use
this
diversity
(usable resources, biodiversity, production contexts, local practices). System performance
should thus be evaluated through their ability to better use natural resources such as solar
energy,
major
nutrients
(nitrogen
-N-,
-Pphosphorus)
and
water
resources. Thus they must promote facilitation processes between plant species for access
to nutrients (eg inorganic P), the use of species that do not compete but instead have access
to different nutrients tanks (nitrogen fixing, not fixers for example, surface water, deep water)
and / or associating crops and livestock allowing nutrient transfer (crop residues, manure).
Similarly, this approach requires consideration of articulated spatial scales of the plot, the
cultivated system or the entire agro-ecosystem to better explore a wide range of available
resources at these different scales. The continuum of land / farm / landscape is therefore of
major interest.
This adaptive transition goal requires a multidisciplinary approach between biophysical and
social sciences of agriculture. Prospective work may be conducted on the feasibility of such
alternatives
and
such
a transition, for
example by reasoning on climate change scenarios, the
economic
environment
of
agriculture, agricultural policies under the effect of demography, and global demand. The
prospective nature of this work led to methods based on models in the broadest sense,
whether mathematical models as role play games or any other favorable approach to the
representation of multiple points view on complex problems. We will ensure the involvement
of stakeholders in the validation of models and the discussion of their assumptions and
results.
The project should cover the agricultural systems where the potential interactions between
intensification and climate risks are greatest. These agriculture systems of Sahelian SudanoSahelian regions are based on the polyculture of annual crops (millet, sorghum, maize, rice,
groundnuts, cowpeas, cotton) associated with multi-species more or less extensive farms
(small ruminants fattening, extensive cattle) and / or associated with perennial crops in
agroforestry systems based tree or shrub.
Similar to the previous axis 3 .1, the project will conduct case studies on several sites and /
or countries whose choice will be motivated by their complementarity in terms of climate risk
or local pressure in terms of socio-economic, environmental and political conditions. For
instance, comparisons between performing agricultural systems but with high levels of inputs
such as cotton belt and efficient agricultural systems without inputs use (flood recession
crops, zai, and associated crops) could be undertaken. The availability of data and relevant
models will be considered. The types of adaptation pathways could be highly
dependent on local conditions.
3 .3 water resources for agriculture
All farming systems seek to fully satisfy the water needs for all of their activities (cropping,
livestock). Faced with low water resources, erratic rainfall and climate change, they develop
(or will develop) a set of techniques to adapt and to make better use of this resource. One
can speak of an engineering based on empirical knowledge which can occur at various
levels of the agro-ecosystem to adapt to changing environments and conditions or
resources or even extreme.
The scales at which adaptation to hydroclimatic risk applies are multiple: community
practices and land
development (including
watersheds),
the
local
landscape management, organization of land use, organization and management of the
exploitation, permanent improvements of land, crop management (timing cycles, soil crop
residues and crop residues management) or plant material choices. These choices at each
level can affect the distribution of water and consequently the available resource or modify
the efficiency of the use of this resource.
This axis aims to tackle different interdisciplinary research issues :
A first challenge is to identify existing and past technologies and strategies related
to hydroclimatic risk control in the context of the evolution of natural and socio-economic on
the one hand, and of the objectives of actors, individual or group that introduce the other.
A second challenge is to take a look at the efficiency of these strategies, either through
improving the available resource (reduction of losses), either through better utilization of this
available resources (improving productive efficiency). A quantitative approach of water flows
through the whole agro-ecosystem and their modifications by all adaptation practices will be
performed to better understand the effects on the available resource and its final valorization
for agriculture. A particular attention will be given on the amount and stability of agricultural
production in this highly variable context.
A third challenge will be to analyze what are the adopted techniques by different actors,
regions and climate risks. As human activities depend on knowledge, ideologies and
objectives, available resources and social organizations, selected practice also comes
with multiple effects to multiple dimensions (social, economic, cultural, spatial ...). A specific
research, covering a field which is that of the human and social sciences will be necessary in
the analysis of the relevance of the chosen modifications.
Finally, another research challenge is more prospective. In light of climate change and
other changes at work (demography, growth of livestock, pressure on land ...) how to adapt
the current system? Climate change and / or land use can indeed result in a different
distribution of water and available resource. This can create new opportunities and perhaps a
new form of adaptation or resilience. For example, the drastic change in the Sahel, well
documented in the literature on the 'Sahelian paradox' had the consequences to increase
ponds that created new opportunities and new challenges: market gardening and agropastoral farming activities developed around these new forms of water resources.
Another issue that could be addressed is access to groundwater and its potential
for agriculture, especially in areas where surface water is missing or heavily dependent on
rain. It would be interesting to study these dynamics but also to develop specific tools to
better localize
and
quantify
the
evolution of the
corresponding water resource. Satellite products
could
help
to
develop
this
monitoring
/
forecasting
to
approach through studies and development of tools for
better take advantage of these new types of resources and promote access to this water. In
addition, it will be important to analyze the effectiveness and sustainability of water use and
conservation techniques in a changing context : reduced runoff, improve infiltration,
development of slums ...) or storage and subsequent use (permanent irrigation or micro
basins…). These improvements in the uptake of the resource must be accompanied by a
reflection on the efficiency of use.
As with the previous, this axis will support his research on sites and / or contrasting countries
in terms of rainfall resource and potential evolution and / or contrasting risk management by
local communities. The teams will try to address the bio-physical, agronomic, economic and
social effects of adaptation systems.
4.
Component " partnership
research "
and
interdisciplinary
This component aims to support african research teams on the three themes of the call
for proposals. They must also be associated with French teams especially from the IRD
and CIRAD. It has a budget of 420,000 € (in average 140.000 € per project).
The three research projects supported by the FSP will be selected based on
their ability to respond to a common set of specifications:
Analyze climate risk and its management in agricultural production systems.
Investigation and modeling activities at the plot level, the farm level and the catchment on
representative territories of production systems will lead to a diagnosis of practices, farmers’
needs of climate risk information and possible management strategies. Place and evolution
of climate risk in dynamics and constraints (land pressure, demography, climate change,
practices transformation, changing environment, renewal issues) should be considered.
Identify and evaluate the potential for improvement to minimize climate risk
It is exploring the potential for improved risk management through climate information
(monitoring systems, information, forecasts and early warning), but also the technical
leverages which can reduce climate risk: better timing of crop cycles, better use of water,
introduction of plant biodiversity, development activities and territories or forms of production
and securing food as public policy, credit, insurance, storages. The impact of each of these
leverages or their combination should be assessed at the relevant scale of its action (plot,
farm, watershed).
5.
Component " valorization and capacity building "
Each project must include actions promoting research efforts with institutions working for
rural development (farmers' organizations, industry, agricultural private sector, Agricultural
Development Bank, input suppliers, and agricultural and meteorological services). These
actions will have a specific budget of 270,000 € or an average of 90,000 € per project.
These actions will be specified in the project proposals and reviewed by
the Scientific Council of the FSP AGRICORA. They may also be adjusted, depending on the
results. They bring together networks of actors directly involved in supporting agriculture
(technical assistance, private sector, NGOs, community associations of women,
farmers). This knowledge include results produced by component 1 but also those from
existing initiatives (or national programs) carried out by these local actors to strengthen their
resilience and extend these practices and their use on a larger scale. These networks will
aim to create references, exchange, develop, and support the implementation of operational
knowledge such guidelines and handbooks. Each project will periodically communicate
results of conducted research to institutions working for rural development (farmers'
organizations, industry, agricultural private sector, Agricultural Development Bank, input
suppliers, agricultural and meteorological services) and identify with them methods to
translate them into understandable and relevant information to farmers or to initiate collective
learning. According to the results of calls for proposals, several activities will be conducted at
the level of farming communities and territories: confrontation and discussion with institutions
and farmers' organizations, workshops and participatory modeling, grouping of different skills
and abilities, training of farmers' organizations to put them in position of actors in the
information chain to inform the farmers.
6.
Beneficiaries of the call
Direct beneficiaries
[1]
This call is open to research teams and higher education from African institutions. These
teams will need to partner with rural stakeholders (farmers' organizations,
technical services, local
authorities, decentralized
institutions services)
that may
be the direct beneficiaries.
It targets ECOWAS countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea,
Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Cape Verde).
Indirect beneficiaries
[2]
The French research teams associated with networks are indirect beneficiaries and can not
receive financial support from the program.
Other institutions such as research teams from South Africa or the Maghreb countries may
be involved as indirect beneficiaries of this call for projects. They will not benefit from
financial support from the the program.
7.
Financing projects
The total amounts of research component and capacity building component are
respectively 420,000 € and 270,000 €. Each of the selected three projects will therefore be
granted an average of 140,000 € for research activities and 90,000 € for capacity building
activities totaling an average of 230,000 € over the three years of the FSP AGRICORA
program (the actual duration of the projects will be about two and half years after completing
selection and administrative steps).
A separate budget request by component should be established for each project.
The grant is paid to South teams that are members of the selected projects.
The institutions, considered as direct beneficiaries of the program, have to use the grant for
the implementation of the project. Indirect beneficiaries can be project members but cannot
obtain financial support from the program.
Any expenses directly related to the project is likely to be supported by three types of
expenses :
-
the operating expenses in the strict sense (laboratory products, field surveys costs,
processing consumables, etc.) ;
-
costs related to partnership (coordination missions, inter-team meetings, etc.) ;
-
expenditure on equipment needed for research (up to 40% of the total project) ;
8.
Project Reviews
Three projects will be funded - one project per AGRICORA thematic axis. Projects
should involve teams from several regions of the same country and / or from several African
countries and will necessarily involve French teams from CIRAD and IRD. The selected
projects will contribute both to component 1 and component 2. The multidisciplinary of the
teams (agronomy, meteorology, economics, geography, statistics, anthropology ...) and the
diversity of climatic contexts, environmental and socioeconomic be important criteria for
project selection.
a.
Eligibility Criteria
 The project must be presented by a team whose main activity is research
and / or higher education establishment ;
 the project must be submitted by a team from an eligible country (see list attached) ;
 the project must propose actions in research component and in the valorization
component ;
 the project must involve a minimum of four teams and proposals involving teams from
several countries of the subregion are encouraged ;
 the project must involve at least one French team from CIRAD and / or IRD ;
 the teams from
Maghreb
countries,
Egypt
and
South
Africa can integrate the networks, although they do not benefit from financial support
from the program.
b.
Evaluation Criteria
Submitted proposals will be evaluated by the Scientific Committee (SC) of AGRICORA
based on the above criteria :
 relevance of the proposal in the light of the guidelines for projects (themes, call
objectives) ;
and technical potential impact of the project (including the
potential sustainability, the importance of capacity building component, potential for
transfers of results etc.) ;
 quality of the research teams and quality of the partnership,
 quality of the scientific project and teams participating in the project;
 methodology and quality of construction project ;
 quality of partnership and coordination ;
 feasability of the project ;
 quality
9.
Terms submission
The submission of projects is carried out in two stages :
Submission of a letter of intent: before 31 January 2016 (electronic format at the
following address: agricora@ird.fr and samia.zararai-ovalle@ird.fr)
The letter of intent should not exceed three pages (excluding annexes) and will consist of the
following :
 Description of the context, the state of the art and the motivations (max 1/2 page) ;
 Objectives and Strategy (1/2 page max) ;
 Methodology (max 1 page) ;
 Description of the teams, their role and their complementarity (max 1/2 page) ;
 Budget (1/2 page max) ;
 Annexes containing the CVs of participating teams ;
Letters of intent will be reviewed by the SC that will select letters of intent, which can then
become complete projects. It may, if necessary, propose changes in proposed activities or
merge the different responses to the call for projects. The list of teams selected in this step
will be communicated current February 2016 on the following web site: www.ird.fr/agricora/
The SC will then ask the selected teams to write a full project in March 2016. The full
project guidelines will be given by the SC at the time of the selection of letters of intent.
Once full projects submitted, the selection takes place in two steps :
-
evaluation and ranking by the SC to select the most relevant proposals in the light of the
call for projects ;
the project leaders of the selected projects will be invited to present their project to the
SC and the steering committee during the kick-off workshop in April 2016. The final list of
selected projects will then be decided.
10.
Eligible costs
 Travel costs of permanent and temporary staff assigned to the project. Daily
indemnities for short-duration travels and long-term exchanges must be clearly
indicated;
 Expenses for training, meetings and conferences organization ;
 Costs related to the integration of a student in a laboratory in host universities
students in mobility ;
 Publication and communication costs ;
 Management or structural costs to a maximum of 10% ;
 Laboratory costs (fluids, small materials, equipment, consumables, etc ...).
11.
Selection process and timetable
Call for projects
 Launch of the call for projects: 4 January 2016
 Submission of the letter of intent : before 31 January 2016
 Dissemination of results and call for full project: February 2016
 Submission of full projects: March 2016
 Project kick-off workshop and launch of projects: April 2016
Starting and Financing
Once the project will be selected, a notification containing the budget maximum allocated to
each team will be sent to each project leader. This notification will constitute a commitment
by IRD to pay the first installments of funding to participating teams.
The expenses will be taken into account from the date of notification, allowing, for teams to
start the activities.
The preferred funding method is direct funding to beneficiary institutions. The payments are
made in annual installments based on the proposed financing plan.You can open an account
dedicated to the project or pay financing an institutional account.
Implementation of the network and research projects
The project implementation is the responsibility of the project coordinator. Even if each
participating teams receive funding directly through their institutional affiliation, they report to
the coordinator who centralizes the technical and financial reports.
The coordinator can perform at any time of project change requests on technical and
financial aspects, for any action or any team belonging to the project of which he is
responsible. These changes are the subject of negotiations between IRD, the Scientific
Committee and the concerned teams.
Arrangements for monitoring
Each project will be followed by one or two members of the Scientific Council.
Each project will be closely monitored and financial reporting expenses should be done
before every yearly installment .
Current 2017 will be organized a mid-term review which will focus on technical and financial
aspects. From this mid-term review it will decide on the continuation, the modification or even
stopping the funding of the project.
A balance of 10% of the maximum budget will be kept until delivery of the final report. The
remaining amount paid will reimburse past spending.
Call for projects AGRICORA 1
[1] The direct beneficiaries are the teams that are eligible for financial support as described in the call for projects
[2] The indirect beneficiaries do not receive funding but may be associated with project activities