Regenerating Degraded Agricultural Ecosystems
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/34603
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Item Climate smartness of GIZ soil protection and rehabilitation technologies in Maharashtra, India: Rapid assessment report(Report, 2017) Birnholz, Celine A.; Sommer, Rolf; Koge, Jessica; Braslow, Juliet; Chandrappagari, SuvarnaItem Climate smartness of GIZ soil protection and rehabilitation technologies in Western Kenya: Rapid assessment report(Report, 2017) Birnholz, Celine A.; Sommer, Rolf; Braslow, Juliet; Koge, Jessica; Notenbaert, An Maria Omer; Paul, Birthe K.Item Climate smartness of GIZ soil protection and rehabilitation technologies in Ethiopia: Rapid assessment report(Report, 2017) Birnholz, Celine A.; Koge, Jessica; Snyder, Katherine A.; Notenbaert, An Maria Omer; Braslow, Juliet; Gurmessa, Biyensa Dubiwak; Sommer, Rolf; Paul, Birthe K.Item Big win: Improving grasslands(Brief, 2016-11) International Center for Tropical AgricultureThe total number of livestock worldwide is estimated at 17 billion. Around two thirds - 5 billion hectares - of the world’s total agricultural area is used to feed these animals, including 3.4 billion hectares of grazing land. Much of this land has been severely degraded by overgrazing and unsustainable production.Item Big win: Protecting Wetland and Peatland Ecosystems(Brief, 2016-11) International Center for Tropical AgricultureWetlands and peatlands are key ecosystems containing approximately 20% of global soil organic carbon stocks. Peat swamp forests have sequestered carbon for millennia, storing a globally significant reservoir below ground.Item Big win: Soil Organic Carbon: absorbing carbon back into the soil(Brief, 2016-11) International Center for Tropical AgricultureCarbon sequestration by soils can mitigate climate change; the stock of carbon in the soil is twice that in the atmosphere. Small changes in soil carbon can have a big impact on atmospheric carbon - according to recent analysis by scientists at CIAT and The Nature ConservancyItem Big win: Trees on agricultural land sink four times more carbon(Brief, 2016) International Center for Tropical AgricultureRecent studies show that carbon sequestered by trees on agricultural land is not well accounted for. If it was, researchers argue in a new study: “Global Tree Cover and Biomass Carbon on Agricultural Land: The contribution of agroforestry to global and national carbon budgets,” total carbon estimates from agricultural land could be more than four times higher.Item The Volta River Basin Water for food, economic growth and environment(Book, 2016) Kizito, Fred; Balana, Bedru B.Item Estimating shallow groundwater availability in small catchments using streamflow recession and instream flow requirements of rivers in South Africa(Journal Article, 2016-10) Ebrahim, Girma Yimer; Villholth, Karen G.Groundwater is an important resource for multiple uses in South Africa. Hence, setting limits to its sustainable abstraction while assuring basic human needs is required. Due to prevalent data scarcity related to groundwater replenishment, which is the traditional basis for estimating groundwater availability, the present article presents a novel method for determining allocatable groundwater in quaternary (fourth-order) catchments through information on streamflow. Using established methodologies for assessing baseflow, recession flow, and instream ecological flow requirement, the methodology develops a combined stepwise methodology to determine annual available groundwater storage volume using linear reservoir theory, essentially linking low flows proportionally to upstream groundwater storages. The approach was trialled for twenty-one perennial and relatively undisturbed catchments with long-term and reliable streamflow records. Using the Desktop Reserve Model, instream flow requirements necessary to meet the present ecological state of the streams were determined, and baseflows in excess of these flows were converted into a conservative estimates of allocatable groundwater storages on an annual basis. Results show that groundwater development potential exists in fourteen of the catchments, with upper limits to allocatable groundwater volumes (including present uses) ranging from 0.02 to 3.54 × 106 m3 a-1 (0.10–11.83 mm a-1) per catchment. With a secured availability of these volume 75% of the years, variability between years is assumed to be manageable. A significant (R2 = 0.88) correlation between baseflow index and the drainage time scale for the catchments underscores the physical basis of the methodology and also enables the reduction of the procedure by one step, omitting recession flow analysis. The method serves as an important complementary tool for the assessment of the groundwater part of the Reserve and the Groundwater Resource Directed Measures in South Africa and could be adapted and applied elsewhere.Item Mitigating Land Degradation and Improving Livelihoods: An Integrated Watershed Approach(Book, 2015) Ziadat, Feras M.; Bayu, WondimuItem Reducing emissions from agriculture to meet the 2°C target(Journal Article, 2016-12) Wollenberg, Eva Karoline; Richards, Meryl B.; Smith, Pete; Havlík, Petr; Obersteiner, Michael; Tubiello, F.N.; Herold, Martin; Gerber, Pierre J.; Carter, S.; Reisinger, Andy; Vuuren, Detlef P. van; Dickie, A; Neufeldt, Henry; Sander, Björn Ole; Wassmann, Reiner; Sommer, Rolf; Amonette, JE; Falcucci, A.; Herrero, Mario; Opio, C.; Román Cuesta, Rosa María; Stehfest, Elke; Westhoek, H.J.; Ortíz Monasterio, Jose Iván; Sapkota, Tek Bahadur; Rufino, Mariana C.; Thornton, Philip K.; Verchot, Louis V.; West, Paul C.; Soussana, J.F.; Baedeker, Tobias; Sadler, M; Vermeulen, Sonja J.; Campbell, Bruce M.More than 100 countries pledged to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Richards et al., 2015a) in the 2015 Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Yet technical information about how much mitigation is needed in the sector versus how much is feasible remains poor. We identify a preliminary global target for reducing emissions from agriculture of ~1 GtCO2e/yr by 2030 to limit warming in 2100 to 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Yet plausible agricultural development pathways with mitigation co-benefits deliver only 21 to 40% of needed mitigation. The target indicates that more transformative technical and policy options will be needed, such as methane inhibitors and finance for new practices. A more comprehensive target for the 2°C limit should be developed to include soil carbon and agriculture-related mitigation options. Excluding agricultural emissions from mitigation targets and plans will increase the cost of mitigation in other sectors or reduce the feasibility of meeting the 2°C limit.Item Relating quantitative soil structure metrics to saturated hydraulic conductivity(Journal Article, 2016) Eck, D. V.; Qin, Mingming; Daniel, R. Hirmas; Daniel, Giménez; Brunsell, Nathaniel A.Item Cross CRP Study: Asset portfolios of men and women in northern Nicaragua(Presentation, 2015-06-08) Pyburn, RhiannonItem Evaluating Land Management Options (ELMO): a participatory tool for assessing farmers’ sustainable land management decision preferences and trade-offs(Manual, 2015-10) Emerton, Lucy; Snyder, Katherine A.; Cordingley, Justine E.This document provides guidance on applying the ELMO tool. It is primarily targeted at researchers seeking to collect information about the social and economic drivers of land use decisions, and wishing to investigate farmers’ sustainable land management preferences and trade-offs. As illustrated on the facing page, ELMO is organised around three basic questions, and entails 10 steps. Although these steps follow a logical, iterative process, it should be emphasised that the tool can be modified and adapted to the specific needs and context within which it is being applied. It is not always necessary to apply each and every step.Item Soil organic matter: the bridge between UNCCD and UNFCCC(Presentation, 2015-10-20) Bossio, Deborah A.Item Effects of land use and insecticides on natural enemies of aphids in cotton: First evidence from smallholder agriculture in the North China Plain(Journal Article, 2014-01) Ke Zhou; Jikun Huang; Xiangzheng Deng; Werf, A.W. van der; Wei Zhang; Yanhui Lu; Kongming Wu; Feng WuStudies conducted in the USA and Europe have shown that diverse landscapes in general support greater natural enemy abundance. No quantitative evidence on the relationship between land use diversity and natural enemies has been reported from developing countries, where fields and farms are much smaller than in modernized agriculture in the west, and where insecticide use is often high and indiscriminate. This paper examines the effects of land use and farmers’ insecticide application on natural enemies of aphids in cotton production, based on a unique dataset that links household and cotton field surveys to a detailed assessment of land uses in the landscapes surrounding the cotton fields in the North China Plain (NCP), a major grain and cotton production region in China. Our results show that, in the NCP where farms are small and landscape is dominated by a few crops, Shannon or Simpson land use diversity index is not a good indicator for explaining the relationship between land use and densities of aphid natural enemies. Instead, the types and proportions of cropland habitat mattered. Landscapes with more maize and grassland have higher ladybeetle populations in cotton fields. Farmers’ pest management practices such as the amount and timing of insecticide use significantly affect ladybeetle densities. These results imply that there is a need to recognize the potential positive role of cropland use in pest management and call for more judicious insecticide use strategies by smallholder farmers in the North China Plain.Item Shamba Shape-Up. Episode four: Kisii, Kenya (Swahili)(Video, 2015) MediaeWith the support of CGIAR Research Programs Water Land and Ecosystems (WLE) and Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), CIAT sponsored five episodes of Kenya’s popular make-over TV series, Shamba Shape-Up, to advise farmers how to protect their soils.Item Shamba Shape-Up. Episode four: Kisii, Kenya (English)(Video, 2015) MediaeWith the support of CGIAR Research Programs Water Land and Ecosystems (WLE) and Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), CIAT sponsored five episodes of Kenya’s popular make-over TV series, Shamba Shape-Up, to advise farmers how to protect their soils.Item Bringing soils back to life: a conversation with Deborah Bossio(Audio, 2015) CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and EcosystemsOn this episode of Thrive podcast, we sit down with of Dr. Deborah Bossio, the Area Director of Soils Research at the CGIAR International Center for Tropical Agriculture. Bossio has spent the last 20 years working at the nexus between soil and social sciences. Based in Kenya, she jointly leads two programs within the WLE network. One works on regenerating degraded ecosystems, the other on ecosystems services and resilience, a core theme in WLE.Item Shamba Shape-Up. Episode three: Homabay, Kenya (Swahili)(Video, 2015) MediaeWith the support of CGIAR Research Programs Water Land and Ecosystems (WLE) and Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), CIAT sponsored five episodes of Kenya’s popular make-over TV series, Shamba Shape-Up, to advise farmers how to protect their soils.