Mitigation potential of the MICCA Programme Pilot Project: Enhancing agricultural mitigation within the CARE International Hillside Conservation Agriculture Project (HICAP) in the United Republic of Tanzania (Madeleine Jönnson)

Assessing the climate change mitigation potential of the HICAPMICCA pilot project with the Ex-Ante Carbon Balance Tool (EX-ACT), EX-ACT Consultant, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Policy Assistance Support Service (TCSP), Mitigation of Climate Change in Agriculture (MICCA) Programme, Background Report 5, FAO, Rome, 2012. Abstract: The United Republic of Tanzania’s economy relies on the climate, with a large proportion of its gross domestic product (GDP) derived from climate-sensitive activities, including agriculture. About 80 percent of the country’s population is heavily reliant on rain-fed agriculture (including livestock and bee-keeping), which accounts for almost 50 percent of the GDP. Current climate variability, including extreme events such as droughts and floods, already results in major economic costs in the country. Regularly occurring extreme events have caused economic losses in excess of 1 percent of annual GDP, reducing long-term growth and affecting millions of people and livelihoods. The United Republic of Tanzania is not adequately adapted to the current climate. The country has a large existing adaptation deficit, which requires urgent action. The main goal of FAO’s Mitigation of Climate Change in Agriculture (MICCA) Programme is to facilitate the contribution of developing countries to climate change mitigation by supporting them in moving toward low-emission agriculture. Operating in the Uluguru mountains of the United Republic of Tanzania, CARE International’s Hillside Conservation Agriculture Project (HICAP), was launched in 2009 to enhance the livelihoods of smallholder farmers by promoting the adoption of conservation agriculture and developing institutional support systems for improving food security and conserving natural resources. In 2011, the MICCA Programme joined forces with the HICAP to investigate the mitigation potential of climate-smart agricultural practices by using suitable methodologies to measure greenhouse gas fluxes. The objectives of the study are to quantitatively estimate the greenhouse gas emissions of a reference or baseline scenario (HICAP without the intervention of the HICAP-MICCA pilot project) versus the emissions resulting from the MICCA Programme’s contribution to HICAP (adding climate-smart agricultural activities to the ongoing HICAP activities).

Copyright: FAO, Rome.

The project is limited to farmers that live in the 15 sites (or villages) covered by HICAP.

Weblink: http://www.fao.org/climatechange/34247-0ebbbf2bf22a98519e7db27b8ef303b28.pdf

Created Date: 21-10-2015
Last Updated Date: 30-11-2015
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