East African examines 10-year research program to address agriculture, food security, climate change in rural areas

The East African examines the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) program, a 10-year research collaboration between the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) and the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) that aims to help rural communities address these issues (Butunyi, 5/24).

The program will focus on aiding Asia's Indo-Gangetic Plains, Western and Eastern Africa, according to a CCAFS press release (.pdf). Researchers will focus on understanding and developing new tools to forecast climate changes, which will be used to examine how to mitigate the effects of climate change (undated). Thomas Roswall, chair of the CCAFS steering committee, said the program aims to figure out a strategy for dealing with climate change to ensure food security in the future and improve environmental management among other goals, the East African writes. Roswall said research will also be used to inform agricultural development.

The program aims to make climate change issues a part of future regional and international agricultural development approaches, according to Bruce Campbell, director of CCAFS. "We want to ensure that agriculture is included in climate change debates at all levels," Campbell said at the CCAFS launch conference in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 4. According to the newspaper, CCAFS has not yet identified the individual countries that will be the focus of research efforts. Campbell also said the regional focus will be expanded to include two additional regions by 2011 and three more regions during the following year (5/24).