Powering dry areas by empowering food security under the context of climate change

LEAP4FNSSSA ● Kick Off Meeting ● 1st General Assembly
1st Steering Committee ● January 30th - February 1st 2019
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LEAP4FNSSA “North Africa Event” Cairo, Egypt, October 28th, 2019
Panel 1: Thematic priorities and topics to enhance an AU-EU Funders Alliances
and a North Africa Chapter on research and innovation on FNSSA
Powering dry areas
by empowering food security
under the context of climate change
Prof. Elies HAMZA
Agricultural Research and High Education Institution (IRESA)
Tunisia

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Presentation plan
1. Outline and context
2. Critical factors
3. Most pressing related thematic priority
4. Key actors
5. Achievable goals
6. Take home messages

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Food security is a very big concern having serious implications on:
• Socio-economic development, environmental management,
small farming under rain-fed conditions
“source of life of the majority of poors “
1. Outlook & context
Three interacting factors influencing food challenges:
• Extreme poverty in rural areas associated with serious impacts
(migration, etc.)
• Environmental degradation
• Climate variability & change
Linkage between food, climate change & resilience

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Tunisian Context
• Agricultural production, livestock farming and fishing cover a large part of
the nutritional needs of the population
• The effects of climate change are leading to a high risk of a decline in
agricultural production, as well as a deterioration in national food security
as the population increases further by 10% by 2030.
• The predictions presented in 2007 showed that by 2050: temperatures
could increase by 1.8°C, precipitation could decrease by 10% and even
more
• These trends would result in significant impacts on the country's strategic
agricultural production such as cereals, olive growing, extensive livestock
farming and fishing and would further undermine national food security.
• The agricultural sector has been listed as a national adaptation priority
• Food security is an important part of the National Adaptation Plan process

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Natural ressources
protection
 Climate change
adaptation
 Sustainable & resilient
agriculture
 Food & nutrition
Security
Boosting the profitability of
Agriculture?
Vulnerability
& low efficiency of production
systems
Taking actions:

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Food security in Tunisia:
Several factors can affect Stability, among which:
• Irregularity of national harvests
• Volatility of prices of imported products on
international markets and their high level since
2008
• Instability of food export prices (olive oil, fruit)
The climate change leads to tensions, on national and
international markets ...

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Tunisian Adaptation Strategy
• Since 2007, Tunisia has been striving to develop a national
agriculture strategy for climate change.
• Facing strong challenge in governance and effective integration
of adaptation into agricultural policies and farmers' practices.
• Necessity to assess the effects of climate change on agricultural
production and food security and to propose adaptation options
to promote more climate-resilient agriculture that can enhance
national food security.
• To Provide an accurate, quantified, spatialized and shared
assessment of the vulnerability of the agricultural sector in
Tunisia.

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2. Critical factors ( for success/limitations )
• For success: Participatory, interdisciplinary and holistic approaches,
strong relationship between research-development and extension,
appropriate funding, commitment of farmers’ representations
• Limitations: Low funding of agricultural research and extension
3. Most pressing related thematic priorities
• Enhancing sustainable water productivity
• Germplasm conservation and crop Improvement
• Managing salinity to enhance food security
• Integrated livestock-based production systems
• Policies, strategies and initiatives to cope with climate change and to
fight desertification

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4. Key actors
• NARS, development and extension organizations, farmers,
international centers (e.g. CGIAR centres, CIHEAM, ICBA, etc.)
5. Achievable goals
• Conserve and optimize water productivity
• Creation of improved varieties of field crops that have high yield
potentials and that are tolerant to biotic and abiotic stresses
• Developing seed systems
• Reducing yield gaps (plants and livestock)
• Controlling salinity (water desalinization)
• Living with salts (use of halophytes, salt-tolerant crops, etc.)
• Develop technical, institutional, policies options for the integration of
marginal waters (saline water, treated used water)

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5. Achievable goals
• Assessment of climate vulnerability factors and identification
of options
• Quantification of CC impacts on productivity and adaptation
areas of the main crops and agrosystems
• Exchange at regional level of available technologies and
approaches that are ready for scaling up to enhance food
security and improve livelihoods in the dry areas

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6. In conclusion some Take home messages
 Farmers and producers are challenged to produce more with less
inputs mainly water
 Research-development and extension should collaborate to
disseminate at large scale the available technologies that could bridge
the production gaps
 Prospective research to come up with scenarios of agriculture
development under the context of emerging challenges (population
growth, degradation of natural resources, climate change and
variability
 The dry countries should work together to reach food and nutrition
security

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Thank you

Powering dry areas by empowering food security under the context of climate change

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Powering dry areas by empowering food security under the context of climate change