Tiempo Climate Newswatch

A bottom-up approach to making agricultural research for development more effective, labelled AR4D, has been endorsed at a landmark global conference on the topic held in Montpellier, France. A report on the new approach, based on consultations with 2000 experts, was presented at the meeting. The aim of AR4D is sustainable intensification, to achieve sustainable food and income security for all food producers and consumers, especially the poor, using the same resources of land, labour and water that are available currently, but within the constraints of climate change and an expanding population.

AR4D differs from traditional approaches where scientists are distant from the process being researched or developed. AR4D research needs to happen where it will be used, such as in national research institutions, the report concludes. "The focus is on developing technology and adapting it to the local conditions," said lead author Uma Lele. The bottom-up approach must involve the poor and disenfranchised, using a combination of farmers' traditional knowledge and practices, conventional technologies and modern biotechnology. "The conference has enabled all constituents to have a voice, and those voices will be included in the future of agricultural research to help us face the problems we have," said Adel El-Beltagy, chair of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research. The Montpellier Road Map, presented at the close of the conference, will provide a framework for linking science and innovation to the needs of farmers and the rural poor. The proposal for eight mega-programmes to transform research has, however, attracted criticism.

A draft accord on global biodiversity has been finalized at a United Nations meeting in Cali, Colombia. The agreement covers access to the Earth’s genetic resources and the fair and equitable share in benefits from their use, a major objective of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

"Cali marks a major breakthrough to fully implement the Convention on Biological Diversity. 18 years after the Earth Summit we have opened the opportunity for the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits provided by the biodiversity of our one planet," said Jochen Flasbarth from the CBD Bureau. "Novel" styles of negotiation that facilitated open, inclusive and flexible representation of views by Parties, governments and their partners were used to reach agreement, according to the conference organizers. It is intended that the accord will be adopted at the Nagoya Biodiversity Summit to be held in October 2010 in Japan.

The current El Niño event will probably end by the middle of this year, according to the latest assessment from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), though impacts will remain likely till then. "El Niño is already in a decaying phase. We expect it to fully decay by mid-year and neutral conditions to be established," said Rupa Koumar Kolli from the WMO's World Climate Applications and Services Division. "But this is a period where the predictability of the system is very low. Things could happen very suddenly," he added.

"Since June 2009, this El Niño has waxed and waned, impacting many global weather events," commented Bill Patzert from the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "I, and many other scientists, expect the current El Niño to leave the stage sometime soon. What comes next is not yet clear, but a return to El Niño's dry sibling, La Niña, is certainly a possibility, though by no means a certainty. We'll be monitoring conditions closely over the coming weeks and months."