Irrigated agriculture contributes to food security but also to greenhouse gas emissions.
COSTEA seeks to better characterize this contribution, develop evaluation methods, and identify levers to reduce the climate footprint of irrigated systems, within the framework of agroecological transformation pathways, while preserving their economic and food performance.
Floodplains, including deltas, are among the most populated regions on the planet. They are also crucial in terms of food security because they contain highly productive agricultural systems—notably rice-growing systems. They are also agroecosystems highly vulnerable to floods, rising oceans, and land salinization due to climate change. Having been the subject of very significant investments in water resource control infrastructures for nearly 150 years, the fragile balance of these areas is now threatened, which necessitates renewing the approaches to their development and use.
In September 2019, we initiated a comparative study of three major floodplains in three countries: the upper Mekong Delta in Cambodia, the Daule floodplain in Ecuador, and the irrigated plain of Gharb in Morocco, which represent the diversity of challenges faced by floodplains.
In these three socio-ecosystems, we conduct studies with national partners that aim to:
We design and conduct participatory activities aimed at renewing territorial development approaches for these areas. This action is currently being finalized.
Why a Methodological Approach?
Carbon footprint assessments and life cycle analyses (LCAs), which integrate environmental impacts from production to consumption of a given product, are rapidly emerging in the agricultural sector, but pose specific questions due to the diversity of practices and territories and the complexity of value chains.
What We Do
Our action aims to initiate a collective reflection on the methods (advantages, limitations, and operationality) to be implemented to assess the impacts of irrigated agriculture on climate, and the impacts of climate change on irrigated agriculture and, more generally, on the environment. To this end, we propose organizing seminars around two main themes:
Why Irrigated Rice Cultivation?
Reducing emissions from development projects, including in the agricultural sector, is a commitment of countries and development agencies worldwide. Due to significant methane emissions and their importance in global food systems, the issue of adapting flooded and irrigated rice systems is a crucial challenge.
What We Do
COSTEA co-financed, with AFD’s climate division, a study titled “Irrigated Rice Cultivation and Climate Change: Methodological Deepening for Climate Finance and Contribution to Long-Term AFOLU Low-Carbon and Resilient Pathways.” This study, conducted by Salvaterra, identifies the source processes of greenhouse gas emissions related to irrigated rice cultivation, as well as the evaluation practices that various donors have regarding the climate impact of their project portfolios in this sector, with a view to developing best practices for operators.
Why a Typology?
No study exists on greenhouse gas emissions specifically related to the irrigated agriculture sector. However, due to their diversity, irrigated systems can have very different emission profiles, and mitigation prospects can therefore vary widely. COSTEA aims to characterize this diversity from an operational perspective.
What We Do
COSTEA is funding a study conducted by Rives & Eaux du Sud Ouest and OuiACT aimed at developing a methodology to characterize the emission profiles of a diversity of irrigated systems. The study proposes a “carbon-oriented” typology of irrigated systems, accompanied by a quantification of emissions based on illustrative cases, and explores the prospects that an agroecological transition of these systems offers in terms of emission reduction.