Food Security and Agricultural Mitigation in Developing Countries

Food Security and Agricultural Mitigation in Developing Countries: Options for Capturing Synergies explores potential synergies between food security, adaptation and climate change mitigation from land-based agricultural practices in developing countries, which could help to generate the multiple benefits needed to address the multiple demands placed on agriculture.

It indicates promising mitigation options with synergies, options that involve trade-offs, possible options for required financing, and possible elements in designing country implementation processes.

The key conclusions of the paper are:

• A more holistic vision of food security, agricultural mitigation, adaptation and development is needed if synergies are to be maximized and trade-offs minimized.
• Realizing the synergies and minimizing trade-offs between agricultural mitigation and food security will require financing for up-front investments, opportunity costs and capacity building
• The magnitude of potential financing for terrestrial-based mitigation, relative to overall investment requirements for agriculture, indicate that leveraging mitigation finance to support climate smart agricultural development strategies and investments will be necessary to capture synergies between mitigation, adaptation and food security.
• There is currently no consensus on measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) for financing mechanisms, but decisions in this regard would affect the costs and viability of different agricultural mitigation activities.