Climate Change Agriculture in China. A watershed in collaboration

BEIJING, CHINA – A radical kind of crop-cultivator-center-country corporate connection for climate change is being built and its first network can be found in China, of all places. The collaboration has been institutionalized by China and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, CGIAR. On 04 August 2009, they inaugurated in Beijing a facility called the Center for Excellence in Dryland Agriculture, CEDA. This joint undertaking has been triggered by the imperative challenge of global warming and the risks that modern agriculture must face, especially in the drylands. Now therefore, I shall call what CEDA seeks Climate Change Agriculture. Is China reinventing agriculture then? China is not new to innovations in farming; after all, she invented the plow.

So, they are making modern history in China; it just happens that its capital Beijing is an excellent choice as site. 'Beijing is the miniature of Chinese history and present actuality,' says ANN (author not named, beijingtrip.com). 'Beijing is an archaic city with 3,000 years' brilliant civilization, but simultaneously is also a city that glows with beauty and youth.' It is a city that harbors the old while it welcomes the new.

CEDA is a collaboration of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, CAAS (founded 1957, based in Beijing, China) on one hand and on the other, 2 centers of CGIAR (founded 1972, based in Washington DC): the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, ICARDA (founded 1975, based in Aleppo, Syria), and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT (founded 1972, based in Hyderabad, India). The old must catch up with the new. In climate change, there's the common threat; in union, there's the common strength.

CEDA was jointly inaugurated by ICARDA Director General Mahmoud Solh, CAAS Vice-President Huajun Tang and ICRISAT Director General William Dar (right to left in photo). CEDA is a fulfillment of a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Tang, Solh, and Dar in Maputo, Mozambique during the Annual General Meeting of CGIAR on 02 December 2008 to establish CEDA (icarda.org). Present during the inauguration were delegations from ICRISAT (including Peter Ninnes and Suhas Wani), ICARDA (Kamil Shideed and Weicheng Wu), and high-level officials from CAAS, including Director General Mei Xurong of the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, IEDA. On 03 August 2009, the ICRISAT and ICARDA delegations were received at CAAS and they held detailed discussions with CAAS VP Huajun Tang and colleagues Gong Xifeng, Feng Dongxin and Liu Yukun of the Division of Bilateral Cooperation.

ICRISAT DG William Dar gave a presentation titled 'Poverty, Water Scarcity And Climate Change: Opportunities And Challenges In Dryland Agriculture.' You have to help the poor farmers, the poor crops, the poor soil, the poor environment. Institutionally, ICRISAT has come up with the Adarsha prototype, a watershed model that harvests water from the rain, improves village incomes, and at the same time protects the surroundings from degradation. Learning from the Adarsha model (for details, see my 'Water Lessons of Adarsha,' americanchronicle.com), the Lucheba watershed at Guiang shows the transformation of the commune via crop diversification, planting more vegetables and using less water. The Lucheba farmers have also learned to do collective marketing via a vegetable growers' association. As a result the average income per capita has multiplied 3 times that in 2003. Climate change is a challenge, not a constraint.

On his part, CAAS VP Tang pointed to the growing Chinese economy, the growing water scarcity, and the growing need for food security, a basic necessity for any country, developed or developing. Gong focused on ICRISAT's collaborative work in watershed management in the provinces of Yunan and Guizaou, as well as with the crops pigeon pea and peanut (groundnut). Xurong emphasized the value of the drylands, those sites that receive little rainfall, and which support 80% of the world's rural poor. About 40% of the Earth's surface is drylands: arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas (Philip Dobie, 2001, undp.org). According to Dobie, it is important to note that drylands of the world contain both rural and urban populations. The climate is no respecter of persons.

Under the CEDA collaborative scheme, 3 priority fields have been identified: (1) further improving climate change-ready crops, (2) increasing water use efficiency, and (3) enhancing crop-livestock systems. I think all that calls for crops more resistant to warm weather as well as to water-starved soils, for better tillage & culture methods that conserve water in the soil and cut cost on fertilizer, and for mixed crop-animal farming systems appropriate to the poor. Otherwise, we will always have the poor with us, and climate change.

Dar gave a presentation titled 'Poverty, Water Scarcity And Climate Change: Opportunities And Challenges In Dryland Agriculture.' If viewed in the proper perspective, constraints are not obstacles; rather, they are opportunities to correctly define the problem and propose solutions or options for action. When developed, community watersheds, he said, address the problems of the scarcity of water, lack of income, and poor environmental protection. In that sense, whole villages, whole towns and whole cities can be considered watersheds and treated with conservation of resources in mind: water, soil, air, as well as people.

In the first Steering Committee meeting of CEDA, it was agreed that capacity-building, institutional innovations as well as policy initiatives will receive adequate attention. Research area coordinators from CAAS, ICARDA and ICRISAT will develop R&D proposals under the CEDA umbrella. As a component basis for decision, a status report on present and past collaborative R&D in agriculture in China will be prepared by December this year.

The inauguration of the CEDA was celebrated in a dinner sponsored by ICARDA and ICRISAT for senior CAAS members, including CAAS President Zhai Huqu. There was also a visit to the advanced biotech labs of CAAS, as well its well-equipped genebank that can hold 450,000 germplasm accessions. CAAS is China's national agricultural research organization; with 38 research institutes located in 17 provinces, it employs about 10,000 people (caas.net.cn).

DDG Yao Xiangjun of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture sought ideas from the participants to strengthen collaboration between the Ministry and CGIAR Centers. On his part, ICRISAT DG Dar, along with acknowledging that 'the tripartite collaboration marks a new milestone in the relationship with CAAS, Ministry of Agriculture and other research institutions in China to address issues of water scarcity, climate change and achieving food security,' he reminded everyone of the need to allocate more funds for the CEDA. History tells us that lip service will get us nowhere.

A delegation from the Millet Research Institute of the Zhangjiakou Academy of Agricultural Sciences led by Institute Director Zhao Zhihai drove 300 km and sought a meeting with ICRISAT to explore possibilities for collaboration on millet, one of the mandate crops of ICRISAT. The ICRISAT delegation also met Guandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, GAAS President Zuo Yi Liu, Director Sun Qiu of the International Agricultural Development Research Institute, IADRI, and other officials. The GAAS and ICRISAT teams discussed collaboration on sorghum and peanut, 2 other mandate crops of ICRISAT.

From where I sit, I see that ICRISAT is both reactive and proactive when it comes to appreciating the concerns of dryland areas especially with the advent of climate change, as well as to defining the problems and seeking solutions or options for actions that are positive and constructive. ICRISAT has come a long way from its moribund status in 2000, when DG William Dar took over the reins. A Filipino from among the poor in Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur in northern Philippines, he had his job cut out for him. The Institute was then plagued by declining morale and beset by decreasing finances amid lackluster R&D performance. With heart and mind in the right places, Dar planted the seeds and has since been nurturing Team ICRISAT. The institute has since won an unprecedented 2 Outstanding ratings (for the years 2006 and 2007) from the World Bank, which supports CGIAR, and Dar has made a historic first in the history of international agricultural centers: He was appointed this year for his 3rd term as Director General of ICRISAT. The ICRISAT Board knows which side of its bread is buttered.