On February the 23rd (1pm EST), FONTAGRO are running a webstream centring around how to build and support resilient agricultural systems. The event will focus on Latin America, Central America, the Caribbean and New Zealand, but resilient agriculture is a topic that will continue to become more prevalent as more is understood about climate change.
This webstream will be broadcast live on the FONTAGRO website, which is linked below in Spanish and English.
A collaborative working paper developed by Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Safety (CCAFS) as support by the GRA to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CAC) has been released focusing on the development of an assessment framework. Countries can use this to assess needs and opportunities when it comes to improving measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of greenhouse gas emissions from livestock. The framework is made up of 13 questions that are then used in an 8-step assessment.
The report can be found in our library linked below:
Held virtually on the 9th and 10th of December in 2020, the CRG Annual Meeting provided a variety of updates on what the group is doing, and how work is continuing despite the global situation. A final report summarising the meeting can be found below:
The virtual presentations shown at the Annual Meeting can also be found on the GRA website here:
A recording of the Manure Management Network webinar is now available to view. This webinar session was facilitated by LRG Co-Chair Dr Sinead Waters, Teagasc and included a presentation on the Manure Management Network from Prof. Dave Chadwick, Bangor University, Wales, UK; an overview of the DATAMAN project by Dr Tony van der Weerden, AgResearch, New Zealand; and an outline of the MELS – Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from livestock systems – project by Associate Prof. Barbara Amon, Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy and University of Zielona Góra, Poland.
Recordings from the GFFA panel: “the power of many: Enhancing climate change mitigation through agricultural research networks (in times of pandemics)” can be found here
Watch the GRA expert panel presentation by Hayden Montgomery Global Research Alliance Special representative and Nina Graßnick Thuenen Institute below.
Further information on the presentation & GFFA can be found below.
The final report from the 12th annual Livestock Research Group (LRG) is now available online
The 12th annual meeting of the Livestock Research Group (LRG) of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) was held virtually for the first time, given the current travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting took place over two days and was chaired by Jeroen Dijkman, New Zealand, Sinead Waters, Ireland, and Richard Dewhurst, United Kingdom (co-chairs of the LRG).
This report is a summary of the key discussions and outcomes of the meeting. The online on-demand materials that were prepared in advance of the meeting are of high quality and will serve as an ongoing publicly available resource.
The 2020 Livestock Research Group annual meeting report can now be downloaded below.
To watch all of the presentations click this link here
The Global Research Alliance in partnership with The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), a consortium of 129 Universities in 38 African Countries, is pleased to announce the recipients of the two year Graduate Research Grants (GRGs) funded by the Governments of New Zealand and the Netherlands, in support of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases.
The grants are aimed at building the capability of graduate and post-graduate level students in Africa to conduct applied research on agricultural greenhouse gases. The call for the grants attracted 72 applicants from 21 African countries from which eight final awardees were selected following evaluation by external reviewers and compliance to RUFORUM grant award requirement which requires that beneficiary universities have cleared their membership dues and have no overdue accountabilities
The GRA is 64 country alliance which brings countries together to find ways to grow more food without growing greenhouse gas emissions.
These Graduate Research Grants support participatory action research and training on topics related to the measurement and management of greenhouse gas emissions and removals in pastoral and agro-pastoral ruminant livestock farming systems in Africa.
To Read the RUFORUM press release and see the 8 awardees click here
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has launched its Climate Change Knowledge Hub (CC-Hub). The CC-Hub gathers all existing knowledge and resources on climate change in the agriculture and land use sectors. Its interactive features allow users to connect with peers, experts and capacity building providers. It also provides data, learning materials and activities, guidelines, policy advice and tools. The CC-Hub’s overall aim is to enhance countries’ knowledge and capacity to deliver on their climate and sustainable development goals.
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has published a call for postdoctoral fellowships in climate research in Africa.
The DAAD climapAfrica programme in cooperation with the climate competence centers SASSCAL and WASCAL aims to foster application- oriented research results to tackle climate change in southern and western Africa.
The programme funds postdoctoral research projects and offers a platform for collaboration in thematic working groups composed of postdoctoral fellows and African alumni of German funding initiatives with expertise in the field of climate research.
Fellows and Alumni experts will increase their research impact and output through a comprehensive training and support programme, including general skills training, science policy advising and science management. The working groups serve as a platform to connect with peers, regional and international experts and practitioners and to build a growing professional network across Africa.
Application deadline: 15 February 2021.
Applicants must be nationals of an African country and must be willing to realise their project at a host institution in western or southern Africa.
For more information about this programme and to apply click here.
The December 2020 Issue of Who’s Counting, the Inventories and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Support Network Newsletter is now available.
This issue features the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) toolkit of Inventory Accelerator Tools, a summary of major refinements in the new IPCC 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines prepared by our partner GHGMI. Read on to learn about research capturing dietary effects modelling emissions in ruminant systems, plant secondary metabolites to mitigate enteric fermentation emissions, publication of the revised methodology guidelines for N2O measurement chambers and inventory improvements introduced to the Australian Agriculture Inventory and German Agricultural Soil Inventory.
We encourage you to directly submit content for the March 2021 Issue of Who’s Counting, or contact one of the Inventories and NDC Network co-leads directly. To receive future issues of this Newsletter subscribe here
Please read the newsletter to see other events and resources of relevance to your work.
We are pleased to welcome the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) as the newest Partner of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases!
FARA’s vision is to foster the reduction of poverty in Africa through the development of sustainable broad-based agricultural growth and improved livelihoods, particularly for smallholder and pastoral enterprises.
FARA is responsible for coordinating and advocating agricultural research for development and brings together a number of Africa’s sub-regional agricultural research initiatives to respond to continent wide development frameworks. FARA also supports the African Union Commission (AUC) in the areas of agricultural science, technology and innovation.
FARA’s strategy for 2019-2028 prioritises the issue of climate change and the extension of Climate Smart Agriculture technologies. The partnership between the GRA and FARA will help advance these aims across Africa, including with FARA’s sub-regional organisations and help support the research priorities of African GRA countries.
The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) has an open Postdoctoral position at their Uppsala Campus with the Department of Ecology.
The position is with the ecosystems ecology group for working on three tasks related to carbon sequestration in agricultural soils: A meta-analysis of data from long-term field experiment quantifying subsoil carbon stock change rates, and secondly, to synthesize soil carbon models that explicitly represent subsoil dynamics and evaluate their sensitivity to changes in stabilization mechanisms with depth. The third task is to evaluate soil carbon balances in three Norwegian long-term grassland experiments based on existing data. The first two tasks are related to “Soil organic carbon sequestration potential of agricultural soils in Europe; CarboSeq”, an internal project within EGP Soil (https://projects.au.dk/ejpsoil/), which is a European research consortium targeting climate change adaption and mitigation, sustainable agricultural production, ecosystem services and restoration and prevention of land and soil degradation. The third task relates to a larger project on carbon sequestration in grassland (https://www.nibio.no/en/projects/carbon-storage-in-long-and-short-term-grasslands). The position provides excellent opportunities for networking with scientists in a large number of European countries.
For more information on this position and to apply visit the SLU website.