Nepal has internalized the climate change management programs ever since it became party to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) IN 1994. Nepal being a least developed, landlocked and mountainous country has realized its vulnerability to climate hazards and associated risks and losses. In 2011, Climate Change Policy was formulated and implemented that guided the national effort on climate change management. Local Adaptation Plan of Action (LAPA) was developed in 2011 to integrate the climate change issue in local development plan. National Adaptation Pn (NAP) is being developed. Although works on climate change management has been initiated the need of more concrete and appropriate guiding policy was felt to mainstream climate change in overall development process with the changing global and administrative scenario of Nepal and issues failed to address by Climate Change Policy 2011, National Climate Change Policy 2019 was promulgated with 8 thematic and 4 cross cutting areas where agricultural and food security has been in the top priority. The Vulnerability and Risk Assessment Report, MoFE, 2021 has probed the vulnerability and risks in 8 thematic and 1 cross cutting areas for preparation of National Adaptation Plan and its implementation. VRA report not only encompasses the various dimensions (exposure, sensitivity, adaptive capacity and risk) of climate change impacts on multi-sector but also offers a range of adaptation options for addressing the adverse impact of climate change on various sectors. To successfully implement and translate the National climate change policy into action there is a pressing need of where to invest and how.
Objectives
To develop an open access standardized digital agricultural adaptation atlas by estimating commodity-specific climate risks and vulnerabilities, likely impacts on yields, and possible technological, institutional and policy adaptation options to mitigate these impacts.
Specific Objectives
To estimate commodity-specific climate risks and vulnerabilities, likely impacts on yields, and possible technological, institutional and policy adaptation options to mitigate these impacts.
To determine the implementation feasibility and scalability of the key adaptation options identified, including the finance required.
To develop an open-access standardized digital Atlas populated with generated results.
To migrate the country-specific version of the digital open access Atlas to the NARS system to maximize opportunities both for Atlas’s continued relevance and maintenance.
To use the Atlas data to identify risks, impacts and their management analogues for strengthening regional cooperation in adaptation
Project progress
The ACASA project has completed the first six months of its first year of implementation. During this period, we have made significant progress on most of the deliverables, achieving more than 80% of the targets, and some of them fully. The reasons for the partial achievement were a revised plan and some technical and managerial challenges, such as a change in leadership role. However, we accomplished the critical deliverables within the deadlines. The project was signed on 9 July 2023. We collected 30 years of APY data of major grain, horticulture, and livestock commodities and submitted them to BISA to calculate the production risk. We also made good progress in the systematic literature review, which aimed to list out the adaptation options available in South Asia and their respective hazard threshold values. We completed the bibliometric analysis of legumes, and then focused on pigeon pea and chick pea for the systematic literature and meta-analysis. We prepared and submitted a project database related to climate change adaptation, where we collected 254 project details from Nepal, including funding agencies, major outputs, and adaptation solutions. We completed a livestock expert consultation workshop, aiming to prioritize hazards, exposure, and vulnerability for the IPCC framework of risk analysis, and to prioritize adaptation solutions, their suitability, and barriers of adoption. The first version of map has been released in local host and a validation workshop has been completed (Figure 1) Therefore, the ACASA Nepal project is now at a good pace in delivering the deliverables, which will be continued in the future. It is imperative to continue the project for the successful delivery of the project output.
Figure 1. Test site of ACASA project showing technical suitability of adoption of stress-tolerant wheat variety in South Asia.
Expected Outputs
Climate change adaptation solutions to agriculture commodities based on risk analysis identified
Digital Agriculture Adaptation Atlas for Nepal prepared, validated and disseminated
Capacity of NRS for DAAA preparation, and stakeholders for utilization enhanced
Project Link
ACASA https://acasa-bisa.org/#