Today on June 17 we
mark the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, the United Nations’
day to raise awareness of international co-operation to combat desertification
and the effects of drought.
Long,
severe drought can devastate crops, while hotter temperatures and scarce water could
put more people at risk from diseases. When
food becomes scarce, rising prices put more people into poverty.
Food security, and agriculture for different conditions are
important to ACIAR. Our mission is to achieve more productive and sustainable
agricultural systems and to make food systems more resilient, for the benefit
of developing countries and Australia, through international agricultural
research partnerships.
We are developing climate-resistant
livestock and drought-resistant crops, and helping farmers to improve their
water management and become more resilient to climate change through our
research on climate smart practices.
Water
scarcity and high salinity threaten the livelihoods of millions of farmers in
India and Bangladesh. We are making water use more
efficient and increasing wheat yield in the rain-fed and minimally irrigated
zones of India, earlier sowing makes water use more efficient and helps to
avoid drought.
Many
livestock farmers in Afghanistan have limited access to water. To help them feed their animals, we are
designing forage options that need little water. Afghanistan also has one of the highest
per capita wheat consumptions in the world but does not produce enough to meet
domestic demands. We are introducing new, high-yielding,
drought-tolerant and disease-resistant varieties of wheat and maize to the
country.
We
are improving the livelihoods of smallholders in
arid and saline areas of Pakistan by introducing saltbush germplasm from
Australia, a drought and salt-tolerant perennial shrub that farmers can use to
feed small ruminants.
In Africa,
we are modernizing the Ethiopian sorghum breeding program at the Ethiopian Institute
of Agricultural Research. Sorghum is crucial to food security in Africa as its capacity
to better tolerate drought, high temperature, and low fertility make it a
preferred crop to maize. Drought still causes significant crop losses and food
insecurity in major sorghum growing regions in Ethiopia.
ACIAR
projects are helping groups of smallholders in developing countries to grow
successful crops, despite drought conditions and climate variability. We hope that what we learn in these projects
can help wider groups of farmers into the future.
Read
about this work:
Better
water use in wheat growing in India
A targeted
approach to sorghum improvement in Ethiopia
Growing
saltbush in Pakistan to feed ruminant animals
Sustainable
wheat and maize production in Afghanistan
Forage
options for smallholder livestock in water-scarce environments of Afghanistan
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