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Project Highlights: Social and environmental disaster risk management for food security and nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean (OSRO/RLA/602/BRA)

Countries
Bolivia
+ 2 more
Sources
FAO
Publication date
Origin
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Objective: To ensure that countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are better equipped to manage social and environmental disaster risks, in order to prepare for and respond to future crises that may threaten food security and nutrition, thereby enhancing the livelihood resilience of the most vulnerable households.

Key partners: Government departments in charge of disaster risk management, sub-national governmental authorities, and ministries of agriculture, of the environment and of planning.

Beneficiaries reached: National, departmental, municipal and community-level governmental authorities, including technical and planning personnel from agriculture, environment, planning and disaster risk management line ministries; rural extension workers and community promoters; community-level civil society organizations; and small-scale crop, livestock and fisheries producers, including indigenous, Afro-descendant and pastoralist mountain peoples in Colombia and Bolivia (Plurinational State of), respectively.

Activities implemented: Bolivia (Plurinational State of)

  • Built 46 family cisterns (16 000 litres each) and two community cisterns (52 000 litres each) for household and livestock water use as well as crop irrigation.

  • Construction of bridges over the main water distribution channel of the Desaguadero River in the Municipality of Toledo to ensure the safe passage of 1 000 animals during flood seasons.

  • Constructed 180 shortcut-like water channels for water harvesting to facilitate water consumption of ovine and camelids, benefiting 320 families in 31 communities across three municipalities.

  • Distributed 27 tonnes of potato cuttings (of the huaycha variety), 50 kg of quinoa seeds and a wide variety of vegetable seeds.

  • Conducted animal health campaigns to deworm 15 000 ovine, 5 000 camelids and 300 cattle.

  • Distributed 1 800 kg of barley and 150 kg of alfalfa seeds, benefiting 280 and 100 families, respectively, through the restoration of native prairielands and newly cultivated land for fodder.

  • Facilitated capacity development initiatives on the construction, use and maintenance of water harvesting, storage and distribution systems.

  • Promoted and coordinated integrated risk management policy, planning and implementation practices and tools among community leaders and national and subnational policymakers.

Colombia

  • Rehabilitated 19 water supply systems with a daily production capacity of 15 m3 in 18 communities, improving access to water for 1 003 families.

  • Provided 1 003 families in 18 communities with seeds, and with 1 401 farming and livestock input toolkits.

  • Trained 85 members from 17 disaster-risk management committees on basic maintenance of water supply systems.

  • Conducted capacity strengthening workshops and trainings on disaster-risk management, climate change adaptation, and food security and nutrition benefiting 19 communities (1 829 people, of whom 1 196 women), as well as nutrition education workshops tailored to community leaders and promoters and extension service personnel.

  • Conducted 104 workshops on agricultural production aimed at local productive systems to improve food security and nutrition through a rapid recovery and resilient approach to food production.

  • Organized 34 workshops on the management of productive livestock systems and 36 workshops on food and nutrition education for small-scale producers and community promoters.

Dominica

  • Distributed productive assets, tools and feed for animals in critical need, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries.

  • Distributed short-cycle seed varieties, fertilizers and farming tools.

  • Provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MOAFF) to assess and strengthen its agricultural information management systems in view of future calamities, and related agricultural and livelihood losses.

Results:

Bolivia (Plurinational State of)

  • Increased the resilience of food-insecure, drought-affected, small-scale mountain pastoralists and subsistence farmers in high-plateau areas against climate change and food shortages through the sustainable use and storage of water for crop irrigation, and home and livestock use.

  • Improved access to and application of animal health practices among at-risk livestock producers, and enhanced access to water and feed for their herds thereby increasing preparedness against future climate-induced emergencies.

  • Cultivated 18 ha of land for barley production, the seeds of which will be used to cultivate and rehabilitate an additional 280 ha of land.

  • Cultivated 1 000 m2 of land for fodder production and 300 m2 for seed production.

  • Strengthened the capacities of municipal governmental authorities from the most drought-affected regions who have adopted new risk prevention and mitigation technologies as part of their public systems, through the set-up of close to 300 demonstration plots, contributing to improved food security and nutrition, and reduced poverty.

Colombia

  • Increased water supply through the installation of appropriate infrastructure for human consumption as well as for agricultural and livestock use.

  • Enhanced observation of essential household hygiene practices.

  • Improved coordination and working agreements between communities, and national and subnational disaster-risk management committee members on access to and use of water, and the adaptability of agricultural livelihoods.

  • Restored households’ crop and livestock production through the adoption of an agroclimatic risk management approach.

  • Strengthened households’ technical capacities in terms of agroclimatic risk management and increased their resilience against extreme and prolonged drought.

  • Rehabilitated the livelihoods of 398 families in the Department of Putumayo thanks to the daily production of 1 000 eggs (an 80-percent increase), as well as the production of 25 900 kg (an 85-percnet increase) of fruits, vegetables, roots, tubers, and aromatic and medicinal plants in the first quarter of 2019, further increasing to 129 500 kg over the course of 12 months.

Dominica

  • Improved access to short-cycle seed varieties and agricultural inputs for 1 125 vulnerable small-scale farmers and their families.

  • Moblized additional resources to support the agricultural information management systems of MOAFF.