Contribution to CSA progress through a national integrative multidisciplinary research program on adaptation to climate change
Résumé
Progress in CSA implementation requires multidisciplinary investigations on the various dimensions of agriculture responses to climate change (CC). This presentation focuses on the theoretical framework and strategy of the ‘Adapting Agriculture and Forestry to Climate Change’ (ACCAF) metaprogram that the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) conducts. Since 2011 and for 10 years, ACCAF provides financial and human support to research projects, international networks and programs (e.g., MACSUR or AGMIP, JPI FACCE actions), and to a many activities (e.g., workshops, congresses, articles, books...). Projects combine multi-scale observation and experiments with integrative modelling, including economic assessment of options for adaptation. Emphasis is put on multidisciplinarity from biophysics to human sciences and on characterizing the various sources of variability (i.e., soils, sites, stochastic climatic variability) and uncertainty (i.e., Representative Concentration Pathway, lack of knowledge in climate or crop models). Targeted objectives include: (i) assessing and managing the risks and opportunities of climate variability and extremes, and developing strategies to face the impacts of climate crisis; (ii) elaborating scenarios for regional impacts of CC; (iii) understanding and managing the main effects of CC on agriculture;(iv) improving crops and livestock species and contributing to strengthen the adaptive potential of agricultural systems and supply chain; (v) developing innovative adaptation technologies compliant with mitigation strategies; (vi) assessing the costs and benefits of adaptation measures; and (vii) proposing collective organization frameworks that enhance adaptation potential. Through the involvement of partners from research, transfer and education, ACCAF contributes to build a new knowledge community on adaptation, to disseminate this knowledge towards various categories of end users and to advance CSA implementation.