09 May2023, Washington: AIM4C has announced the pioneering CGIAR-ICARDA “Integrated Desert Farming Innovation Program (IDFIP)” as one of its Innovation Sprints, a commitment to increase self-aggregated funding to support climate-smart agriculture and resilient food systems transformation in global drylands and especially in the drylands of North Africa, Central, and West Asia and the Middle East. The announcement was made during the AIM for Climate Summit in Washington DC, hosted by The United States government and supported by the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR). The project aims to leverage an increased level of investment from $7 million over a five-year period to $20 million by the end of 2025.
Transforming deserts into resilient and productive agricultural systems
The Integrated Desert Farming Innovation Program is a trailblazing ICARDA-led CGIAR initiative that realizes the potential of desert farming to boost agricultural productivity, generate jobs, and deliver food and water security in desert ecosystems. The program initially focuses on the Arabian Peninsula, where food production and agricultural livelihoods are severely threatened by climate change, resulting in dwindling water supplies, poor soils, expanding desertification, and increasing pests and plant disease. The program will act as a test case generating lessons and outcomes vital for scaling innovation packages to transform productive food systems beyond the Arabian Peninsula’s borders, into North Africa and West Asia, and across global drylands.
IDFIP aims to create groundbreaking ‘public-private-producer’ partnerships to build new farming systems, integrate innovative technologies and market-driven value chains, and conserve precious agrobiodiversity on the path to sustainable food and nutrition security.
Sharing knowledge for food systems transformation in GCC countries
Through its collaborative knowledge and capacity-sharing model, the IDFIP will deliver a wealth of new and existing agricultural innovations held by each country towards an integrated whole that will strengthen global research and generate dryland innovation at scale.
Impacts include:
Significant water saving and reuse, with resilient and sustainable farming systems using renewable energy and climate-smart farming approaches.
Reduced food and feed imports thanks to increased local production of strategic staple crops.
Lucrative local and export markets for high-value crops and value-added desert farming products – boosting the small business sector and creating new jobs.
The Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate / AIM4C) is a joint initiative by the United States and the United Arab Emirates. AIM for Climate seeks to address climate change and global hunger by uniting participants to increase investment in and other support for climate-smart agriculture and food systems innovation over five years (2021 – 2025).
