Climate change and agriculture are deeply interconnected, as the changing climate patterns significantly impact agricultural practices and food production systems. One of the most evident impacts of climate change on agriculture is the disruption of traditional growing seasons leading to shifts in planting and harvesting schedules, affecting the growth and yield of crops.

A significant portion of agriculture in Nepal relies heavily on climate conditions mostly monsoon rainfall. Limited irrigation facilities exacerbate the climate dependency. Efforts to promote climate-smart practices, develop resilient crop varieties, improve water management, and provide support to farmers can enhance resilience in the agricultural sector and alleviate food security. Transitioning to climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is crucial for enhancing productivity and resilience in Nepal's agricultural sector.

Nepal's livestock sector is generally less climate smart and less efficient. Traditional practices, such as extensive grazing and inadequate technology adoption, contribute to reduced productivity. Insufficient focus on climate change adaptation and mitigation further hinders resilience. Efforts to promote climate- smart livestock farming, including improved breeds, efficient feeding systems, animal health management and improved shed with waste management can benefit farmers by increasing productivity while reducing environmental impact thus ensuring resilience in the livestock sector.

Heifer International has been supporting 300,000 farming families to successfully shift from traditional livestock production methods to efficient and resilient livestock production methods aiming at improving production, health, economic return while reducing environmental impact. Targeted new CSA practices included the adoption of improved animal sheds, manure management, improved animal health, vaccination, breed improvement, cultivated fodderiforage and crop residues- based feeds which enables resilient and climate smart livestock production system.

Recently Heifer International has completed a study in partnership with Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT a CGIAR Research initiative, on Climate smart agriculture practices which highlighted the benefits of adoption of CSA practices mainly in livestock sector in context of Nepal. Farmers have successfully substituted grazing with cultivated fodder/ forage and crop residues in their livestock feed basket compared to non-Heifer supported farmers where 60-70% of feed basket still is grazing. With high adoption of CSA interventions among the farmers, land use intensity falls by between 74-85%, water use intensity by between 87-98%, and GHG emission intensity by between 74-91%. The intensity of GHG emissions, and land and water use per kg of goat meat were lower in farms adopting the improved animal management practices compared to those following traditional methods.

Improved sheds were found to be the most effective intervention to reduce emissions intensity as it helps in manure management that can be applied in farm increasing benefits for the farmer. This is followed by improving the feed basket through the addition of improved forages and feed additives which improves digestion and increases productivity while replacing the commercial feeds and grains. Also, better results are recorded with the adoption of improved breeds that increases production per inputs and helps in reducing the number of livestock for the same amount of production and productivity. Through the strengthening of smallholders" livestock value chain, the productivity of goat increased by 40% and per doe goat offtake has doubled resulting in an increase in actual income by 14%. The extent of fodder/forage cultivation covering 16,000 hectares of land has significantly contributed to achieving the governments Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) target on fodder plantation in 6000 hectares. The impact of cultivated forages, feed additives and improved shed have been positively assessed contributing to reduction in emission intensity by, respectively, 40%, 50% and 70%.

During the sharing workshop of same study in Kathmandu on May 30, 2023, Dr. Arun Bhatta, Senior Agri Development Officer Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development highlighted on NDCs and clarified, "agriculture is needed to produce food. so agriculture is exempted on emission reduction targets. but it is always good to reduce emissions where possible to contribute to the larger goal and CSA can help achieve this."

NDCs include targets for cattle shed improvement program, climate smart villages, solar irrigation, support for organic farming and organic fertilizer plants, promotion of mulching, legumes, indigenous crop varieties, vermicompost, orchard expansion programs, agriculture and livestock programs and the list go on. These are priorities where government is committed to encourage agriculture and livestock sectors to go climate-smart and generate adaptation and mitigation co- benefits while achieving food security. Farmers can benefit with these CSA interventions as it helps to alleviate the impacts of climate change and ensure that farmers are able to increase production as well as productivity from agriculture and livestock sectors. Most of the CSA activities align closely with the traditional method that farmers in Nepal are following since ages but there is a huge gap in efficiency due to lack of 'smartness. Being Climate smart allows farmers to adjust their methods by applying technologies and reducing the water requirement, enriching soil health, reducing the loss of nutritious supplements, reducing GHG emission and generate economic benefit

The study also covers the gender aspect on how strengthening of social capital has been successful in sustaining inclusive livestock production system with 99 percent of small-scale women farmers engaged in livestock production and leading the market with 60 percent of annual supply of goats coming from the smallholders.

A Case Study

Small scale livestock farmers in Nepal have evolved to be the experts on fodder cultivation for livestock feed during 12 years of continuous training and learning under the Heifer's Strengthening Smallholders in Livestock Value Chains

(SLVC) signature program (2012-2023). Kamala Paudel from Bhagalpur, Kapilvastu is a member of Bihani Cooperative, and she is one of the farmers who has up taken fodder and forage plantation to supply nutritious feed for her livestock. She has been planting Berseem clovers and Mulberry plants in her paddy fields to feed her livestock which helps her go beyond subsistence farming. Recently she also has started an enterprise to produce more than 100,000 mulberry saplings every year that can be sold to farmers. As climate change makes small scale agriculture more fragile, producing high- quality cattle feed directly promotes the productivity, well-being. and resilience of the community. "Animal health and human health are interconnected, and healthy animal also means nutritious animal-source food" she said. With training from Heifer Nepal, this farmer learned about better feeding practices and other livestock care techniques, quadrupling the amount of milk her cows produce for her family's food and income. By feeding their cattle a gut-friendly diet year-round, the farmer and her community are caring for the environment by aiding in reducing methane emissions produced by livestock.

Many farmers like Kamala are directly supporting the goal of the goverment of Nepal by contributing to achieve climate change mitigation and adaptation targets. But primarily they are improving their agriculture and livestock farming practices so that they can build resilience and improve efficiency in context of climate change and its impacts.