Identifying potential synergies and trade-offs for meeting food security and climate change objectives in sub-Saharan Africa (original) (raw)

Linking climate change research with food security and poverty reduction in the tropics

Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 2000

Climate change is a reality and will affect the poor in developing countries in many ways. The effectiveness of global change research could be substantially improved by linking International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) study with Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centres based in the tropics. These centres are carrying interdisciplinary research and development on how to achieve food security and reduce rural poverty through the innovative management of natural resources. A CGIAR intercentre working group on climate change (ICWG-CC) identified joint opportunities that take advantage of the comparative advantages of both institutions. CGIAR centres will focus on adaptation and mitigation research in developing countries. A natural resource management research approach is suggested, which consists of six steps: (1) identifying and quantifying the extent of food insecurity, rural poverty and resource degradation;

Carbon sequestration and farm income in West Africa: Identifying best management practices for smallholder agricultural systems in northern Ghana

Ecological Economics, 2008

The interest in agricultural soils as global storage of carbon has increased in recent years, along with the prospect of farmers' participation in payment schemes under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto protocol. Thus, a better understanding of agricultural practices that can increase soil carbon and enhance the livelihoods of farmers is necessary, particularly in smallholder farming systems of West Africa. This study evaluates different crop management strategies both by their capacity to sequester carbon in agricultural soils and by their contribution to household income. A case study in Wa, Upper West Region of Ghana is used to test 48 different cropping strategies by means of a crop simulation model and a household-level multiple-criteria optimisation model. Each cropping strategy is evaluated after a 20-year simulation period by its capacity to accrue carbon in the soil, by its economic performance at the plot-level, and by its contribution to the farm income with and without carbon payments. A set of best management practices that concomitantly increase soil carbon and farm income are identified and classified by their cost of investment.

Economic framework for integrating environmental stewardship into food security strategies in low-income countries: case of agroforestry in southern African region

2007

One of the greatest challenges in many Sub-Saharan Africa countries especially where seasonal food deficits occur frequently, is how best to achieve a balance between the goals of food security and agricultural production on the one hand, and the concerns for the conservation of environmental quality and natural resources capital on the other. A number of agricultural production technologies (based on natural resource management principles) exist that offer opportunities for achieving the two seemingly divergent goals because they have the characteristics to produce joint multiple outputs, i.e, they produce food and provide environmental services. However, farmer adoption of these technologies has generally been limited. Drawing from natural resource economics, this study presents a conceptual framework that provide environmental-economic logic for establishing incentives that internalize the environmental services produced by multiple-outputs land use technologies. Using a land use practice based on agroforestry principles (that is, "improved tree fallows") as a case study, this paper synthesizes studies carried out in southern Africa region for over a decade. It then discusses how the potential impacts of the technological advances made in research and development are affected by policy and institutional constraints, among other challenges. With particular emphasis on the socioeconomic context in southern Africa, the paper identifies options for addressing these institutional and policy constraints in order to facilitate adoption of multi-output land use practices by farmers and unlock their potential to meet food production goals for individual households and environmental services for the wider society.

The interplay between agriculture, greenhouse gases, and climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa

Regional Environmental Change, 2023

Agriculture is the leading sector that is responsible for global climate change through its significant contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Intriguingly, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is experiencing higher temperatures and lesser rainfall due to climate change enhanced by anthropogenic GHG emissions. Agriculture and energy use in the SSA predominantly influence the anthropogenic GHG leading to global warming. Therefore, reducing agricultural GHG emissions (such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane) plays a significant role in climate change adaptation. This paper reviews the potential implication of agriculture and energy use on climate change and its implications on environmental sustainability in SSA. Herewith, we explored various GHGs emitted through agriculture-energy use, their effects on climate change, as well as several climate change adaptation mechanisms, and gaps in existing knowledge that necessitate more research, were also explored. We found that agriculture had negative implications on climate change impacts in the SSA countries and that a more focused strategy that is both economically and technically feasible in terms of preferences for land use, effective energy use, and food supply would aid in GHG emission reduction and environmental sustainability. Adapting to the projected changes in the short term while investing in long-term mitigation strategies might be the only way toward a sustainable environment in this region.

Carbon Markets are Intangible for Africa’s Smallholder Farmers

Climate change poses daunting challenges to Africa's smallholder farmers. High frequency of extreme events like floods, droughts and changes in rainfall patterns converge to make food production an uncertain and risky enterprise. Adaptation to climate change is therefore a central preoccupation of farmers, scholars, policy makers and politicians.

Poverty, Agriculture and the Environment: The Case of Sub-Saharan Africa

Marginality, 2013

Marginal areas of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have historically offered low productivity potential and low returns on investments in agricultural productivity growth. Population and agricultural market dynamics in Africa are improving the prospects for productivity-enhancing investments in this environment. In this chapter the authors introduce an opportunity cost framework to demonstrate where agricultural development is now an opportune strategy to reduce marginality in SSA and to guide strategic priority setting for public investment for the sustainable improvement of agricultural productivity. It then lays out policy and technology priorities for sustainable development of marginal production environments. Keywords Opportunity costs • Priority setting • Investments • Yield gaps • Agricultural productivity growth 10.1 Introduction Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains predominantly a rural phenomenon and the vast majority of the rural poor are smallholder farmers (World Bank 2007). Many of those farmers are concentrated in areas that have remained unattractive for agricultural development and as a result, demonstrate extremely low agricultural productivity. Such marginal areas have historically offered little return on investment due to low population density or poor access to markets and thus remain marginal precisely because investments to alter their condition have been unfavorable to the public and private sectors (including the farmers themselves), and have not been made. However, as population density increases and market dynamics open, new opportunities and the potential for attractive returns on investment in agricultural Chapter 10