Making agriculture in Africa climate-smart From continental policies to local practices (original) (raw)
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Climate Smart Agriculture? Governing the Sustainable Development Goals in Sub-Saharan Africa
Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
This paper examines the political economic and governance challenges faced by African governments in operationalizing Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) as part of their pursuit of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There is a need to enrich our understanding of the diverse contexts and ways in which governments will have to navigate and address the inevitable choices and conflicts, synergies and trade-offs that will characterize efforts to simultaneously implement these global goals. Here we seek to develop an account of why and how countries are managing the interrelationship between SDGs, particularly those associated with food security and climate action. We develop explanations for the diversity in approaches and provide an initial assessment of what the consequences are for policy and practice. The analysis is informed by the contrasting experiences of four Eastern African countries, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Rwanda, as they seek to build more "climate resilient" food and agricultural systems that are compatible with achieving the SDGs.
2020
Building transformative change in Africa's smallholder food systems: Contributions from climate-smart agriculture and agroecology Key messages `Transforming food systems under a changing climate entails amplifying solutions that build sustainability along multiple interconnected principles-i.e., diversity, resilience, equity, economic viability, health and renewability. `Two different approaches are engaged in this transformational work in Africa: climatesmart agriculture (promotes participatory multi-stakeholder collaborations and climate-informed sustainable agriculture innovations) and agroecology (prioritizes cocreated diversified livelihood strategies). `Together, their contributions highlight the urgency of reconfigurations that balance technology transfer with realigning human values to support inclusive processes and principles of transformation. `Taking to scale this critical work will require significant support: donors and policy makers can help by diversifying their investments to create a balance between projects focused on technological solutions and those implementing more agroecological components. `Agricultural research for development organizations can help to build the evidence base for agroecology and climate-smart agriculture based on data metrics associated with yields, income, and socioeconomic performance, and on the significance of their holistic approaches to tackling climate change adaptation and mitigation by ensuring strong, resilient social foundations.
Climate
Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) as a credible alternative to tackle food insecurity under the changing climate is gaining wide acceptance. However, many developing countries have realized that concepts that have been recommended as solutions to existing problems are not suitable in their contexts. This paper synthesizes a subset of literature on CSA in the context of small-scale agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa as it relates to the need for CSA, factors influencing CSA adoption, and the challenges involved in understanding and scaling up CSA. Findings from the literature reveal that age, farm size, the nature of farming, and access to extension services influence CSA adoption. Many investments in climate adaptation projects have found little success because of the sole focus on the technology-oriented approach whereby innovations are transferred to farmers whose understanding of the local farming circumstances are limited. Climate-smart agriculture faces the additional challenge of...
The Role and Perspective of Climate Smart Agriculture in Africa: A Scientific Review
Sustainability
Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is gaining a wide acceptance as a laudable approach that can assist farmers to maximize the potential of the farming systems in Africa. A number of practices have been identified as CSA practices, and successful outcomes of CSA technologies are being reported. However, CSA uptake among African farmers remains low despite its proven potential. The aim of this paper is to analyse the state of CSA in Africa and identify the constraints to the uptake of the practices among smallholder farmers. This paper synthesizes a subset of literature between 2010 and 2020. The key findings are that the response to climate change and the pattern and extent of adoption of CSAs differs from one macro-area to another. Factors such as resource constraints, institutional instruments, climate and ecological settings, and farmers’ characteristics, such as farmers’ experience and access to extension services, are significant determinants of CSA adoption. Socioeconomic constra...
Journal of Environmental Management, 2019
Increasing resilience of smallholder farmers to climate change through multiple adoption of proven climate-smart agriculture innovations. Lessons from Southern Africa The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) believes that open access contributes to its mission of reducing hunger and poverty, and improving human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the eco-efficiency of agriculture. CIAT is committed to creating and sharing knowledge and information openly and globally. We do this through collaborative research as well as through the open sharing of our data, tools, and publications.
This paper reviewed the prospects for climate-smart agriculture (CSA) development and promotion in West Africa as well as lessons learnt and challenges with a focus on climate change and variability. It was evident from the literature that West Africa is vulnerable to climate change and variability, on account of its socio-economic and physical characteristics. As climate change and variability persists, the region's quest to use agriculture as the mainstream opportunity to deliver on set targets of the sustainable development goals will be strongly challenged without appropriate interventions. Adopting CSA seems to be a suitable strategy to achieving food security while also mitigating and adapting to climate-related risks. Among numerous CSA technologies, the review found (1) agroforestry (farmer-managed natural regenerations), soil and water conservation technologies (zai, half-moon, tie/contour ridges, conservation agriculture) and (3) climate information services as highly valued promising options for climate change adaptation and risk management in West Africa. In addition, institutional settings at the community, national and regional levels such as the establishment of multi-stakeholder innovation platforms, national science policy dialogue platforms on CSA in parts of West Africa and the formulation of the West Africa CSA Alliance were found to be crucial in promoting capacity development and awareness of CSA technologies and innovations in the region. The review found that CSA still faces a number of challenges, including: lack of clear conceptual understanding, limited enabling policy and financing. The prospects of CSA in West Africa hinge on the capacities of farming households and the region's national institutions to understand the environmental, economic and social challenges in the context of climate change, and consequently self-mobilize to develop and implement responsive policies at appropriate scales.
CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, 2020
More than €40 million was jointly mobilized by the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV), the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Agriterra and Rabo Partnerships consortium from the Netherlands Government to increase the availability and accessibility of climate-resilient food for the growing populations in East Africa. ◼ By the end of December 2020, the Climate Resilient Agribusiness for Tomorrow (CRAFT) project catalyzed a total of €34,369,120 million additional sustainable finance co-investment from the private sector. ◼ This amount had been jointly co-invested in 36 climate-informed business cases in seven priority value chains in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. ◼ Leverage of 5:1 was achieved, whereby 83.7% (€28,761,940) of the total co-investment capital was attributed to contributions by the private sector business case champions, while CRAFT's co-investment was 16.3% (€5,607,180), showing significant progress made by the consortium to mobilize sustainable financial investments for resilient food systems in East Africa.
Prioritizing investments for climate-smart agriculture: Lessons learned from Mali
Agricultural Systems, 2017
Agricultural productivity and growth in Mali are under threat from erratic rainfall, resulting in more frequent dry years. The national economy is vulnerable to climate change due to 50% of the gross domestic product coming from the agricultural sector and 75% of the population living in rural areas. The Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) concept arises from a need to provide innovative solutions towards the complex and integrated goals of increasing yields, improving resilience, and promoting a low emissions agricultural sector. A major challenge for policymakers to operationalize CSA is the identification, valuation (cost-benefit), and subsequent prioritization of climate-smart options and portfolios (groups of CSA options) for investment. This paper presents the process, results, and lessons learned from a yearlong pilot of the Climate-Smart Agriculture Prioritization Framework (CSA-PF) in Mali. Key national and international stakeholders participated in the co-development and prioritization of two CSA portfolios and related action plans for the Malian Sudanese zone. Initial steps towards outcomes of the process include inclusion of prioritized CSA practices in ongoing development projects and prompting discussion of modifications of future calls for agricultural development proposals by regional donors.