Organizational Endline Study: Report for Nyando, Kenya

This report summarizes the findings from the Organizational Endline Survey (OES) carried out in Nyando Climate-Smart Village in June and July 2021. The survey is a complementary module to the household and the village endline surveys conducted over the same period. While the household and village surveys provided information from the beneficiaries, OES provided information from the service providers themselves. The three survey modules together provide comprehensive information on the impact of CCAFS interventions over the last ten years

Adoption of climate-smart agricultural technologies in Lushoto Climate-Smart Villages in north-eastern Tanzania

Agriculture holds significant potential for growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, production and productivity remain low due to factors such as climate change and variability, and limited access to and low adoption of appropriate technologies. Using data from Lushoto in Tanzania, this study explores the drivers of adoption of agricultural technologies and practices, taking into account the complementarity among agricultural technologies and heterogeneity of the farm households. The technologies include diversification of improved resilient crop varieties, inorganic fertilizer, and pesticides and/or herbicides. The results show that, conditional on the unobservable heterogeneity effects, household adoption decisions on diversification of multiple stress-tolerant crops, inorganic fertilizer, and pesticides and herbicides are complementary. The results also confirm existence of unobserved heterogeneity effects leading to varying impact of explanatory variables on adoption decisions among farmers with similar observable characteristics. Thus, any effective agricultural technology adoption and diffusion strategies and policies should take into account the complementarity of the technologies and heterogeneity of the households. Such technologies could be promoted as a package while taking into consideration household and farm level constraints to adoption

Uptake and impact of climate-smart agriculture on food security, incomes and assets in East Africa: Findings from Nyando Climate-Smart Villages in Western Kenya

Farmers in East Africa are experiencing increasing livelihood challenges attributed to increasing scarcity of agricultural land, steep rises in food prices, deteriorating soil fertility and associated declining crop yields, poor market access and, in some cases unclear land tenure systems (Yamano et al. 2011). Climate change compounds these challenges, with the region witnessing changing climatic conditions characterized by warmer temperatures, changing rainfall patterns and increased frequency and severity of extreme weather conditions (Wheeler and Von Braun 2013). Expected consequences and impacts of these changes include shortened and disrupted growing seasons, reduction in area suitable for agriculture and declining yields in agriculture (Connolly-Boutin and Smit 2016)

Impact of Climate Change on the Hydrology of the Upper Awash River Basin, Ethiopia

This study investigated the impacts of climate change on the hydrology of the Upper Awash Basin, Ethiopia. A soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model was calibrated and validated against observed streamflow using SWAT CUP. The Mann–Kendall trend test (MK) was used to assess climate trends. Meteorological drought (SPEI) and hydrological drought (SDI) were also investigated. Based on the ensemble mean of five global climate models (GCMs), projected increases in mean annual maximum temperature over the period 2015–2100 (compared with a 1983–2014 baseline) range from 1.16 to 1.73 °C, while increases in minimum temperature range between 0.79 and 2.53 °C. Increases in mean annual precipitation range from 1.8% at Addis Ababa to 45.5% over the Hombole area. High streamflow (Q5) declines at all stations except Ginchi. Low flows (Q90) also decline with Q90 equaling 0 m3 s−1 (i.e., 100% reduction) at some gauging stations (Akaki and Hombole) for individual GCMs. The SPEI confirmed a significant drought trend in the past, while the frequency and severity of drought will increase in the future. The basin experienced conditions that varied from modest dry periods to a very severe hydrological drought between 1986 and 2005. The projected SDI ranges from modestly dry to modestly wet conditions. Climate change in the basin would enhance seasonal variations in hydrological conditions. Both precipitation and streamflow will decline in the wet seasons and increase in the dry seasons. These changes are likely to have an impact on agricultural activities and other human demands for water resources throughout the basin and will require the implementation of appropriate mitigation measures

CSA options implemented and Evaluated across the CCAFS Climate-Smart Villages AR4D sites: 2016 Global Inventory

Location of the Climate-Smart Villages AR4D sites across the five focal CCAFS regions

Uptake and impact of climate-smart agriculture on food security, incomes and assets in East Africa

Increasing agricultural productivity and meeting food security needs in the face of climate variability and change in East Africa requires a range of technological, institutional and policy interventions. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is increasingly being used as an approach to integrated development. CSA refers to agriculture that sustainably increases agricultural productivity and livelihoods, resilience and adaptive capacity, reduces greenhouse gas emissions where possible, and enhances achievement of national food security and development goals. Since 2011, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change and Food Security (CCAFS) has been testing, evaluating and increasing access to and promoting a portfolio of CSA technologies and innovations across Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs) in East Africa. Using quasi-experimental approaches, this paper analyses the uptake and impact of CSA technologies (improved multiple stress-tolerant crop varieties, improved and better adapted livestock breeds and integrated soil and water conservation measures) on livelihood outcomes—food and nutrition security, incomes and asset accumulation, all of which are among the indicators of resilience

Brewing resilience for Ethiopia’s smallholder coffee farmers: A closer look at Ethiopia’s coffee sector to help address climate information gaps

A powerhouse in coffee production—Africa’s largest—and a place where more than 15 million people rely on the sector for their livelihoods (Petit 2007), Ethiopia is the world’s fifth-largest exporter of Arabica coffee (Moat et al. 2017), a product that represents 34% of the nation’s total export earnings (USDA 2019). Considering 70% of the total coffee traded in the world is Arabica, it is no surprise that 100% of Ethiopian coffee production is of this species (Kew & ECFF 2017). What is more, the country is considered the center of origin and genetic diversity of Arabica coffee (ECFF 2015). Although this species has a relatively high market value due to its exceptional quality, its production is, nonetheless, extremely sensitive to climate variability (Davis et al. 2012). It is estimated that by the end of the century climate could render 39-59% of Ethiopia’s coffee-growing areas unsuitable for cultivation (Moat et al. 2017)

The climate-smart village approach: Framework of an integrative strategy for scaling up adaptation options in agriculture

Increasing weather risks threaten agricultural production systems and food security across the world. Maintaining agricultural growth while minimizing climate shocks is crucial to building a resilient food production system and meeting developmental goals in vulnerable countries. Experts have proposed several technological, institutional, and policy interventions to help farmers adapt to current and future weather variability and to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This paper presents the climate-smart village (CSV) approach as a means of performing agricultural research for development that robustly tests technological and institutional options for dealing with climatic variability and climate change in agriculture using participatory methods. It aims to scale up and scale out the appropriate options and draw out lessons for policy makers from local to global levels. The approach incorporates evaluation of climate-smart technologies, practices, services, and processes relevant to local climatic risk management and identifies opportunities for maximizing adaptation gains from synergies across different interventions and recognizing potential maladaptation and trade-offs. It ensures that these are aligned with local knowledge and link into development plans. This paper describes early results in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to illustrate different examples of the CSV approach in diverse agroecological settings. Results from initial studies indicate that the CSV approach has a high potential for scaling out promising climate-smart agricultural technologies, practices, and services. Climate analog studies indicate that the lessons learned at the CSV sites would be relevant to adaptation planning in a large part of global agricultural land even under scenarios of climate change. Key barriers and opportunities for further work are also discussed

Effects of conversion of native cerrado vegetation to pasture on soil hydro-physical properties, evapotranspiration and streamflow on the Amazonian agricultural frontier

Understanding the impacts of land-use change on landscape-hydrological dynamics is one of the main challenges in the Northern Brazilian Cerrado biome, where the Amazon agricultural frontier is located. Motivated by the gap in literature assessing these impacts, we characterized the soil hydro-physical properties and quantified surface water fluxes from catchments under contrasting land-use in this region. We used data from field measurements in two headwater micro-catchments with similar physical characteristics and different land use, i.e. cerrado sensu stricto vegetation and pasture for extensive cattle ranching. We determined hydraulic and physical properties of the soils, applied ground-based remote sensing techniques to estimate evapotranspiration, and monitored streamflow from October 2012 to September 2014. Our results show significant differences in soil hydro-physical properties between the catchments, with greater bulk density and smaller total porosity in the pasture catchment. We found that evapotranspiration is smaller in the pasture (639 ± 31% mm yr-1) than in the cerrado catchment (1,004 ± 24% mm yr-1), and that streamflow from the pasture catchment is greater with runoff coefficients of 0.40 for the pasture and 0.27 for the cerrado catchment. Overall, our results confirm that conversion of cerrado vegetation to pasture causes soil hydro-physical properties deterioration, reduction in evapotranspiration reduction, and increased streamflow