Bundled CSA/CIS for AICCRA Ghana Project (Platform creation)

Esoko engaged ten (10) agents to profile farmers in AiCCRA operational areas. Based on the profiling, Esoko was able to create a network of 256,981, exceeding the target by 6,981 (2.79%). These farmers were provided with CIS/CSA technologie

Creation of Network on the Esoko platform to monitor beneficiaries and information dissemination

Esoko was able to create a network of 256,981 and provided them with Climate Information Services and Climate Smart Agriculture (CIS-CSA)

The 5Q approach for gender data on empowerment in climate adaptation projects: Case study in Ghana

Our research validates the 5Q approach (5Q) for the collection of gender data on empowerment in climate adaptation projects. 5Q was developed as a cost-effective and innovative system for capturing near-real-time feedback within projects. 5Q uses smart-question-trees (5Q-SQTs) and digital tools to complement traditional methods of data collection. It has been widely used to measure changes in knowledge/attitudes/skills to understand the adoption of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices and for M&E systems of climate-smart villages. It uses simple sets of questions part of a logic-question-tree structure, implemented at multiple rounds, thus simplifying the burden for respondents while rapidly and with high frequency providing feedback to the project implementers

Scaling up climate information services through public-private partnership business models

Between 2011 and 2017, CCAFS West Africa piloted how the dissemination of climate information services (CIS) to farmers in its climate-smart village sites (Lawra and Jirapa) in Ghana could help them avert risks associated with climate change and variability. The pilot was executed with 1000 profiled and geo-referenced farmers (33% women) through a collaboration with a private information and communication technology (ICT) company, Esoko in Ghana and the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet). During the pilot, Esoko delivered processed weather information received from GMet and other sources to farmers using mobile phone platforms. The Esoko platform also allows farmers to access a call center where CIS is delivered to them vocally in their local dialect. The forecast information included the total rainfall, the onset and end of the rainy season, and a 10-day forecast during the rainy season (Partey et al., 2018). In addition to the weather forecast information, farmers receive market alerts and agro-advisories that are intended to help them understand and apply the received information. A survey conducted in 2017 showed CIS received by farmers enabled them to make mixed strategic decisions on crop variety selection, time of planting, time of applying fertilizer, time of irrigating, time of harvesting etc. which contributed to reducing crop failures and increasing household food availability for both men and women (Partey et al., 2018). To sustain the delivery of CIS to farmers at the cli-mate-smart village sites and reach others in the country, Esoko adopted a public-private partnership (PPP) business model proposed by CCAFS. The PPP is particularly targeted at farmers subscribing to the "Planting for Food and Jobs" (PFJ) initiative in-troduced by the Government of Ghana as part of its measures to improve food security and employment in the agricultural sector. This document presents the nature of the PPP model and preliminary resul

Creating seamless access to data and information along the agricultural value chain: a fact-based decision support hub for sustainable climate smart agriculture

This policy briefing captures recommendations for the design infrastructure, implementation and operationalization of an Agricultural-Data Hub as a robust digital data exchange backbone for information and data sharing among relevant stakeholders for fact-based decision making among players in the Agricultural value chain, policy makers, and many others towards a more sustainable and climate smart agriculture. Additionally, this document makes a case for an Ag-Data Hub to be setup as a piping backbone of privately or publicly managed distributed networks of data and information systems

The impacts of weather and climate information services on technical efficiency and farm productivity among smallholder farmers in the Upper West Region of Ghana

This study evaluates the impacts of a pilot project that introduced weather and climate information services (CIS) on technical efficiency (TE) and sorghum productivity (Y) using a total of 210 plotlevel data comprising of 92 users and 118 nonusers of CIS in the Upper West Region of Ghana. First, we estimate a Stochastic Frontier model to measure the level of TE using a Cobb-Douglas functional form with the assumption of an exponential distribution for the identification of TE scores. Secondly, we measure the impact of the adoption of CIS on TE and Y separately by addressing the potential bias stemming from the existence of unobserved characteristics using a Control Function estimator. Thirdly, we employ a Recursive Structural Equation System to deal with the simultaneous problems of the endogenous treatment of CIS into Y, the endogenous covariate of TE into Y, and the reverse causality between Y and TE. Overall, our findings are robust to the different methodologies with strong evidence that the pilot project through the adoption of CIS has a substantial positive effect on improving TE and Y in the study area. Our empirical results consistently estimate approximately 6% increase in TE and 35% sorghum yield improvement corresponding to 150 Kg/Ha increased productivity among CIS users. Furthermore, when we simultaneously estimate the combined effects of the adoption of CIS and the level of TE on sorghum productivity with and without the problem of reverse causation between Y and TE, the median value of the average treatment effects (ATE) is 10%. Also, improving the level of TE has a higher payoff among users than nonusers of CIS resulting in increased sorghum productivity of 5% when we compare the average treatment effects on the treated (ATET) and the average treatment effects on the untreated (ATEU). These results underscore a valuable policy insight and the importance of privileging the wide adoption of CIS and promoting the efficient use of inputs with best-recommended climate-smart agricultural practices such as crop management and increasing trainings to raise awareness in future project expansion. However, it appears that the magnitudes of the impacts of the adoption of CIS on Y using the ATE, ATET, and ATEU are sensitive to whether we address the potential reverse causality between Y and TE. These findings indicate that more caution should be considered in the evaluation of the impacts of a project that promotes agricultural innovations including information communication technologies on farm productivity and technical efficiency

Promoting the National Framework for Climate Services in Ghana Through Collaborative Effort for Sustainable Agriculture

This policy briefing captures recommendations for the development and implementation of the National Framework for Climate Services (NFCS) in Ghan

Media and mass campaign on CSA/CIS and One-health concept and innovations

AICCRA Ghana is leverage the wide network of media and mass dissemination tools to scale Climate Smart Innovations and Climate Information Services to farmer

Capacitation of stakeholders on CSA, CIS and One-Health approaches

In order to establish and go on to strengthen CSA-CIS and One-Health Innovation Platforms at the AICCRA project intervention communities, there is the need to train relevant intermediary stakeholders to understand the One-Health concept and how it can be boosted with climate-smart agriculture innovations and integrated climate services for agriculture. These intermediary stakeholders comprise of municipal/district agriculture directors, crop officers, extension officers, and lead farmers. Their understanding of these concepts will contribute to mainstreaming them into their day-to day activities and sharing the knowledge beyond the AICCRA intervention communities

Developing Public-Private Partnerships for effective access and use of climate information services by farmers and pastoralists in the Great Green Wall intervention zone of Mali

This report describes a methodological approach for the co-development of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) for effective access and use of climate information service by farmers and pastoralists in the Great Green Wall intervention zone of Mali. The implementation started with the characterisation of the strengths and weaknesses of potential public-private partners institutions including the National Agency of the Great Green Wall (ANGMVM), the National Meterological Agency (MALI-METEO), the Mobile phone company (Orange Mali) and the Institute of Rural Economy (IER). Then, a participatory and inclusive discussion was engaged for establishing partnership. The research activity pursues three specific objectives: i) Evaluate existing partnerships and mechanisms for mainstreaming CIS and agro-advisories into the activities conducted by the Great Green Wall National Agency of Mali; ii) Develop Public-Private Partnerships for the sustainable management of climate risks in the zone of the Great Green Wall; iii) Define activities, roles and responsibilities and possible contractual issues for the sharing of costs and benefits between the actors involved in Climate Information Service activities in Mali. We found that in the GGW zone, the main partners evolve individually according to their interest, and there is lack of coordination, indicating a need to setting partnerships for climate information services access and use. The development of PPP business models through this activity allowed participants to get to know better each other but also to engage in a win-win partnership under which each partner will play a key role based on their areas of expertise. Three comprehensive business models were elaborated: Business-to-Business-toClients (BBC) model without revenue sharing, Business-to-client (B2C) model and Business-to-businessto-client (BBC) with the revenue sharing for PPP in the GGW zone in Mali. The validated and consensual model for next steps was the BBC with revenue sharing part as it involved all the partners and provides sufficient room for sustainability. The Business to client model is more flexible and can be run nationwide in Mali