Integration of gender considerations in climate-smart agriculture R4D in South Asia: Useful research questions

Aimed at researchers working with climate-smart agriculture in South Asia, this resource suggests a set of issues to consider in relation to the integration of gender in climate-smart agricultural research for development. Climate change often exacerbates the problems and inequities that poor rural women face. The feminization of agriculture underscores the need to ensure that both men and women are able to learn about, try out, take up, and benefit from improved agricultural technologies, including climate-smart practices

Strengthening education, extension and training to accelerate climate resilience and low carbon development in the agriculture sector

The dynamic nature of climate and its impacts on agriculture is rendering most of the existing adaptation and coping strategies unsupportive in many regions. Recent studies on economic sectors (including agriculture) across institutions and 24 counties have established the following: a widened gap between skills possessed by youth and those required by the job market; inadequate technical skills and knowledge on climate change and climate-smart technologies by the extension service providers; climate change has not been adequately integrated into Kenya’s formal agricultural education, extension and training systems such as the Kenya School of Agriculture (KSA), Agricultural Technology Development Centres (ATDCs), Agricultural Training Centres (ATCs) and Agriculture Technical Vocational Education and Training (ATVET); the existing policies and strategies for capacity building for the agriculture sector have limited provisions for promoting climate resilient and low carbon development solutions. These calls for integration of climate change into the formal education, extension and training systems; equipping the training institutions to facilitate adoption of climate-smart innovations; capacity building of the extension service providers to enhance utilization and adaptation of the appropriate support agricultural technologies, innovations and climate-smart farming practices

Diversification of livelihoods among small-scale farmers in the Nyando Basin, Kenya: Findings from a climate-smart agriculture baseline survey

This brief summarizes findings of a climate-smart agriculture (CSA) research project led by the Amsterdam Center for World Food Studies (ACWFS) with the participation of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) in East Africa, University of Nairobi (School of Economics) and Wageningen Economic Research. It is based on baseline data collected as part of an ongoing survey of 122 households located in the Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs) and non-CSVs villages of Nyando Basin in Kisumu and Kericho Counties. It discusses diversification of livelihood sources

Fostering local adaptation platforms for agriculture: How context specific climate-smart villages (CSVs) can relate to local adaptation efforts.

Local adaptation platforms help empower sub-national and local government players, civil society organizations, and public-private partnerships in demonstrating the validity of agro-ecology-specific solutions to current and future climate change impacts. This brief discusses how Climate-Smart Villages, good examples of local adaptation platform, have served as centers for discovery, adaptation, learning, and sharing of climate-smart agriculture in local communities

Identifying Climate-smart agriculture research needs

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an approach to help agricultural systems worldwide, concurrently addressing three challenge areas: increased adaptation to climate change, mitigation of climate change, and ensuring global food security – through innovative policies, practices, and financing. It involves a set of objectives and multiple transformative transitions for which there are newly identified knowledge gaps. We address these questions raised by CSA within three areas: conceptualization, implementation, and implications for policy and decision-makers. We also draw up scenarios on the future of the CSA concept in relation to the 4 per 1000 Initiative (Soils for Food Security and Climate) launched at UNFCCC 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21). Our analysis shows that there is still a need for further interdisciplinary research on the theoretical foundation of the CSA concept and on the necessary transformations of agriculture and land use systems. Contrasting views about implementation indicate that CSA focus on the “triple win” (adaptation, mitigation, food security) needs to be assessed in terms of science-based practices. CSA policy tools need to incorporate an integrated set of measures supported by reliable metrics. Environmental and social safeguards are necessary to make sure that CSA initiatives conform to the principles of sustainability, both at the agriculture and food system levels

Closing the gender gap in climate-smart agriculture

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) has become a central concept shaping action and bringing together constituencies at the global level on agriculture and climate change. In essence, climate-smart agriculture pays explicit attention to how interventions in agriculture and food systems affect each of three key outcomes: food security, adaptation and mitigation (FAO 2013). The climate-smart agriculture movement is not prescriptive about how best to achieve these outcomes, nor how to manage the inevitable trade-offs – the idea is that locally appropriate priorities and solutions will be generated. A key question arises as to the winners and losers from these processes, in terms of gender as well as other social dimensions, and whether climate-smart agriculture help transform agriculture and rural development in ways that achieve major gains for gender equity

Accelerating innovation development and scaling processes for agricultural transformation

At the 5th Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture in Bali, CCAFS, IFAD and USDA-FAS organized the Side event “Accelerating innovation development and scaling climate-smart agriculture to drive a transformation in food systems”. High-level representatives of > 20 governments, research, donor, financial and policy institutions, civil society and private sectors discussed their previously shared insights and agreed to act as an “Insight Group” for further related CCAFS research and action. This Info Note summarizes the groups’ first findings, along with a short proposal for next steps

The AMIA Experience: Supporting local actions for Climate Resilient Agriculture

The brief tackles how the Adaptation and Mitigation Initiative in Agriculture (AMIA) Program of the Philippines’ Department of Agriculture (DA) served as a platform for supporting local actions for climate resilient agriculture. The document discusses a number of key lessons emerging from the AMIA Village experience on the importance of local platforms for adaptation in the form of Climate-Smart Villages towards overall resilience building of the sector

Designing knowledge-matching facilities for scaling climate-smart agriculture: A proposal for accelerating food systems’ transformation in a changing climate

The brief talks about designing knowledge-matching facilities for scaling climate-smart agriculture. This is a priority discussed in the International Workshop on Scaling up and out of Climate-smart Technologies and Practices for Sustainable Agriculture (an initiative initiating from 2019-MACSG20), as well as of numerous CCAFS partners in the governments, research, donor, financial and policy institutions, civil society and private sectors. CCAFS proposes to join efforts, and outlines a way forward to develop and/or shape knowledge matching facilities for accelerating food systems transformation in a changing climate. This document is intended to be a living document that informs members and interested stakeholders about intermediate results and the planned or next steps

Climate-smart agriculture appreciation event for the members of the Philippine Network of Environmental Journalists

The appreciation event was organized to provide the members of the media with the basic concepts about the effects of climate change to agriculture, and of the contribution of agriculture to climate change; to facilitate collection stories on field-based experiences through interactions with farmers who have adopted practices that helped them adapt to climate risks; and to showcase climate smart agriculture approaches in demo farms, school garden, and farmers field. Through this activity, they can also help IIRR extend its reach and scale-out learnings from various CSA initiatives. Once available, these media products will be collated