Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is proposed as a solution to transform and reorient agricultural systems to support food security under the new realities of climate change.
To address the need for proven and effective CSA options, CCAFS has developed the Climate-Smart Village (CSV) approach as a means to agricultural research for development (AR4D) in the context of climate change. It seeks to fill knowledge gaps and stimulate scaling of CSA. The CSV approach is founded on the principles of participatory action research for grounding research on appropriate and location/context-specific enabling conditions, generating greater evidence of CSA effectiveness in a real-life setting and facilitating co-development of scaling mechanisms towards landscapes, subnational and national levels. Read more about the CCAFS Climate-Smart Villages approach.
In Nyando, Kenya, CCAFS has been working since 2011 to test a variety of climate-smart practices and technologies to help farmers improve their food security and resilience, while mitigating the effects of climate change.
A recently published blog by the World Bank exemplifies the success of climate-smart agriculture with CCAFS’ work in the Nyando Climate-Smart Villages, among others in the region. Our work was also featured in a World Bank publication on climate-smart agriculture successes in Africa.
Source: World Bank
Results from the Nyando CSVs show that climate-smart practices and technologies help farmers better respond to climate variability; for example, a shift in farming techniques reduces the number of households eating one or no meals each day, and new livestock breeds provide additional income to farmers.
Sharing success stories such as CCAFS work in Nyando can help spread the word on the benefits of climate-smart agriculture and essentially contribute to transforming agriculture in the face of climate change. As COP23 has broken the deadlock, and reached a decision on next steps for agriculture within the UNFCCC framework, the next big step for CCAFS is to showcase our successes to help Parties take meaningful action on agriculture under the UN negotiations.
Read more:
- World Bank blog: Climate-smart agriculture: Lessons from Africa, for the World
- World Bank booklet: Climate-smart agriculture successes in Africa
- CCAFS booklet: Stories of Success: Climate-Smart Villages in East Africa
- CCAFS brochure: Climate-Smart Villages: An AR4D approach to scaling up climate-smart agriculture
- CCAFS Info Note: Kinyangi J, Recha J, Kimeli P, Atakos V. 2015. Climate-smart villages and the hope of food security in Kenya. CCAFS Info Note. Copenhagen, Denmark: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).