Climate-smart technologies to build resilience in agriculture of Niger, Mali

Two projects were recently launched to adopt climate-smart agricultural technologies in Niger and Mali for increasing food security and improving rural livelihoods.

The projects, ‘Climate Smart Agricultural Technologies for improved Rural Livelihoods and Food Security (CSAT)’ in Mali and Niger, will attempt to scale up technologies that help make agriculture resilient to climate challenges, and deploy them. Maize, cowpea, sorghum, pearl millet and groundnut are target crops. Norway is funding the projects with specific objectives that include sustainable intensification of agricultural production, achieving improved resilience of production systems, increasing employment opportunities for youth, women and marginalized social groups.

Over 60 participants attended the launch event held on 20 March at ICRISAT’s Samanko station in Mali.

“Agricultural sector in Mali is promising but presents a lot of challenges. Our main goal is to improve food and nutrition security,” Mr Linderman Ole Andreas, Ambassador of Norway in Mali, said while explaining the reasons for supporting the projects.

The projects are being implemented by a collaboration of institutions which includes International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), ICRISAT, Institut National de Recherche Agronomique du Niger (INRAN), IER and others.  The CSAT proposal was drafted by IITA following a request from the Norwegian Embassy for initiatives to support resilience in agricultural sector. CSAT will be implemented in four major regions across Mali and Niger by leveraging existing partnerships and projects.

“CSAT consists of two major components. First component is focused on scaling up climate-smart technologies while the second component involves development and deployment of adaptive technologies,” said Dr Abdoulaye Tahirou, Project Manager, IITA.

“ICRISAT is ready to support this project in all its dimensions” said Dr Aboubacar Touré, who represented Dr Ramadjita Tabo, Research Program Director, ICRISAT-WCA. Dr Tabo is the principal investigator for the projects.

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