Climate-Smart Agriculture

Hello ! Over the past month that I've been on Twitter, I've seen the concept of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) come up extensively: 

Climate-Smart promotes the use of technology, such as Big Data 
to increase farmer's adaptive capacities to climate change

What’s Climate-Smart agriculture? 

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is a concept coined by the FAO in 2010 as an ''approach for transforming and reorienting agricultural systems to support food security under the new realities of climate change''. The African Development Bank, in Facilitating Green Growth (2012) highlights that successful development will ensure that ''progress is sustainable, reconciling short-term and long-term needs'' with no mention of climate-smart agriculture. The concept is mentioned, however, in a 2014 report: Inclusive Growth - an Imperative for African Agriculture, in the section on climate change (p. 34) ''[...] improved efficiency in the use of natural resources such as land and water, and providing incentives for farmers to adopt climate-smart agricultural practices''. 

Why climate smart?

1. Sub-Saharan Africa currently holds the highest fertility rates and youngest populations. It is estimated that Africa's population will increase to over 1.6 billion by 2030 and that by 2050 food production will need to increase by 70% to meet the demand of urban populations alone (AfDB, 2012). Urbanization is going to increase, accompanied by rising energy, water, and raw material demands. Land-cover and land-use changes (affecting soil properties) are likely to increase with population and may become a limiting factor of groundwater recharge (Carter and Parker, 2009).
   
2. The agriculture and water sectors are highly vulnerable to climate change. River flows and groundwater recharge are likely to be impacted, with, generally, wet regions projected to get wetter and dry regions to get drier (The Royal Society, 2017). Changes in mean annual rainfall, as well as in its temporal and spatial distribution, are estimated to affect the water balance as a whole and groundwater recharge in particular (Carter and Parker, 2009) and further amplify water stress. Increasing temperatures and changes in precipitation are very likely to reduce cereal crop productivity, which can strongly undermine food security (IPCC AR5, WGII, chap 22).
   
3. Hunger and malnutrition affect an important percentage of African populations and many countries are reliant on food imports, estimated at around $30 billion annually (AfDB, 2014). Land degradation and low productivity are major threats, arising from low-input use, lack of water storage capacities, irrigation, and others factors, leading to declining rural incomes and affecting livelihoods (AfDB, 2014).
   
4. Extreme weather events are likely to exacerbate vulnerabilities and impose new risks. Extreme floods in Mozambique or the 2011 famine crisis in the Horn of Africa illustrate the dangers of weather- and climate-related disasters (AfDB, 2014).

Applications

Sustainable intensification is a mitigation and adaptation measure, reconciling productivity and resilience against land degradation and desertification. It focuses on conserving and enhancing natural resources using an ecosystem approach to agriculture while increasing yields without further expansion of land. 

While irrigation is largely discussed as a means to increase agricultural productivity, enabling dry season farming, in the context of CSA, increasing water efficiency is a key factor for increasing production, adapting to climate change and reducing emissions. With intensifying droughts and warming, farmers will favor more efficient irrigation technologies that reduce evaporation losses. One example is deficit irrigation, a strategy to save water in areas experiencing water shortage and periods of droughts so as to maximize water productivity, allowing ''water stress during a certain cropping stage or the whole season without a significant reduction in yield'' (Banjaw, et al., 2017).Smallholders can optimize the quantities of water and nutrients needed by applying inputs directly to plants at precise times using drip or micro-irrigation systems, for instance. 

A landscape approach to land-use, which integrates all sectors affected by climate change (agriculture, forestry, aquaculture and supporting ecosystem services) is ''crucial for sustainable development''. Bottom-up, community-led approaches are promoted to ensure local ownership over landscape management, however, these can only succeed with enabling policies. Take a look at these climate-smart family farms:

Applying Climate-Smart techniques to small-holder farms: click here to watch

CSA also promotes peer learning as ''an effective way to disseminate CSA knowledge [...] together with collective action, it can lead to the effective adoption of CSA practices'' (Acosta et al., 2017).

The CIAT is part of CGIAR, the world’s largest partnership of agricultural

research-for-development organizations heavily promoting Climate-Smart Agriculture 

Let's take the example of CSA application in Ethiopia: 

The country is already undertaking climate actions to lower GHG emissions from its large agricultural sector, seeking to maximize synergies between adaptation and mitigation. The country has tapped international funds under the Climate Resilient Green Economy framework in an integrated approach to a low carbon economy rooted in sustainable agricultural intensification, by adopting implementation plans with tangible targets (Negra et al., 2014). The country initiated innovative participatory watershed development programs. It has also set up partnerships with international donors to enforce food security programs, benefiting smallholder farmers. A Rural Household Survey revealed the contribution of community-level registration policy and the reform of national legislation, which has allowed women empowerment (through improved access to land and livestock) resulting in shifts in land ownership with tangible results (Negra et al., 2014). 

CSA policies at the national level must be matched by commitments made under multilateral agreements such as the UNFCCC, trade agreements and international donors pledges which clearly promote poverty reduction, as indicated in SDG 1: End poverty in all its forms and everywhere.