This was a presentation done at a working session meeting by the African Group of Negotiators (AGN), United National Economic Commission for Africa/African Climate Policy Centre (UNECA/ACPC), Africa Development Bank (AfDB), The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and AfricaInteract with support from International Development Research Centre (IDRC) for the agriculture and gender negotiators and experts to prepare the AGN submission to the upcoming 44th session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) scheduled to take place from 16 to 26 May 2016 in Bonn, Germany.

1. Mary Nyasimi, Catherine Mungai and Maren Radeny
CCAFS-East Africa
Agricultural practices and
technologies to enhance
resilience, food security and
productivity:
messages to SBSTA 44

2. Agricultural practices and
technologies to enhance food
security, resilience and productivity in
a sustainable manner: Messages to
the SBSTA 44 Agriculture Workshops
Info note February 2016:
Climate Change Adaptation in
Agriculture-Practices and
technologies: . Messages to the
SBSTA 44 agriculture
workshops
http://hdl.handle.net/10568/71053http://hdl.handle.net/10568/71051

3. Perspectives from Africa
Key Messages
 Agro-ecological zones & farming systems are extremely diverse - interventions
need to be targeted to specific contexts.
 Many agricultural practices and technologies beneficial to food security, resilience
and productivity.
 Indigenous knowledge provides the backbone of successful climate change
adaptation in crop farming, livestock and fisheries
 Bringing practices and technologies to scale is possible and underway. Strong
mechanisms for finance, capacity enhancement and technology transfer are
prerequisites for success.
 Engaging women in design & management of new technologies and practices will
help close the gender gap in agriculture & deliver positive outcomes

4. 8 Areas of Interventions
Agricultural Technologies and Practices
in Africa

5. Interventions focus on enhancing soil health – Build on existing indigenous
practices and knowledge to maximize benefits to climate change
adaptation.
• West African Sahel, a range of
indigenous practices – contour
stone bunds (CSB), half-moons
in Niger, zaï – address
challenges of rainfall runoff,
erosion & increasing organic
matter. CSBs reclaimed 300,000
ha of land
• Integrated soil fertility
management - use of organic &
inorganic fertilizers, well-adapted,
disease- and pest-resistant
germplasm, and good agronomic
practices
1. Soil and land management

6. 2. Crop management
Crop-specific innovations e.g. soil management, agroforestry, and water
management. Crop-specific innovations e.g. breeding of more resilient crop
varieties, diversification and intensification.
• Coffee Banana Intercropping in
East Africa - Banana trees
provide shade against
temperature increases & reduce
incidence of coffee leaf rust -
incomes by over 50% compared
to monocropping
• Bioversity Seeds for Needs
project: uses GIS to identify
gene bank accessions that may
be suitable for current and future
climatic conditions. Evaluation by
women farmers – Community
gene banks available

7. 3. Livestock management
Improved or modified livestock mgt practices: improved grazing mgt, use
of improved pasture & agroforestry sp, better use of locally available
feeds, highly nutritious diet supplements and concentrates, and
breeding for heat-tolerance. Better animal health mgt e.g. surveillance &
veterinary services to animal performance and productivity.
• Supplementary feeding of leaves
of the tree Leucaena
leucocephala – highly when fed
as a supplement can increase
meat and milk yield substantially
• Changing from local breeds to
cross-bred cattle - In Kenya,
heat-, drought and disease-
resistant crossbreeds of native
sheep and goats are being
introduced to increase resilience
& productivity of farming
households.

8. 4. Forestry and Agroforestry
• Cocoa Agroforestry Systems
(CAS) in Cameroon and
Ghana: use shade as an option
to reduce the impacts of climate
change. CAS mimics forest
structure and can contribute to
forest biodiversity
• Farmer-Managed Natural
Regeneration (FMNR) in
Niger: use of the extensive
systems of living roots
underneath the degraded land.
Farmers identify and protect
tree and shrub wildlings. Cereal
yields increased by an average
of 100kg/ha
In smallholder farming systems increasing forest cover and agroforestry
can build resilience and environmental health, including mitigation benefits.

9. 5. Fisheries and aquaculture
• Seeweed Multi-trophic fish farms in South Africa re-circulated
water increases productivity through nutrient cycling
Expansion and innovations in aquaculture offers cost- effective opportunities
to provide sustainable sources of protein under climate change.
• Catchment Water Allocation Tool
in Malawi: A decision support tool
used to explore options in water
allocation and management across
and within sub-catchments.
Harvesting and storing water can
support integrated farming of
crops, livestock and fish for
increasing food security and
nutrient intake, and diversifying
sources of farm income.

10. 6. Water management
• Low-cost gravity-fed drip irrigation systems in Benin & Togo. designed
and developed by farmer groups involving bunds, drainage canals and
irrigation infrastructure. increased rice yields by 3.5 to 4t/ha
Agriculture largest user of freshwater. Improved water mgt. can be achieved
through capture and retention of rainfall. Soil fertility and crop mgt
innovations also improve water use efficiency
• Emerging water
harvesting technologies
in Egypt & Morocco Use of
small basins and semi-
circular bunds & combining
trees and shrubs with the
use of contour ridges

11. 7. Climate information services
• Scaling Up Climate Services for
Agriculture in Senegal: Weather
forecasting and advisory services for 7.4
million rural people. Diverse partners,
Union of Rural Radio (URAC), a
federation of NGOs (FONGS), and the
Senegalese Agricultural Research
Institute (ISRA).
• Participatory Integrated Climate
Services for Agriculture (PICSA) in
Africa: Agricultural extension staff with
groups of farmers analyze historical
climate information & use participatory
tools to develop & choose crop, livestock
options best suited to individual farmers’
needs – Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Malawi,
Ghana and Lesotho
Climate information services help farmers cope with climate variability.

12. 8. Crop and livestock weather insurance
• Agriculture and Climate Risk Enterprise
(ACRE): Linking insurance to credit:
Rwanda, Kenya & Tanzania. 800,000
farmers reached. Crops maize, beans,
wheat, sorghum, millet, soybeans,
sunflowers, coffee & potatoes. Linked to
mobile money market (Mpesa). Projected to
reach 3 million farmers across ten countries
in Eastern and Southern Africa by 2018.
• R4 Rural Resilience Initiative in Senegal,
Ethiopia, Malawi & Zambia. < 32,000
farmers.
• Index Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI):
Pastoralists in northern Kenya & southern
Ethiopia. Enhances resilience by reducing
risk of asset loss through mortality or distress
sale resulting from drought
Well-designed and targeted agricultural insurance can enable farmers to re-
invest in inputs and technologies despite bad years

13. Lessons from implementation
• Strong mechanisms for finance, capacity development and technology
transfer are prerequisites for success of these agricultural practices and
technologies.
• Investment to reach scale by sharing of best-fit practices among
countries and farming communities, matching options to fine-scale
variations in local circumstances.
• Available decision support tools to match practices and technologies
with agro-ecological zones.
• Identify best-bet investment opportunities and country readiness for
implementation and scaling up - successful interventions can serve as
resources to assess investment risks and benefits, and seek international
support
• Promote gender equality - Engaging women in design & management of
new technologies practices will lead to more gender-sensitive innovations
• Potential for agricultural practices and technologies to achieve co-
benefits for environmental health and mitigation of greenhouse gas
emissions.

14. Thank you
www.ccafs.cgiar.org