Introduction to Climate-Smart Agriculture
Busia County, March 2, 2020

What is Climate-Smart Agriculture?

What are the objectives of CSA?
Sustainably
increase
agricultural
productivity and
income
Reduce and/or
remove
greenhouse gas
emissions
Adapt and build
resilience to
climate change

Sustainably
increase
agricultural
productivity
and income
Reduce and/or
remove
greenhouse
gas emissions
Adapt and build
resilience to
climate change
• What do productivity, resilience and mitigation mean to you?
• Write a word or phrase for each pillar and add it to the board
Defining the CSA Pillars

Brief History of CSA
KEY EVENTS
2009: CSA IS
BORN
FAO & partners
broadly define
the approach
2014:
MOON
SHOT
UN Secretary
General sets goal
of reaching 500m
smallholders
2019: CSA
TURNS 10
?
2014 - x:
MASSIVE
MOBILIZATION
Billions of USD of
public and private
sector investment,
10s of Alliances, 10s of
countries

NEPAD
Vision 25x25:
25 million
smallholders
practicing
CSA in Africa
by 2025

Kenya’s Response to CSA
Policies Programs

CSA can be practiced at different scales…
… from individual farms

How is CSA practiced at farm scale?

What are some farm-level CSA practices?

How is CSA practiced at landscape scale?

What are some landscape-scale CSA practices?

Examples of CSA in Kenya
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niyB9-KqPyA
https://youtu.be/kaKqsio88iI?t=73

CSA FAQs
1. Does a practice need to do achieve all three pillars, productivity,
adaptation & mitigation?
Not necessarily. In developing countries, mitigation is seen as a co-benefit
rather than a requirement. Also, in a portfolio or landscape approach, some
practices could focus on productivity and resilience while others focus on
mitigation, as long as all objectives are being met in the entire area.
2. Isn’t this just the same as {sustainable agriculture, agroecology}?
CSA’s “equal” focus on productivity, resilience, and mitigation differentiates
it from other approaches, but it shares many characteristics with other
approaches to sustainable food security. CSA is also not prescriptive, but
must be tailored to the local context.
3. Other Questions?

Contact:
Hannah kamau (ICRAF)
h.n.kamau@cgiar.org
Thank you!

Mapping
CSA
in Busia

Developing a Basket of CSA Options

Busia Funyula Nambal
e
Butula Teso
North
Teso
South
Budala
ngi
Crops
Livestock
Fisheries
Water
&
Irrigati
on
Mapping CSA in Busia County

Project Name:
Where: sub-counties, wards
Who: project partners? how many farmers?
What: what crops/animals? what
technologies/activities?
Status: on going? finished?
Results: any reports? outputs? where are they?
For each Project/Activity: Crops
Livestock
Fisheries
Water &
Irrigation
Mapping CSA in Busia County

Project Name:
Where: sub-counties, wards
Who: project partners? how many farmers?
What: what crops/animals? what
technologies/activities?
Status: on going? finished?
Results: any reports? outputs? where are they?
For each Project/Activity: Crops
Livestock
Fisheries
Water &
Irrigation
Mapping CSA in Busia County

Prioritizing
CSA Options
Using Data
Hannah Kamau
h.n.kamau@cgiar.org
World Agroforestry (ICRAF)
Busia County
March 2020

The Challenge for CSA Programs
Many Practices Many Goals Many Contexts
MitigationResilience
Productivity
Of What?
Most common crops?
Most vulnerable crops?
For Whom?
Most farmers?
Most vulnerable farmers?

Bayala et al.
The Importance of Context
In a given farming system…
Some practices improve
outcomes
Others do not…

Pittelkow et al. 2014
Effect on Maize Yield (%)
Conservation Agriculture
The Importance of Context
For a given option…
It can improve outcomes in
some places
But not in others

Not
CSA
CSA
Rosenstock & Lamanna
Context
Many practices/programs/policies
can be CSA somewhere
But none are likely CSA everywhere

Not
CSA
CSA
Rosenstock & Lamanna
Context
How do we determine the best-bet
practices to scale up?

Prioritization
CSA Options
Yield
Income
Soil Health
Gender Equity
Adoption Potential
etc..
Best-Best
Options
1.Identify the context
2.Identify the options
3.Identify the outcomes
4.Generate evidence
5.Evaluate the evidence
6.Choose the best-bet options

1. Identify Context
Crops Livestock Fisheries
- For whom?
- Majority of farmers?
- Most vulnerable?
- Most likely to adopt change?

Crops
Drought-tolerant varieties
Access to weather info
Training farmers
Water Harvesting
Soil Water Conservation
IPM
Livestock
Breed Improvement
Vaccinations
Fodder Formulations
Pasture Conservation
Livelihood Diversification
• How were options identified?
• Are there other options that might be relevant?
• Where else could we look for options?
2. Identify Options
Fisheries
Fish ponds & linings
Improved feeding
Greenhouse fishing
Improved hatcheries
Cage culture

3. Identify Outcomes
MitigationResilience
Productivity

Trade-offs and Synergies
You may notice that some options have positive impacts for one outcome,
but neutral or negative impacts in others.
Increased Yield Inorganic Fertilizer GHG Emissions, Costs
Less erosion,
Improved soil quality,
mitigation
Agroforestry Lower yields
Increased resilience to
droughts
Irrigation High cost, high labor
demand

Trade-offs and Synergies
Yiel
d
SoilCarbon
+/+-/+
+/--/-
TRADE-OFF
TRADE-OFF
SYNERGY
BAD IDEA!

4. Generate Evidence
For each Farming System x CSA option, we need to generate evidence
on the outcomes that we are interested in.
What kinds of evidence can we use?
Farmer’s Knowledge Scientific Experiments

Scientific Evidence
What information does a scientific study give us?
Bayala et al.
• Direction
• Magnitude
• Uncertainty

Scientific Evidence
Lots of studies have been published on things that might be CSA…

Scientific Evidence
What kind of information do we get from farm level experiments?

Scientific Evidence
Thousands of studies have been done on potential CSA options in Africa
70
Practices
x 20
Indicators
Abstract/title review
Full text review
Key word search
Data extraction
+50,000
studies
1700 studies

Scientific Evidence
From farm experiments to a Global Database

1. How does adding fertilizer
change maize yield?
2. How much variability is
there?
3. How confident can we be
in this result?
CSA & Cereal Yield in Semi-Arid
nic
Fertilizer
(e.g. NPK,
DAP, etc.)
Variability in Change
Mean Change in Yield

CSA & Cereal Yield in Semi-Arid

Agroecological Zones

Does AEZ affect CSA?

Does AEZ affect CSA?

5. Evaluate Evidence
In your subsector groups:
1. Examine the data available for CSA options
2. Is there anything you would add to your basket based on the data?
3. Is there anything you would take away?

6. Choosing Options
Data
Outcomes
Options
Prioritization
Portfolio

Contact:
Hannah Kamau (ICRAF)
h.n.kamau@cgiar.org
Thank you!

Prioritizing
CSA
Actions

Prioritization for CSA Action Plan
CSA Actions Goals Best-Best
Actions
3.Identify the options
4.Generate evidence
1. Identify the context -> Busia Sub-Sectors
2. Identify the outcomes -> CSA
Goals -> CSA Inventory
-> Data
5.Evaluate the evidence -> Rose/Bud/Thorn
6.Choose the priority actions

1.Adapt & Build
Resilience to
Climate Change
2. Mitigate GHG
Emissions
3. Enabling
Environment &
Coordination
4. Cross-cutting
Issues (gender,
resources, data,
etc.)
Strategic
Objectives

1. Assign Roses/Buds/Thorns & Options from the
Basket to KCSA Strategic Objectives
2. Prioritize 1-2 actions per Obejctive

1. Assign Roses/Buds/Thorns & Options from the
Basket to KCSA Strategic Objectives
2. Prioritize 1-2 actions per Component (30 min)
Adaptation
& Resilience
Mitigation
Enabling
Environment
Cross-
Cutting
Issues

1. Assign Roses/Buds/Thorns & Options from the
Basket to KCSA Strategic Objectives
2. Prioritize 1-2 actions per Objective