Vision

The Alliance is uniquely positioned to facilitate transformational partnerships, and its value addition lies in the following core action-oriented functions:

Convening – bringing people and institutions together to generate or scale up action at global, regional, and national levels.

Connecting – breaking down silos, building synergies, bridging the knowledge-uptake gap, fostering integrated approaches, and brokering partnerships to ensure that actions are taken.

Communicating – fostering co-learning, co-creation of knowledge and knowledge-sharing to facilitate the development of bankable sound projects.

Aspirational outcomes

The Alliance recognizes the urgent need to act at scale and to contribute towards three aspirational outcomes:

Sustainable and equitable increases in agricultural productivity and incomes;

Greater resilience of food systems and farming livelihoods;

Reduction and/or removal of greenhouse gas emissions associated with agriculture (including the relationship between agriculture and ecosystems), where possible.

About CSA

The concept of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) was originally developed by FAO and officially presented and at the Hague Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change in 2010, through the paper "Climate-Smart Agriculture: Policies, Practices and Financing for Food Security, Adaptation and Mitigation".

CSA is an approach to developing the technical, policy and investment conditions to achieve sustainable agricultural development for food security under climate change. The magnitude, immediacy and broad scope of the effects of climate change on agricultural systems create a compelling need to ensure comprehensive integration of these effects into national agricultural planning, investments and programs.

The CSA approach is designed to identify and operationalize sustainable agricultural development within the explicit parameters of climate change. However, achieving the transformations required for CSA and meeting these multiple objectives requires an integrated approach that is responsive to specific local conditions. Coordination across agricultural sectors (e.g. crops, livestock, forestry and fisheries) as well as other sectors, such as with energy and water sector development is essential to capitalize on potential synergies, reduce trade-offs and optimize the use of natural resources and ecosystem services.

FAO has developed a number of materials to guide stakeholders on the issues of climate smart agriculture (CSA).