It is important to understand the impact of climate change on production and price variability of roots and tubers. Irish potato is particularly susceptible to climate variability and change. It is generally grown in mountainous areas and is therefore vulnerable to landslides, and it is sensitive to droughts. With cassava, it is important to understand how its use for household food security affects its availability for marketing and processing.

The project focuses on two key areas: developing climate information services and climate risk management tools in collaboration with meteorological institutes. 

Approach

• Analysing the impacts of climate variability on production and price fluctuations.
• Developing value added climate information services to enable better application of climate information in the production of roots and tubers.
• Developing location specific climate change risk management strategies.
• Developing the technical capacity of agricultural support services to make use of climate risk management tools and methods to reduce production variability.

Examples from project countries

In Malawi, the project will work with the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services (DCCMS) to include cassava in their analysis of climate impacts on inter-annual production variability and price fluctuations.

In Rwanda and Uganda, relevant government agencies will be supported to analyse the impacts of climate variability on production and price fluctuations of potato.

In Cameroon, agricultural support services will be trained on the use of climate risk management tools to reduce the variability of cassava production.

A regional workshop will be organized to share lessons learned and experiences on climate risk management tools.