The West and Central African region is becoming highly vulnerable to climate change. Governments of the region are promoting small-scale irrigation to improve crop production and to increase the resilience of smallholder farmers to climate change. In this context, FAO, in collaboration with the Agrhymet Regional Centre - a specialized institution of the Permanent Interstates Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) - and the Ministry of Agriculture of Niger organized a workshop in Niamey, Niger, from 17 to 21 April 2018, on how to assess the impacts of climate change on crop yields using AquaCrop, the crop model developed by FAO. The workshop was organized in the framework of the AICCA project.

Thirty five participants attended the workshop from Niger, Mali, the Gambia and Côte d’Ivoire, representing the government, the research and private sectors, as well as IFAD and FAO. A follow-up workshop will take place in June 2018 to share the preliminary results of the analysis of the impact of climate change and to discuss the adaptation strategies of small-scale irrigation to climate variability.