In sub-Saharan Africa, crop diversification features prominently in many countries’ climate change adaptation strategies. This study focuses on the determinants of adoption and on the impact of seven cropping systems in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia. The work finds that the selection of a high volatile or low productive cropping system increases smallholders’ vulnerability and exposure to food insecurity. The findings suggest that policies supporting private agricultural input and output market development are critical for inducing adoption of more diverse, resilient, [...]

This working document presents the results of an EX-ACT Greenhouse Gas appraisal of the "Mekong Delta Integrated Climate Resilience and Sustainable Livelihoods Project (MD-ICRSL)" conducted with the MD-ICRSL team during the EX-ACT workshop organized by FAO and the World Bank from 14 to 17 June 2016 in Hanoi. The Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool (EX-ACT) is an appraisal system developed by FAO providing ex-ante estimates of the impact of agriculture and forestry development projects, programmes and policies on the carbon-balance. The project [...]

This manual explains how to use the EX-Ante Carbon-balance Tool known as “EX-ACT” to estimate the impacts of management activities in coastal wetlands, aquaculture and fisheries on projects GHG balance. EX-ACT enables investment planners to design program activities that target high return outcomes in terms of climate change mitigation, and is intended to complement conventional ex-ante economic analysis.  

This report presents the results of an Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool (EX-ACT) Greenhouse Gas appraisal of the project “Sustainable management of critical wetland ecosystems” in Gabon. The project aims to improve protection of biodiversity in selected forested wetlands on the Ramsar list (Bas Ogooue, Monts Birougou and Petit Loango/Sette Cama). This will be achieved through knowledge creation and the development of conservation measures for the management of sustainable wetlands. The project seeks to cover 30 000 ha of forest area under [...]

In order to facilitate the different activities of targeting climate change mitigation in agriculture, decision makers can today choose from a wider range of available greenhouse gas (GHG) tools. These tools follow different main objectives (awareness raising, national reporting, (ex-ante) project evaluation, etc.), cover to a different extent all relevant GHGs as well as agricultural activities and are adapted to different geographical scales (farm, landscape, project, national scale). EX-ACT is targeted at providing project evaluations, characterized by relatively low data [...]

Policy and management of natural resources now require interdisciplinary approaches including natural and social sciences to correctly address our society preferences. This series provides a collection of works containing most recent findings on economics, management and policy of renewable biological resources, such as water, land, crop protection, sustainable agriculture, technology, and environmental health. It incorporates modern thinking and techniques of economics and management.    

This manual explains how to use the EX-Ante Carbon-balance Tool for Value Chain (EX-ACT VC) and how to address a multi-impact appraisal in terms of socio-economic and environmental performance of value chains. These guidelines justify the development of the tool, and introduce its goals for value chain analysis and the stepby-step approach of its modules.

Crop diversification is often promoted as a strategy to achieve climate resilience. However, the benefits to crop diversification may vary depending on household resource endowments. For farm households with few resources, as shown by studies of Burkina Faso, Malawi and Zambia, crop diversification is likely to be an important strategy for managing production and price risk. However, for larger, better capitalized farms, diversification may not be welfare enhancing, because returns to specialization may be higher for these households.

Cash transfer programmes are increasingly being used to combat poverty and hunger as well as to shape the human capital of future generations. Even though most of these programmes are not explicitly designed to help households manage climate risk, there are good reasons to expect that cash transfers can help build household resilience against climatic risk. This study aims to provide an empirical analysis of the effect of weather risk on the welfare of rural households using impact evaluation data [...]

Cash transfer programmes are increasingly being used to combat poverty and hunger as well as to shape the human capital of future generations. Even though most of these programmes are not explicitly designed to help households manage climate risk, there are good reasons to expect that cash transfers can help build household resilience against climatic risk. This study aims to provide an empirical analysis of the effect of weather risk on the welfare of rural households using impact evaluation data [...]