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This guidance entitled Integrating Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in CSA Programs focuses on a set of agricultural practices to be implemented by small-scale food producers in developing countries. The purpose of this document is to provide agriculture development practitioners and policy makers globally, with guidance, tools and examples of successful integration of gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) into climate smart agriculture (CSA) work, by demonstrating the necessity and benefits of incorporating a GEWE approach in CSA work; and presenting tested strategies for enhancing the engagement of women and particularly vulnerable groups in CSA work. With a view towards [...]

The increased frequency and severity of natural hazards and disasters, partly largely caused by climate change and variability, has adverse serious negative impacts on the agriculture sectors, threatening peoples’ lives and livelihoods as well as national economies.  To tackle this challenge, it is important to invest in disaster risk reduction measures that can both increase sustainable agricultural production and boost the resilience of current and future generations. Even in the absence of a disasters event, these investments can yield provide significant benefits, for example by encouraging households to protect existing  assets and build new ones, as well as by promoting entrepreneurship [...]

This report presents the findings of a multi-year FAO study undertaken on over 900 farms in ten different countries that measured, using field data, benefits gained through the use of innovative farming practices designed to boost the resilience of farmers in the face of natural disasters and other shocks. Its findings show that the use of good disaster risk reduction practices offer significant economic gains at the household level, and also that – because they are usually low-cost and easily implemented – they hold significant potential for reducing disaster risks at the national and regional scales as well. These results [...]

This paper is an accompaniment to the FAO study, The Agricultural Sectors in the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs): Analysis. Building on the results of that study, this paper outlines key types of support developing countries will require to effectively implement and report on their agricultural sector commitments, and ultimately scale up ambition in the coming years. 

Widespread maize monocropping in Malawi exposes farmers to significant livelihood risk in the context of increasing climate variability. 36 percent of rural households grow maize in monocrop. These farmers are often poor and land constrained, and experience low levels of productivity and high production volatility. The effects of crop diversification on farm productivity and income volatility in Malawi varies across cropping systems. Maize in combination with legumes is the only crop system in Malawi that is significantly associated with an increase in productivity and a reduction in crop income volatility. Contrary to expectations, crop systems with 3 or more [...]

Spatial disconnect between cropping system diversification and climate risk. In Zambia, farmers residing in areas with low and medium rainfall risk are more likely to adopt diversified systems than farmers in areas with lower rainfall and greater rainfall variability. Lack of diversification in high risk regions poses a significant threat to livelihood resilience in those regions. Diverse cropping systems improve productivity and resilience. Increased level of diversification is associated to more stable crop income, when compared to maize monocropping. However, farmers facing land fragmentation, weakness of private input and output markets and uncertainty from the public policies are less likely [...]

Farmers in Mozambique are diversified, but subsistence-oriented. Thirty-seven percent of farmers in Mozambique grow a three crop system based on maize, a legume, and an alternative staple, such as cassava or sorghum. This system is an effective adaption strategy, as it reduces crop income volatility compared to less diverse systems, but it is also associated with low levels of productivity, input use, and incomes. Adoption of cash cropping system improves farmers’ welfare. Farmers who adopt cash crops have higher average incomes and higher productivity levels. However, only 19 percent of farmers grow cash crops. Limited household resources and isolation from [...]

This working paper analyses the effect climate change is expected to have on agricultural productivity, caloric consumption, and vulnerability to food insecurity of household agricultural producers in Paraguay. Our results suggest that increasing temperatures and reduced precipitation will reduce agricultural productivity and caloric consumption, and increase vulnerability to food insecurity. Specifically, a 1 percent increase in average maximum temperatures is associated with a 5 percent reduction in agricultural productivity. A 5 percent reduction in agricultural productivity translates into nearly a 1 percent reduction in caloric consumption. Vulnerability to food insecurity in Paraguay is expected to increase by 28 percentage points [...]

En Tchad, la vulnérabilité aux événements climatiques extrêmes est amplifiée par la faiblesse des structures administratives (ministères, organismes gouvernementaux et administrations locales), par le manque de ressources humaines et financières et le manque d'efficacité des capacités d’adaptation des ménages; les impacts des changements climatiques sont ressentis dans l'agriculture, l'élevage, la pêche, la santé, le logement ainsi que dans d’autres domaines. Compte tenu de ce contexte, renforcer la capacité de résilience de la population à des chocs récurrents tout en gardant à l'esprit l'hétérogénéité régionale est un élément clé qui doit être pris en compte dans les interventions de réduction de [...]

Rwanda is the sixth largest producer of potatoes in Africa, and the Irish potato is one of the most important crop in the country. Small scale farmers and food enterprises though strong contenders for regional and domestic market opportunities, have difficulties entering the value chain. To unleash their potential, the African Roots and Tubers project sought to: (i) increase and intensify sustainable market-led production and (ii) strengthen farmers’ cooperatives; (iii) improve access to climate change risk management tools and access to finance; and (iv) develop business models throughout the value chain in which farmers and enterprises play a key role [...]