The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) has launched an online guide on climate-smart agriculture (CSA) that aims to provide practitioners, researchers and decision makers with the resources required to develop strategies to implement the CSA approach to food security and sustainable development.
April 2016: The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) has launched an online guide on climate-smart agriculture (CSA) that aims to provide practitioners, researchers and decision makers with the resources required to develop strategies to implement the CSA approach to food security and sustainable development.
Titled ‘Climate-Smart Agriculture 101,’ the web portal provides access to an extensive portfolio of resources including background information, a reference library, glossary of key terms, practical tools, videos and case studies through a user-friendly interface.
The website is divided into six parts. The first section explains the basics of the CSA approach and how it contributes to addressing food security, climate change and other challenges. The second section describes possible entry points for CSA activities in the areas of practice, systems approaches and enabling environments. The third section provides guidance for developing a CSA plan in four steps: situation analysis; targeting and prioritization; programme support; and monitoring, evaluation and learning. The remaining sections present resources on finance and funding opportunities; references and resources for further reading; and a database of case studies that can be searched by region or entry points.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) defines CSA as “agriculture that sustainably increases productivity, enhances resilience, reduces or removes greenhouse gases where possible, and enhances achievement of national food security and development goals.” CSA systematically integrates climate change in agricultural development planning in order to increase productivity and resilience, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
CSA research and implementation is one of the focal areas of CCFAS’ work, including the testing, evaluation and scaling up of portfolios of technologies and practices that meet farmers needs while building adaptive capacity and resilience of farming systems.
The CSA portal was developed by CCAFS for the World Bank and in collaboration with FAO and other partners. [CCAFS News Blog] [CSA 101 Web Portal]