Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

The changing climate is hitting smallholder farmers hard. It is doing so especial in the African continent which is regularly pronounced as most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Agriculture in Africa must undergo a major transformation in the coming decades in order to meet the intertwined challenges of achieving food security, reducing poverty, and responding to climate change without depletion of the natural resource base. Climate-smart agriculture seeks to increase productivity in an environmentally and socially sustainable way, strengthen farmers’ resilience to climate change, and reduce agriculture’s contribution to climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon storage on farmland. Climate-smart agriculture includes proven practical techniques such as mulching, intercropping, conservation agriculture, crop rotation, integrated crop-livestock management, agro-forestry, improved grazing, and improved water management. In spite of the potential of Climate Smart Agriculture to improve resilience and to enhance agricultural production and rural livelihoods, systematic response to climate change through adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture practices and technologies is still very limited in Africa for a host of reasons. This study considers some of the challenges facing agriculture in Africa including: Lack of practical understanding of the approach; Lack of data and information and appropriate analytical tools at local and national levels; Inadequate coordinated, supportive, and enabling policy frameworks; Lack of adequate and innovative financing mechanisms and effective risk-sharing schemes; Limited credit and finance and poor physical and social infrastructure.