Morton, John ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8013-5794 (2017) Climate change and African agriculture: unlocking the potential of research and advisory services. In: Nunan, Fiona, (ed.) Making Climate Compatible Development Happen. Routledge, pp. 87-113. ISBN 9781138657021

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Abstract

Throughout sub-Saharan African countries, people's livelihoods, poverty and food insecurity are linked to a risky and uncertain agricultural setting which accelerating climate change and other interconnected stressors threaten to make even worse (Niang et al., 2014). Agriculture is also a significant contributor to climate change either directly through farming-related greenhouse gas emissions or indirectly through forest clearance (Smith et al., 2014). Under these conditions, there is potential for African agricultural research and advisory services to become key actors in strengthening adaptive capacity and enhancing resilience - and more speculatively in embracing opportunities offered by climate mitigation and low carbon-development in agriculture - through the promotion of agricultural innovation and learning.

This chapter relays findings from the Climate Learning for African Agriculture (CLAA) project to show the current obstacles to African research and advisory services in realising this potential. These obstacles include: the disjuncture throughout Africa between climate policies on the one hand and agricultural policies on the other; the limited learning resulting from localised projects; and the generic resource constraints experienced by government services. Key issues for unlocking the potential will include: embracing and taking further the turn from dissemination of technology to facilitating innovation systems; dealing with climate variability and risk, including through seasonal forecasting, as a basis for longer-term adaptation; assuming the role of brokering or facilitating contacts between farmers and climate finance; uptake of new opportunities from information and communication technologies; and continuous learning within and between policy, service delivery and farmer levels.

Item Type:	Book Section
Subjects:	S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Engineering & Science Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute > Livelihoods & Institutions Department
Last Modified:	28 Jun 2022 08:10
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/16696

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