Significant climate-smart agriculture (CSA) investment is in the pipeline. Donors, multi-lateral agencies and government agencies are asking what the best-bet CSA options are for a given context.

This research is focused around developing a range of decision support tools, databases and knowledge products to evaluate the cost effectiveness of different CSA options and help CSA investments identify CSA priorities at a range of scales and make the best choices for delivering impact.

The development and application of this range of tools, drawn from ground-truthed data, aims to generate relevant information to support donors, governments and investors in making better choices for CSA-related programming and ultimately increase CSA adoption by farmers. The work is also focused on exploring target domains for climate-smart technologies through state-of-the-art crop-climate modelling.

Key research questions addressed include:

  • What is the value proposition of different CSA technologies and practices in terms of the three pillars of CSA?
  • What are the relative cost-benefits across a range of contexts, timescales and development scenarios?
  • What decision support tools will improve the value for money of CSA programming now and into the future and how can they best be applied to support that goal?
  • Where and when can a particular CSA option be considered climate-smart, and how do the trade-offs between pillars vary in space and time?