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Scientists unpack farm- and field-level interventions associated with climate-smart agriculture to assess evidence of changes in productivity, resilience and mitigation.

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) includes a range of practies - some well established and others recently developed - that aim to increase farmers' food security, livelihoods and resilience to climate change while also providing mitigation co-benefits to the extent possible.  

While some agricultural practices have been researched at length and in various locations, there is not yet a database of climate-smart agricultural practices and technologies that work well and where, and would thus allow farmers, extension agents, or policy-makers to decide which practices to scale up and how. But that database is on the way, and preliminary findings are becoming available.

Todd Rosenstock, scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), is coordinating with scientists from CCAFS and partner organizations to:

  • Map the available literature and evidence across a range of highly-cited potential CSA practices to evaluate the evidence base and identify knowledge gaps.
  • Conduct a quantitative meta-analysis to understand the depth of scientific evidence for each of the three components of CSA, highlighting the synergies and trade-offs of potential CSA practices, including across systems and continents.
  • Analyze barriers to/determinants of adoption of CSA practices, including impacts on the workloads of women, to provide a comprehensive understanding of the enabling environments for practices covered in the meta-analysis.
A description of the review and methodology, including the themes and practices the authors agreed upon, is now available in CCAFS Working Paper no. 138, called The scientific basis of climate-smart agriculture: A systematic review protocol.
 
Preliminary findings are available in recently released info note. A full database will be posted with open access later in 2016.
 
Publications
Rosenstock TS, Lamanna C, Arslan A, Richards BM. 2015. What is the scientific basis for climate-smart agriculture? CCAFS Info Note. Copenhagen, Denmark: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security.
 
Rosenstock TS, Lamanna C, Chesterman S, Bell P, Arslan A, Richards M, Rioux J, Akinleye AO, Champalle C, Cheng Z, Corner-Dolloff C, Dohn J, English W, Eyrich AS, Girvetz EH, Kerr A, Lizarazo M, Madalinska A, McFatridge S, Morris KS, Namoi N, Poultouchidou N, Ravina da Silva M, Rayess S, Ström H, Tully KL, Zhou W. 2016. The scientific basis of climate-smart agriculture: A systematic review protocol. CCAFS Working Paper no. 138. Copenhagen, Denmark: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).
 
 
More information

 

Julianna White is Program Manager for CCAFS Low emissions agriculture research flagship.