Cauca leads climate smartness for agriculture in Colombia reaching 150,000 farmers

In 2017, CCAFS and Ecohabitats Foundation collaborated to increase knowledge and capacity on Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs) in Cauca, Colombia. Meetings and field-visits, which demonstrated how CSVs increase farmers' resilience to climate change, piqued the interest of Cauca's Environmental Authority in the approach. Subsequently, the Environmental Authority managed to prove the positive benefits of CSVs to the State Government of Cauca. This led to an investment of USD 66 million from the Royalties National Fund to scale climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in at least 8 municipalities.

The collaboration also included research activities that revealed the benefits of climate-smart agriculture for bean and vegetable production, harvesting, efficient use of water, and emissions reduction while saving income and identifying market opportunities.

Climate-smart agriculture practices have reached over 150,000 farmers to date, and the CSV in Cauca is now widely known in other countries through South-South exchanges that have been carried out. Several other achievements have followed: firstly, the “Youth for the Environment” initiative now has a rural node, expanding coverage, which was previously limited to urban areas. Secondly, Cauca's Environmental Authority is slated to receive USD 66 million from the Royalties National Fund to further scale out CSA in the region.