UPSCALING CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

The document argues that while climate-smart agriculture (CSA) can enhance food security and climate resilience in sub-Saharan Africa, its adoption is hindered by physical input shortages and institutional failures. It recommends improving tenure security, expanding financial instruments like crop insurance, and strengthening local governance and scientific research to scale these practices.

• Sub-Saharan Africa faces severe food insecurity, with approximately 153 million people (26% of the population aged 15 or older) suffering from it in 2014/15, the highest prevalence globally.
• The agricultural sector is a major contributor to climate change, accounting for 30% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, making it the second largest emitter after the energy sector.
• Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an approach based on three pillars: sustainably increasing productivity and incomes, adapting and building resilience to climate change, and reducing or removing greenhouse gas emissions.
• Specific CSA implementations have shown success, such as in Zambia where maize production tripled when grown under the indigenous African acacia Faidherbia albida, and in Malawi where evergreen agriculture doubled or tripled crop yields.
• Barriers to CSA adoption are split into physical input constraints—such as fragmented landholdings, limited credit, and lack of high-yielding, disease-resistant seeds—and enabling environment constraints, including inconsistent agrarian policies and institutional inefficiencies.
• To upscale CSA, the document recommends four priority policy areas: improving tenure security to encourage land investment, providing financial guarantees (such as crop insurance and micro-credit), creating a functional governance system to disseminate information, and strengthening scientific research and technical training.

APA

Suleman, K. K. (2017). UPSCALING CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Policy-Insights-48.pdf

Chicago

Suleman, Kassahun Keliifa. UPSCALING CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2017. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Policy-Insights-48.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Suleman |first1=Kassahun Keliifa |title=UPSCALING CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=July 2017 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Policy-Insights-48.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{suleman2017upscaling, author = {Suleman, Kassahun Keliifa}, title = {{UPSCALING CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2017}, month = jul, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Policy-Insights-48.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }