Political economy challenges for climate smart agriculture in Africa
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Political economy challenges for climate smart agriculture in Africa Helena Shilomboleni1 Accepted: 4 July 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) has gained prominence in global agriculture and climate agendas for its perceived “triple win” contributions to food productivity, adaptation, and mitigation to climate change. This paper highlights three important challenges for CSA activities in Africa which provide insights into contested debates surrounding CSA’s ability to respond holistically to the complex realities facing resource-constrained farmers in the global South. These are (1) prevailing neoliberal market policies that emphasize private-sector driven agricultural development in the face of rising input costs and falling commodity prices; (2) an expansion in diversified livelihood strategies amongst smallholder households as a response to the highly unpredictable biophysical environment and economic climate under which they live; and (3) a growing competition for land and other productive resources. A deeper dive into political economy processes surrounding these three issues aims to bring critical attention to factors relevant to African agricultural development that highly impact farm-level practices and carry important implications for rural livelihood outcomes. Keywords Climate smart agriculture · Political economy · Smallholder farmers · Livelihoods · Productivity · Food security Abbreviations AUDA-NEPAD African Union Development Agency CSA Climate Smart Agriculture ERA Evidence for Resilient Agriculture GACSA Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture
Introduction Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) has gained prominence in global agriculture and climate agendas for its perceived “triple win” contributions to food productivity, adaptation, and mitigation to climate change. The World Bank first introduced CSA in its 2010 World Development Report: Development and Climate Change. Around the same time, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) formally launched CSA at the first global policy conference dedicated to the topic in the Hague, Netherlands (31 October–5 November 2010) (Taylor 2018, p. 93). In 2014, the Global Alliance for * Helena Shilomboleni [email protected] 1
CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) East Africa, International Livestock Research Institute, Box 30709, Nairobi, Kenya
Climate Smart Agriculture (GACSA) was launched at the UN Climate Summit. GACSA has since brought together a coalition of over 450 members comprising multilateral agencies, governments, research institutes and corporations to support the scaling up of CSA activities around the world (GACSA 2020). CSA is set to become a major vehicle for agricultural development finance, particularly in lowand-middle income countries. Overall, international donor funding for climate adaptation is expected to reach $100 billion per annum in 2020 (Amadu et al. 2020). The World Bank alone has pledged at least US$ 8 billion of its annual spend
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