Next week, some of the groups at the forefront of advancing the climate-smart agriculture (CSA) concept will attempt to clarify exactly how CSA is being put into action. If you are in Paris for the Our Common Future Under Climate Change conference, don’t miss a session on Climate Smart Agriculture: Propaganda or Paradigm Shift? on 8 July at 16:30 CET.

Like any buzzword, there is a risk that hype overtakes meaningful action. Many agricultural interventions have quickly been labeled as “climate-smart” (or not), without careful analysis of what actually delivers climate-smart outcomes in a specific context. The challenge for decision makers is to sift through all the noise, and find practical tools and solutions. In reality there is plenty of exciting work happening in research, on farms, and in policy forums, to effect real change.

The session is convened by CIRAD (France’s Agricultural Research for Development center), Wageningen University and Research Center, the World Agroforesty Centre (ICRAF), and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

Presenters will lay out the building blocks for scaling up CSA globally including evidence of impact of CSA and tools to tackle implementation (including decision support, how to target practices, encouraging adoption of innovations, and making business cases). Read more