The African Union, New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), World Agroforestry Centre and other non-governmental organizations are joining forces to scale-up climate smart-agricultural practices across Africa.

The aim is to reach 25 million smallholder farmers by 2020 with cost-effective and easy to adopt farming practices that will help build resilience to climate change.

To achieve the projected increase of 60 to 100 per cent in food production needed by 2050 that will meet the needs of a growing population, rapid increases in agricultural productivity are needed. Climate smart agriculture is considered a sustainable alternative to increasing production while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and smallholder vulnerability to climate change.

“The goal of climate smart agriculture is to practice the triple win [of] higher productivity, improved resilience and enhanced accumulation of carbon for lower greenhouse gas emissions,” said Dennis Garrity, Senior Research Fellow with the World Agroforestry Centre.

Garrity explained how the alliance will be seeking political will from African governments to support and engage in the initiative. The organizations will jointly develop a road map for coordination to ensure the initiative gets implemented and financed.

Read the full story: New alliance to cushion farmers from climate change shocks