Shamba Shape Up, a knowledge-based agricultural reality TV-show, has supported thousands of farmers across East Africa adapt to a changing climate while boosting incomes. This has been made possible through delivering information and hands-on support via an innovative concept: agriculture experts together with participating farmers and an engaging presenter duo conduct farm "make-overs". The makeovers serve to create more productive smallholder farms using climate-smart agriculture techniques.

For about four years, a team under the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), based at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi, Kenya supported Shamba Shape Up by providing the latest climate-smart agriculture information and experts from across CGIAR.

Now, the TV show has produced an engaging infomercial that highlights exactly how Shamba Shape Up and its partners, ICRAF and CCAFS included, have impacted on smallholder dairy farming in East Africa. The infomercial includes interviews with the committed staff members facilitating the knowledge exchange. They share their thoughts on why Shamba Shape Up has been such a success and lessons learned from linking new communication for development approaches with traditional agriculture research: 

 “It was difficult to encourage scientists to work with the media but millions of farmers are learning about climate-smart agriculture and our impact studies are showing that there are true benefits in terms of livelihood and gross domestic product for countries where these farmers are,” says Christine Jost, Participation and Impact Scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre’s climate change unit.

“Shamba Shape Up have brought a fresh and new way of getting agricultural research outputs to farmers. Shamba Shape Up go the extra mile and respond to the questions provided. We are not just dumping information on farmers. The programme creates two-way communication between farmers and experts,” says Josephine Njoroge, Senior Programme Manager at the World Agroforestry Centre’s climate change unit.

This partnership has helped CGIAR and its programs reach millions of farmers with climate-smart agriculture information presented in a fun and engaging way. Watch the Shamba Shape Up Infomercial.

Learn more:
- Shamba Shape Up: a reality TV show with real impacts on farms
- Blogs on SSU on CCAFS site: http://ccafs.cgiar.org/blogs/ssu