AICCRA Briefs

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/113193

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Key steps, insights and lessons learnt from establishing the Regional Hub for Fertilizer and Soil Health for West Africa and the Sahel
(Brief, 2024-12) Trautman, Sabrina; Gosling, Amanda; Cramer, Laura Katherine; Zougmoré, Robert Bellarmin; Vanlauwe, Bernard; Crouch, Jonathan
This learning note outlines the key steps, insights, and lessons learnt from the establishment of the Regional Hub for Fertilizer and Soil Health for West Africa and the Sahel (West Africa Regional Hub). It presents the political rationale and justification for the West Africa Regional Hub, highlighting critical events that shaped its development. Further, it details the process followed in formulating the Fertilizers and Soil Health Roadmap for West Africa and the Sahel, which was key to defining the West Africa Regional Hub’s mandate and core functions. The objective of this learning note is to provide guidance and support for the accelerated establishment of further fertilizer and soil health hubs in other African regions.
The Launch of Ethiopia’s Climate-Smart Agriculture Investment Plan: From Strategy to Implementation
(Brief, 2024-07) Jalango, Dorcas; Tesfaye, Lidya; Yemane, Melat; Makonnen, Brook T
Key messages - Align climate actions with strategic investments and private-sector engagement for widespread impact - Strengthen Ethiopia’s Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) Forum through broader membership, coordination and policy alignment - Tailor investments in the CSAIP to ensure benefits reach farmers and communities
Renforcement de la résilience climatique par les radios communautaires : état d'avancement de la campagne AICCRA Sénégal, URAC et ADID (premier semestre 2024)
(Brief, 2024-07-23) Sarr, Etienne Alouise; EDORH, Théophile; Thiaw, Moussa; Worou, Nadine; Diedhiou, Lamine; Wane, Abdrahmane
Les changements climatiques menacent la productivité agricole et la subsistance des éleveurs au Sénégal, rendant les communautés rurales vulnérables. Pour contrer ces défis, le projet AICCRA Sénégal a lancé des initiatives pour améliorer l'accès aux informations climatiques et promouvoir des pratiques agricoles adaptatives. En 2023, des campagnes de communication via les radios communautaires ont été initiées pour diffuser des informations sur les innovations climatiques et les services d'information. L'étude de 2024 poursuit cette initiative en intégrant quatre nouvelles radios communautaires afin d'évaluer l'efficacité des programmes radiophoniques existants, mesurer l'impact et identifier des améliorations potentielles. Les émissions radiophoniques couvrent divers thèmes liés aux prévisions climatiques, aux bonnes pratiques agricoles, et à la gestion de l'élevage, diffusées en Pulaar et en Wolof. Des bandes d'annonces et des clubs d'écoute sont mis en place pour optimiser l'audience et évaluer la qualité des émissions. L'intégration de nouvelles radios, telles que Jollof FM, Taiba FM, Pinal FM et Ndoumbelane FM, permet de couvrir une population estimée à 2 974 380 habitants. L'impact de ces programmes sera mesuré par des études de terrain et des sondages d'audience pour affiner les stratégies de diffusion et renforcer la résilience climatique des communautés rurales.
Climate Risk Management in Agricultural Extension in Kenya Curriculum
(Brief, 2024-05) Grossi, Amanda; Dinku, Tufa; Hansen, James; Ruirie, Onesmus; Crane, Todd A.
Climate change and year-to-year climate variability have resulted in widespread impacts to ecosystems and people in Kenya, including increases in the intensity of weather extremes such as droughts and floods (Kogo et al., 2021). While these shifting and varying patterns have affected the productivity of many climate-sensitive sectors, Kenya’s agricultural sector which is largely rainfed has been especially impacted, adversely affecting the food security, nutrition, and livelihoods of millions of people (Gebre et al., 2023; Marigi, 2017). Despite the enormous role that climate information can and has played in supporting resilience of agricultural and food systems and the availability of high-quality climate information in Kenya, including through the Enhancing National Climate Services (ENACTS) initiative, however, the effective use of climate information in decision making processes to support climate adaptation has remained limited (Grossi & Dinku, 2022). This reality persists despite strong policy and enabling environments and despite significant investments in climate information and services through national and sectoral strategies, policies, and programs (Radeny et al., 2020). Part of the problem stems from a lack of foundational capacity and common understanding of climate basics, including a shared vocabulary and knowledge of basic terminology and dynamics to both articulate and engage in meaningful collaborations and design of solutions. Another part stems from the reality that even when available, climate information may not be easily accessible or transformed to decision-relevant formats for those working in the agricultural sector to act upon, or that there is poor awareness of products that do so. Still, another major issue with the exploitation of climate information for agricultural decision making and adaptation lies with poor conceptual understanding of how climate impacts agriculture and the pragmatic climate-sensitive decisions that farmers and the network of actors that support them must make as a result of these impacts.
Climate Change Risks to the Soybean Value Chain in Ethiopia: Proactive Actions for Resilience in the Ethiopian Food System Resilience Program Districts
(Brief, 2024-04) International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
Soybean, an economically important and rising cash crop in Ethiopia, is evidently challenged by climate change and variability. The projected risks posing threats to the soybean value chain are: • By 2035, rainfall in soybean-producing areas is projected to increase by 57-210 mm across the soybean-growing areas with an increased variability by up to 17%. • Maximum and minimum temperatures in soybean-producing areas will increase by 0.84-1.310C and 1.13-1.520C , respectively. • Rainfall extremes such as the number of rainy, heavy rain and very heavy rain days, and consecutive wet days will increase. • Temperature extremes such as hot days and hot nights will increase, and diurnal temperature ranges will decline. Alterations in key climatic variables will have several socio-economic and environmental implications that demand proactive actions.
Climate Change Risks to the Cattle Value Chain in Ethiopia: Proactive Actions for Resilience in the Ethiopian Food System Resilience Program Districts
(Brief, 2024-04) International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
Cattle value chain plays a significant role in Ethiopia’s economy, backs the livelihoods of millions of households and is an essential element of the mixed farming, agro-pastoral, and pastoral production systems. The sector directly contributes ETB 150.7 billion to the country’s GDP, accounting for 17% and 39% of the overall GDP and the agricultural GDP, respectively. It also generates 16-19% of foreign currency earnings to the nation. Notwithstanding, cattle production and marketing remain vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and variability. The following are the projected impacts of climate change on the cattle value chain. • Meher season rainfall is projected to increase in all AEZs and FSRP districts to an extent of 237 mm above the baseline. • Belg season rainfall will decline by up to 47 mm in most cattle-producing areas of Ethiopia while increasing in a few FSRP districts by up to 22 mm. • Minimum and maximum temperatures will have an increase by 1 to 1.7 oC and 0.6 to 1.6 oC, respectively. • The number of rainy days, heavy rain and very heavy rain days will increase in all cattle-producing FSRP districts and agroecological zones. • Consecutive dry days (CDDs) will decline in most FSRP districts, while consecutive wet days (CWDs) will increase. • All FSRP districts will have late rainfall onset and cessation dates. Spatiotemporal alterations in major climatic variables will affect cattle production and marketing, followed by several unwelcomed socio-economic consequences.
Climate Change Risks to the Coffee Value Chain in Ethiopia: Proactive Actions for Resilience in the Ethiopian Food System Resilience Program Districts
(Brief, 2024-04) International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
Coffee is crucial to the Ethiopian economy as it represents 26% of the country’s commodity exports. It is an important source of income for over 15 million smallholder farmers and bears potential for coffee tourism development. Coffee agroecosystems in Ethiopia are known to support diverse flora and fauna, including shade trees and other plant species. However, potential yields and income from coffee are found to be compromised and ecosystem integrity would be disrupted due to impacts of climate change and variability. • Annual rainfall is projected to increase by 45 to 185 mm during the 2035 period. Kiremt (Meher) season rainfall is projected to increase by 8 to 72 mm while Belg season rainfall will decline by 15 mm to 36 mm. • Annual minimum and maximum temperatures are projected to increase by 1.28 to 1.48°C and 1.12 to 1.28°C, respectively, by 2035. • Average number of wet days will markedly increase during the 2035 period and the number of heavy and very heavy rain days will rise. The number of consecutive dry days, the standard daily intensity index, and diurnal temperature ranges will decline. • Tropical nights will considerably increase by a minimum of 20 days and a maximum of 100 days. Changes in major climatic variables in coffee-producing areas will affect each component of the coffee value chain followed by several socio-economic and ecological consequences.
Climate Change Risks to the Wheat Value Chain in Ethiopia: Proactive Actions for Resilience in the Ethiopian Food System Resilience Program Districts
(Brief, 2024-04) International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
Wheat is an important cereal crop that has a substantial contribution to the national economy and food security. However, the crop is becoming vulnerable to climate change and variability risks. Compressive climate change risk analysis results highlighted the following challenges in major wheat-growing areas. • Meher season rainfall in wheat-producing areas is projected to increase by up to 211 mm and rainfall variability will increase up to 29% during the 2035 period. • Belg season rainfall will decline by 17-39 mm and rainfall variability will increase up to 41% during the 2035 period. • Meher season minimum and maximum temperatures will increase by 1.1 to 1.5°C and 0.9 to 1.4°C, respectively, during the 2035 period. • Belg season minimum and maximum temperatures will increase by 1.4 to 1.5°C and 1.3 to 1.4°C, respectively, by the 2035s. • Rainfall extremes like wet spells, wet days, heavy rainfall, and very heavy rainfall days will increase in wheat-growing areas. • Diurnal temperature range (DTR) will decline while tropical nights will increase. Spatiotemporal changes in major climatic variables will pose challenges at all stages of the wheat value chain followed by several unwelcome socio-economic consequences.
Are Investments in Digitalisation of Agro-climate Advisory Service Profitable?
(Brief, 2024-04) International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
Climate change and variability remain a challenge that poses a serious threat to people’s livelihoods, particularly in smallholder farming systems. Rainfedreliant smallholder agriculture is especially vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change (Deressa et al., 2009; Simane et al., 2016). When these challenges are compounded with non-climate stressors, the effect would be devastating. Climate adaptation through the Agro-climate Advisory Service (ACAS) offers smallholder farmers the potential to improve evidence-based decisionmaking. Access to climate advisories potentially curbs the effect of climate risk and uncertainty on crop production and increases the resilience and adaptive capacity of farmers (Ouédraogo et al., 2018). However, the availability, accessibility, affordability, and reliability of advisory services remain concerns. As part of ongoing agro-climate advisories provision efforts and improve service provision efficiency, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) has been implementing the Ethiopian Digital Agro-climatic Advisory Project (EDACaP) in collaboration with Green Agro-Solutions (GAS) PLC since 2019. The objective is to provide tailored ACAS to targeted smallholders to improve their livelihood by enhancing informed decision-making that reduces uncertainty involved in production decisions. ACAS has been channelled through the novel digital platform called LERSHA developed by GAS mainly in wheat-dominated production systems. The provision of ACAS involves investments and operational costs incurred by service providers. The profitability of the ACAS investment hasn’t been studied from the service providers’ (CIMMYT and GAS) point of view, and remains an empirical issue. To analyze whether investments in ACAS are profitable or not, the policy brief used two waves of survey datasets collected from 1,842 farm households that cover the Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR and Sidama regions. Investment outlay data was obtained from the GAS financial model and expert estimation was used for calculating operational costs relevant to climate advisory services. A discounted cash flow – Net Present Value (NPV) is used to analyse whether the multiperiod ACAS investments are profitable or not as it accounts for the time value of money compared to other methods. The result shows that the expected economic return (NPV) from investing in ACAS is 93,840,389,067 birr. On average, the additional return is 15,640,064,845 birr over six years @12% loan interest rate for the 2,950,000 target farmers targeted by the project over the years. The economic return analysis shows investing in ACAS is profitable. Averaged over six years, each recipient of the advisory service receives an additional return of about 12,000 birr/ha annually from the wheat value chain compared to those who don’t receive and utilise ACAS. Based on the results, it is suggested that digitalbased agro-advisory provision needs to be further strengthened and mainstreamed as it is beneficial for farmers. This is one of the pathways through which agricultural advisory provision would be modernised and gradually commercialised. On top of that, the bundled business model of GAS needs to be scaled up, where target farmers receive not only ACAS but other complementary services such as farm inputs and mechanisation services to address multifaced farmers’ needs. The collaboration of CIMMYT-GAS (a private sector player) in the provision of ACAS implies that they can play a crucial role in revitalising the agricultural extension service provision. This justifies the need to move onto a pluralistic extension system approach in the country under the oversee of the Ministry of Agriculture and relevant public institutions.
Climate Change Risks to the Maize Value Chain in Ethiopia: Proactive Actions for Resilience in the Ethiopian Food System Resilience Program Districts
(Brief, 2024-04) International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
Maize is the most productive and one of the leading economically important cereal crops in Ethiopia. However, its benefits are found to be compromised by current and future risks associated with climate change and variability. The outlined climate change impacts are expected to be witnessed across maize-growing areas. • By 2035, Belg rainfall is projected to increase in some FSRP districts while decreases in others. The changes range from - 47 to 21 mm and its variability lies between 9 and 42%. • Meher rainfall will increase in most FSRP districts, and the changes range from –8 to 189 mm, and changes in its variability lie between –1 and 29%. • During Meher season, the average daily maximum temperature (Tmax) will increase by 0.84-1.390C while the average daily minimum temperature (Tmin) will increase by 1.13-1.520C . During Belg, Tmax will increase by 1.12-1.420C while Tmin will increase by 1.41-1.730C across maize-producing FSRP districts. • General tendencies of more extreme rainfall and wetness in both seasons are projected. • Hot days and hot nights will increase, and diurnal temperature ranges will shrink. • About 10 - 50% of maize growing areas have been affected by high drought conditions during the recent past. Shifts in major climatic variables in space and time will affect maize production and marketing, followed by several unwelcomed socio-economic consequences.
Revitalising soil health through the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan brief
(Brief, 2024-05) African Union Development Agency-NEPAD; Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa
This briefing note introduces the African Union's Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health (AFSH) Action Plan (2024 - 2034) which aims to improve soil health in Africa for enhanced agricultural productivity, increased food security and poverty alleviation. It provides the strategic framework of the AFSH Action Plan and details the outcome areas, outputs and actions that specifically target soil health. Some of the key action areas include an improved policy environment, improved finance and investments, targeted soil health interventions, increased networking and knowledge exchange, and improved institutional and human capacity for sustainable soil health.
Nairobi Declaration: Boosting Africa’s Agricultural Productivity with Healthy Soils
(Brief, 2024-05) African Union Development Agency-NEPAD; Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa
This briefing note introduces the Nairobi Declaration on the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health (AFSH) Summit and provides a brief summary of Africa's soil health, agriculture and food security crisis. It gives the commitments on soil health made by the African Heads of State and Government with the aim to reverse land degradation and restore soil health on at least 30% of degraded soil by 2034. Commitments include deploying innovative incentive mechanisms, promoting integrated soil and water conservation, promoting investment in irrigation as part of integrated soil and water resource management, strengthening collaborative research and extension systems, and promoting organic agriculture practices.
Nairobi Declaration: Commitments to enhance soil health
(Poster, 2024-05) African Union Development Agency-NEPAD; Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa
This poster introduces the Nairobi Declaration on the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health (AFSH) Summit and gives the commitments on soil health made by the African Heads of State and Government with the aim to reverse land degradation and restore soil health on at least 30% of degraded soil by 2034. Commitments include deploying innovative incentive mechanisms, promoting integrated soil and water conservation, promoting investment in irrigation as part of integrated soil and water resource management, strengthening collaborative research and extension systems, and promoting organic agriculture practices.
Revitalising soil health through the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan
(Poster, 2024-07) African Union Development Agency-NEPAD; Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa
This poster introduces the African Union's Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health (AFSH) Action Plan (2024 - 2034) which aims to improve soil health in Africa for enhanced agricultural productivity, increased food security and poverty alleviation. It provides the outcomes and action areas from the AFSH Action Plan that specifically target soil health. Some of the key action areas include an improved policy environment, improved finance and investments, targeted soil health interventions, increased networking and knowledge exchange, and improved institutional and human capacity for sustainable soil health.
The African Union Great Green Wall Initiative Strategy (2024-2034): A new continental roadmap for restoration, sustainable land management and climate resilient livelihoods
(Brief, 2024-06) Trautman, Sabrina; Chevallier, Romy; Gosling, Amanda
This infonote provides a brief overview of the African Union Great Green Wall Initiative (GGWI) Strategy (2024-2034). It explains why and how the GGWI Strategy was updated, highlighting the involvement of AICCRA experts. It provides the new Strategy's strategic framework and its guiding principles, and describes the four strategic intervention axes. It highlights the Strategy's emphasis on climate change and how climate-smart agriculture is recognised as a key approach for land restoration and resilience building. It reflects on the processes and timeline towards the formal adoption of the new GGWI Strategy including the suggested key activities for the first year of implementation. The infonote concludes with reflections from the AICCRA experts who were engaged in the participatory development process of the Strategy.
Climate Risk Profile for East Africa
(Brief, 2024-06) Demissie, Teferi; Gebrechorkos, Solomon; Radeny, Maren A.O.; Solomon, Dawit
Crowdsourcing data can help monitor drought impacts on food security
(Brief, 2024-06) Shikuku, Kelvin Mashisia; Alulu, Vincent; Lepariyo, Watson; Banerjee, Rupsha R.
Accelerating Africa’s climate action agenda through supporting soil health
(Brief, 2024-05) Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa; African Union Commission Sustainable Environment and Blue Economy Directorate
The Earth’s soils are a vast reservoir of carbon, holding approximately 2,400 - 2,500 gigatons (Gt) of carbon. This amount surpasses the carbon content found in the atmosphere by more than threefold and exceeds the combined amount stored in all living plants and animals by fourfold.
Soil health – climate - agriculture nexus
(Poster, 2024-05) African Union Development Agency
This poster was presented at the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit 2024 side event on Leveraging Policy, Practice and Research for Monitoring Soil Health.
What is healthy soil?
(Poster, 2024-05) African Union Development Agency
This poster was presented at the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit 2024 side event on Leveraging Policy, Practice and Research for Monitoring Soil Health.

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