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The role of CSA in agricultural adaptation to climate change The promoters of
CSA (Lipper and Zilberman 2018) have perceived this as an approach with the goal
to develop the technical, policy, and investment conditions to achieve sustainable
agricultural development for food security under climate change (FAO 2013). It is
meant to integrate the four dimensions of sustainable development (i.e. economic,
social, environmental, and institutional) by jointly addressing the food security, ecosystems management, and climate change challenges, both at the farm level and
beyond. At the farm level, CSA aims to strengthen livelihoods and food security,
especially of smallholders, by improving the management and use of natural
resources and adopting appropriate approaches and technologies for the production,
processing, and marketing of agricultural commodities. Beyond the farm level,
CSA seeks to support countries by putting in place the necessary policy, technical,
and financial mechanisms to mainstream climate change adaptation and mitigation
into agricultural sectors and provide a basis for operationalizing sustainable agricultural development under changing conditions.
CSA appears not to represent a set of practices that can be universally applied,
but is rather an approach that involves different elements embedded in local contexts. CSA relates to actions both on-farm and beyond the farm and incorporates
technologies, policies, institutions, and investment. Different elements that can be
integrated in CSA approaches include (i) improved management of farms, crops,
livestock, aquaculture, and capture fisheries; (ii) produce more with less while
increasing resilience; (iii) restoration of degraded lands for productive agriculture
and forestry; (iv) ecosystem and landscape management to conserve ecosystem services, which are key to increasing resource efficiency and resilience; and (v) UN
services for farmers and land managers to enable them to implement the necessary
changes (Goyal and Nash 2017). These aspects only include transformation in the
technical sphere, but do not address the need for transformation in the personal
sphere (O’Brien and Sygna 2013).
In order to achieve the objectives of CSA to enhance food security while contributing to climate change mitigation, as well as preservation of the natural resource
base and vital ecosystem services, a shift from single-objective production systems
to the management of the entire landscape is required to meet CSA’s multiple objectives. This also requires a transition to agricultural production systems that are more
productive, use inputs more efficiently, have less variability and greater stability in
their outputs, and are more resilient to risks, shocks, and long-term climate variability. More productive and more resilient agriculture requires a major shift in the
way land, water, soil nutrients, and genetic resources are managed to ensure that
these resources are used more efficiently (FAO 2013). In recent decades, we witnessed some similar concepts that either have failed or had limited success in
African countries. What makes CSA different is that it is defined as a concept built
upon a technical foundation that largely already exists and in which a range of sustainable agricultural approaches are the cornerstones of implementing CSA in
practice. CSA also suffers from a common problem of externalizing our relationship to our participation in the activity; that is, a tendency to take it without examinB. K. Sitaula et al.
The role of CSA in agricultural adaptation to climate change The promoters of
CSA (Lipper and Zilberman 2018) have perceived this as an approach with the goal
to develop the technical, policy, and investment conditions to achieve sustainable
agricultural development for food security under climate change (FAO 2013). It is
meant to integrate the four dimensions of sustainable development (i.e. economic,
social, environmental, and institutional) by jointly addressing the food security, ecosystems management, and climate change challenges, both at the farm level and
beyond. At the farm level, CSA aims to strengthen livelihoods and food security,
especially of smallholders, by improving the management and use of natural
resources and adopting appropriate approaches and technologies for the production,
processing, and marketing of agricultural commodities. Beyond the farm level,
CSA seeks to support countries by putting in place the necessary policy, technical,
and financial mechanisms to mainstream climate change adaptation and mitigation
into agricultural sectors and provide a basis for operationalizing sustainable agricultural development under changing conditions.
CSA appears not to represent a set of practices that can be universally applied,
but is rather an approach that involves different elements embedded in local contexts. CSA relates to actions both on-farm and beyond the farm and incorporates
technologies, policies, institutions, and investment. Different elements that can be
integrated in CSA approaches include (i) improved management of farms, crops,
livestock, aquaculture, and capture fisheries; (ii) produce more with less while
increasing resilience; (iii) restoration of degraded lands for productive agriculture
and forestry; (iv) ecosystem and landscape management to conserve ecosystem services, which are key to increasing resource efficiency and resilience; and (v) UN
services for farmers and land managers to enable them to implement the necessary
changes (Goyal and Nash 2017). These aspects only include transformation in the
technical sphere, but do not address the need for transformation in the personal
sphere (O’Brien and Sygna 2013).
In order to achieve the objectives of CSA to enhance food security while contributing to climate change mitigation, as well as preservation of the natural resource
base and vital ecosystem services, a shift from single-objective production systems
to the management of the entire landscape is required to meet CSA’s multiple objectives. This also requires a transition to agricultural production systems that are more
productive, use inputs more efficiently, have less variability and greater stability in
their outputs, and are more resilient to risks, shocks, and long-term climate variability. More productive and more resilient agriculture requires a major shift in the
way land, water, soil nutrients, and genetic resources are managed to ensure that
these resources are used more efficiently (FAO 2013). In recent decades, we witnessed some similar concepts that either have failed or had limited success in
African countries. What makes CSA different is that it is defined as a concept built
upon a technical foundation that largely already exists and in which a range of sustainable agricultural approaches are the cornerstones of implementing CSA in
practice. CSA also suffers from a common problem of externalizing our relationship to our participation in the activity; that is, a tendency to take it without examinB. K. Sitaula et al.