10
develop varieties that are more tolerant of water-logging and to strengthen water
management and control systems.
Most of the chapters concentrate on the improvement of technologies and management strategies for coping with today’s climate risks. This is understandable,
given the pressing need to improve the productivity of farming systems. The emphasis is, therefore, on technologies that help farmers to better cope with today’s risks,
which are also likely to support larger numbers of farmers who may be affected by
a changing climate in the future. As such, this body of work may be better characterised as ‘climate-risk management’ rather than ‘climate change management’. But
given that it can take several decades to develop a new crop or livestock variety,
some investment needs to be allocated to coping with changes likely to occur over
the next generation or two. And the possible differences between today’s climate
risks and the probable changes in these risks over time needs to be more consistently
acknowledged.
Finally, while the focus of these papers has been on climate risks, greater attention needs to be directed to the trade-offs in household decision-making that may
lead many farmers to identify climate risks as secondary. Indeed, market risks—
such as price and quality—may be more important than climate risks in regions
benefiting from the expansion of commercial opportunities. Even in drought-prone
regions, such as those growing cotton or sunflower or livestock, farmers may be
willing to adopt technologies offering moderate risks and larger potential returns.
Similarly, efforts to reduce market risks may allow farmers to experiment with a
wider range of productivity-enhancing technologies. Ideally, every new technology
will offer higher yields as well as lower risks, including climate risks. In practice,
the distribution of technology traits will continue to vary for different
environments.
Ultimately, these papers highlight the increasing attention being given by agricultural research and extension officers operating in eastern and southern Africa to
problems of climate risk and the threats of climate change. Most of the chapters in
this book emphasise concerns around technology targeting, dissemination and scaling up needed to speed the adoption of improved practices. The challenge remains
to achieve faster gains on the ground. More evidence-based examples of scale up are
therefore needed, along with greater attention on documenting and sharing lessons
from successful and unsuccessful practices.
Next year, CSA will turn ten. The development community must face the existential question of whether it will be time to celebrate? Only 2 years remain before
countries need to report progress towards implementing their Nationally Determined
Contributions that are at the heart of the Paris Agreement—virtually all of which
identify improving agricultural practices in Africa as a priority under climate
change. And only 12 years remain before the 2030 deadline set by the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to have 500 million climatesmart farmers. How can we best combine our future efforts to achieve this target?
T. S. Rosenstock et al.
develop varieties that are more tolerant of water-logging and to strengthen water
management and control systems.
Most of the chapters concentrate on the improvement of technologies and management strategies for coping with today’s climate risks. This is understandable,
given the pressing need to improve the productivity of farming systems. The emphasis is, therefore, on technologies that help farmers to better cope with today’s risks,
which are also likely to support larger numbers of farmers who may be affected by
a changing climate in the future. As such, this body of work may be better characterised as ‘climate-risk management’ rather than ‘climate change management’. But
given that it can take several decades to develop a new crop or livestock variety,
some investment needs to be allocated to coping with changes likely to occur over
the next generation or two. And the possible differences between today’s climate
risks and the probable changes in these risks over time needs to be more consistently
acknowledged.
Finally, while the focus of these papers has been on climate risks, greater attention needs to be directed to the trade-offs in household decision-making that may
lead many farmers to identify climate risks as secondary. Indeed, market risks—
such as price and quality—may be more important than climate risks in regions
benefiting from the expansion of commercial opportunities. Even in drought-prone
regions, such as those growing cotton or sunflower or livestock, farmers may be
willing to adopt technologies offering moderate risks and larger potential returns.
Similarly, efforts to reduce market risks may allow farmers to experiment with a
wider range of productivity-enhancing technologies. Ideally, every new technology
will offer higher yields as well as lower risks, including climate risks. In practice,
the distribution of technology traits will continue to vary for different
environments.
Ultimately, these papers highlight the increasing attention being given by agricultural research and extension officers operating in eastern and southern Africa to
problems of climate risk and the threats of climate change. Most of the chapters in
this book emphasise concerns around technology targeting, dissemination and scaling up needed to speed the adoption of improved practices. The challenge remains
to achieve faster gains on the ground. More evidence-based examples of scale up are
therefore needed, along with greater attention on documenting and sharing lessons
from successful and unsuccessful practices.
Next year, CSA will turn ten. The development community must face the existential question of whether it will be time to celebrate? Only 2 years remain before
countries need to report progress towards implementing their Nationally Determined
Contributions that are at the heart of the Paris Agreement—virtually all of which
identify improving agricultural practices in Africa as a priority under climate
change. And only 12 years remain before the 2030 deadline set by the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to have 500 million climatesmart farmers. How can we best combine our future efforts to achieve this target?
T. S. Rosenstock et al.