Fears following the continued rise in temperatures and increased frequency of extreme weather events have compelled key stakeholders in the global food security circles to embark on a paradigm shift.

The aim is to prevent future food security crises while maintaining economic and agricultural renewal in rural areas where hunger and poverty are most prevalent.

In countries like Kenya, which is largely semi-arid, rising temperatures and frequent weather events have direct negative impacts on crops, livestock, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture productivity.

This will continue in coming years, as noted in the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Vulnerable, farming-dependent populations in the developing world are particularly at risk.

Compelled by the need to find a lasting solution, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is working with other partners such as the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and a global research partnership, CGIAR’s programme on climate change, agriculture and food security, towards the effective adoption and implementation of climate-smart agriculture.

The partnership seeks to find a solution to challenges posed by climate change by transforming the way food systems use natural resources. It also hopes to improve agriculture’s sustainability and promote poverty reduction and economic growth.

So what exactly is climate-smart agriculture (CSA)? It is an approach that emphasises improved food security by helping communities to adapt to climate change while ensuring agricultural activities contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gasses. This is done by adopting appropriate sets of integrated agricultural practices that enhance carbon storage in the ecosystem.

Broad approach

However, CSA is neither a single practice nor a single set of practices. It is a broad approach for addressing climate change and achieving development goals.

CSA is not a new production system either; rather, it is a means of identifying which activities within production systems are best suited to respond to the challenges of climate change for specific locations, with the aim of maintaining and enhancing the capacity of agriculture to support food security in a sustainable way.

In parts of Kenya that are not arid or semi-arid, the majority of smallholder producers manage farming systems that integrate crops, livestock, fish and trees.

FAO is supporting a range of initiatives within the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries to this end. These integrated systems deliver a range of benefits including nutritious food, feed, energy and income.

Within these systems, farmers engage in an array of farming practices such as agroforestry, conservation agriculture, composting, integrated cropping, fishponds, efficient grazing techniques, mixed feed production, beekeeping, greenhouse farming, biogas production as well as the use of improved energy-saving methods for food preparation.

In an article appearing in the January 3-9 edition of The EastAfrican, civil society organisations criticised some activities within CSA that are aimed at achieving sustainable agricultural production intensification (such as conservation agriculture) and promoting the use of synthetic fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides.

READ: Is climate-smart farming a way out of food insecurity in EA?

This is misleading. On the contrary, CSA advises the adoption of globally accepted good agricultural practices (GAP) that advocate the proper and timely application of a combination of different agricultural practices such as crop rotation, minimum tillage and application of chemicals in accordance with standards set to ensure that the risk to humans, aquatic life and the environment.

Climate-smart agricultural practices such as minimum tillage are also beneficial in the family farming context, where the preservation of traditional food products is best achieved while contributing to a balanced diet, and safeguarding agro-biodiversity and the sustainable use of natural resources. Family farming continues to boost local economies especially when combined with social protection policies.

Action Plan

Within the Kenya Climate Change Action Plan (2013–2017), agriculture is recognised as a sector with great potential to contribute, in an integrated way, to the achievement of development goals related to food security, nutrition, poverty reduction and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

The Action Plan recognises the critical role that climate change related information, index-based insurance schemes, agricultural advisory services and capacity development play in ensuring that options for addressing climate change are widely understood.

Climate-smart agriculture is aligned with Kenya’s national development priorities, and has three interconnected objectives: Improving agricultural productivity and food security, increasing resilience and adaptive capacities in farming communities and enhancing climate change mitigation.

FAO is working closely with the government of Kenya to meet these three objectives.

Among FAO’s success stories around the country are projects in the counties of Nakuru, Bungoma, Laikipia, Machakos, Embu and Siaya.

FAO has been working with over 3,000 households to come up with a set of adaptation possibilities that apply in a climate change scenario at community level.

These include the supply of agricultural inputs, the diversification of livelihood, improved land and water management, promotion of conservation agriculture and other GAPs.

Farmers have more than doubled their crop, livestock and fish productivity while incorporating more than 300,000 leguminous fodder trees. In this manner, agriculture is now contributing to the preservation and maintenance of the environment and other ecosystem services.

In neighbouring Tanzania in the highlands of Mount Kilimanjaro, FAO has partnered with farmers to reboot an 800-year-old agroforestry system known as Kihamba, which supports one of the highest rural population densities in East Africa, and provides livelihoods for an estimated one million people.

In an agro-ecosystem similar to a virgin tropical mountain forest, Kihamba maximises the use of limited land, provides a large variety of food all year round and preserves ground water reservoirs among other environmental services.

FAO continues to work with the government of Kenya in the adoption and effective implementation of this agricultural approach, which addresses the effects of climate change and environmental degradation in agriculture.

Climate-smart agriculture echoes the concerns of our society today and the socio-economic changes of a warmer world, increasingly affected by the extreme weather events and hunger.

Dr Luca Alinovi is an agricultural economist and the country representative of FAO in Kenya, and the officer in charge of FAO Somalia