New Initiative Seeks To Boost Climate Smart Agriculture In Africa

Work will focus on climate adaptation in sub-Saharan savannah farming systems

Rothamsted is partnering with the UK-CGIAR Centre and others on a new project that will focus on the climate adaptation preparedness of agricultural systems in sub-Saharan Africa’s savannah regions.

A Climate-Smart Agronomy Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (AgVACS) brings together international expertise from across CGIAR, the UK, Ghana and Nigeria to help address farming issues in one of the regions most likely to be acutely affected by climate change.

Smallholdings represent around 80% of the world’s farms and are concentrated in low- and middle-income countries, supplying around half of the world’s food. Smallholder farmers typically experience low and variable yields and profitability due to climate variability, low resource use and efficiencies, and declining soil health. These problems are particularly acute across sub-Saharan Africa, where farmers are contending with increasingly frequent episodes of extreme drought, flooding, pest and disease infestations, and poor soil fertility. Underutilized legume crops, as identified by the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (commonly known as VACS) initiative, could enable greater adaptation to the climate related-challenges smallholder farmers face.

Christine Kreye, the project lead from IITA said, “The project team has balanced representation from CGIAR, UK, and the local partners. What’s exciting is the expertise, knowledge, and skillsets each of the partners bring to the consortium.”

The research teams will investigate the role of climate-smart agronomic practices and cropping systems within the scope of VACS, aligning with CGIAR’s new Sustainable Farming Science Program. The research will prioritise studying crops identified by the VACS initiative, including Bambara groundnut and pigeon pea. The AgVACS team will be working in northern regions of Ghana and Nigeria, where cereal-legume cropping systems are dominant.

The work will help to strengthen science links between UK and West Africa

The research could play a vital role in strengthening the climate resilience of smallholder farming systems in Ghana and Nigeria and improving the wellbeing of poor and vulnerable populations. In the long run, we hope AgVACS will provide a model for wider VACS research.

Professor Martin Broadley, Science Director at Rothamsted said, “We are delighted to work with colleagues in Ghana and Nigeria to deliver improvements to cropping systems. This will make them more resilient to extreme climates, whilst maintaining high levels of productivity and nutritional quality, and improving soil health. The work will help to strengthen science links between UK and West Africa and one of the key UK contributions is in the area of optimising the use of spatial information, from new and legacy data sources, to support our partners develop decision making advice which they provide to farmers.”

Partners include the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (ABC), The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research–Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR–SARI) in Ghana, and Bayero University Kano (BUK) in Nigeria plus the Universities of Nottingham and Warwick in the UK.

The UK-CGIAR Centre is funded by UK International Development from the UK government and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).