Highlights:

The Africa Climate Smart Agriculture Implementation Plan (CSAIP) 2022-2032 is a framework for African countries, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and other development stakeholders as they seek to implement their climate smart or resilient agriculture (CSA) policies, strategies, programmes, financing and support systems in response to the devastating and unabating impact of climate change on agriculture and sustainable food systems on the African continent.

The objectives of the CSAIP are to:

• Facilitate development of CSA policies, strategies and programmes in countries that have yet to embrace, adopt and transition to CSA practices.

• Provide direct support to countries in the development of national CSAIPs and transition plans in the form of development of CSA investment plans.

• Assist countries with undertaking institutional and policy reforms that are conducive for transition from conventional to CSA practices.

• Lead, in collaboration with AU organs and agencies and other major regional and continental organizations, the development of capacity building and strengthening programmes for the integration of climate change considerations into Africa’s agriculture and sustainable food systems transformation programmes and the effective implementation of national CSAIPs.

• Guide the development of appropriate means of implementation, including financing arrangements, for CSAIP implementation at country and regional levels.

• Assist countries to establish CSA stakeholders consultative, knowledge and information sharing platforms for the dissemination of CSA best practices, advancing proposals on performance-improving reviews of policy requirements and institutional architectures for sustained transition from conventional to CSA practices.

The present position on the continent is that more than 60% of African countries that responded to the survey questionnaire have CSA strategy and stakeholders’ consultative platforms, while 50% have CSA policy frameworks. Only 25% of the countries, however, have CSA Investment Plans, 38% have CSA capacity building and strengthening programmes and CSA implementation support systems for farmers. The weakest areas of CSA adoption and implementation are in CSA gender frameworks, cost estimates for transition from conventional to CSA practices, capacity to estimate the expected level of GHG emissions reduction that CSA practices would bring about in a country. Only 13% of the countries had positive responses to these.

Feedback from 80% of African countries points encouragingly and strongly to the evidence that CSA is currently widely practised across the African continent. The most widely-adopted practice is the use of improved seeds or new varieties of crops cultivars/ self-fertilizing/ climate-ready-and-resilient crops that are tolerant to extreme temperatures, droughts, floods and salinity, among others. his CSA practice is followed progressively by conservation agriculture and rangeland and pasture management through rotational grazing and improved forage, rainwater harvesting, and improved animal breeding and genetic selection for feed efficiency. This range of CSA practices is being undertaken by 70% of the respondent countries. It is worthy of note that some 60% of the respondent African countries practice alteration in land-use pattern, crop diversification and rotation or intercropping, integrated farming, integrated pest management and manure management. Only about 50% of the countries are, at present, investing in CSA practices involving integrated nutrient management, changes in planting times (changing cropping seasons), application of resource-efficient technologies, feed management, as well as relying on better weather forecasting and early warning systems.

In response to the issue of countries’ priorities in the launch of a Continental CSAIP, about 90% of African countries had as their highest priority the need to develop well-funded national incentives systems for transition to and adoption of CSA practices as well as ease of access to CSA technologies and innovations. This score is followed by the need for the development of CSA capacity strengthening programmes; the development and continuous enhancement of CSA national support systems; development and operationalization of an effective CSA national stakeholders’ consultative and knowledge sharing platforms; development, institutionalization and enforcement of a national gender-sensitive or responsive framework for CSA policy, strategy and national support systems as well as access to CSA knowledge and information.