Climate smart' agriculture and beyond

C limate change has become a major concern in African agriculture, with farmers in many places struggling to cope with changing temperatures and rainfall patterns and increased flood and drought risks. For subsistence farmers, especially, these changes pose a serious threat to food security. At the same time, efforts to both adapt to and mitigate climate change can bring substantial development benefits for African farmers. This chapter focuses on ways to integrate gender in these approaches – which are often called “climate-smart” agriculture (CSA), though some of the activities we discuss here go beyond farming. 1 The concept of climate-smart agriculture emerged in recognition of the urgent need to reduce both greenhouse gas emissions, and the vulnerability of agriculture – and thus, of food supplies – to the impacts of climate change. CSA aims to sustainably improve agricultural productivity, increase farmers’ resilience, reduce and/or remove GHG emissions, and support the achievement of food-security and development goals. 2 This is an ambitious goal, and many CSA interventions involve trade-offs amongst these objectives. Reducing vulnerability for women and other disadvantaged groups, and ensuring that the benefits of CSA are equitably shared, adds yet another challenge

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