Youth Marker 1

Genetics makes use of natural variation among animals. Selecting preferred animals as parents can yield permanent and cumulative improvements in the population. More efficient animals can greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and feed costs. Breeding, including cross-breeding between indigenous and imported species, can also improve resilience to diseases and heat stress and increase reproductive performance.

Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is an approach to address the interlinked challenges of food
security and climate change, and has three objectives: (1) sustainably increasing agricultural
productivity, to support equitable increases in farm incomes, food security and development;
(2) adapting and building resilience of agricultural and food security systems to climate
change at multiple levels; and (3) reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture
(including crops, livestock and fisheries). This paper examines 19 CSA case studies, to assess
their effectiveness in achieving the stated objectives of CSA, while also assessing other cobenefits,
economic costs and benefits, barriers to adoption, success factors, and gender and
social inclusion issues. The analysis concludes that CSA interventions can be highly effective,
achieving the three CSA objectives, while also generating additional benefits in a costeffective
and inclusive manner. However, this depends on context specific project design and
implementation, for which institutional capacity is key. The paper also identifies serious gaps
in data availability and comparability, which restricts further analysis.

The ILO’s Impact Insurance Facility is enabling the insurance sector, governments, and their partners to embrace impact insurance to reduce households’ vulnerability, promote stronger enterprises and facilitate better public policies.

ASHC handbook for ISFM is a 156 page that provides a detailed explanation of ISFM principles as applied in a number of African countries. Commissioned by ASHC and produced by technical advisory group members.

The Climate-Smart Agriculture Sourcebook comprises a wide range of knowledge and expertise on the concept of CSA to better guide policy makers, programme managers, sectoral experts, academics, extensionists, as well as practitioners to make the agricultural sectors (crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry) more sustainable and productive, while responding to the challenges of climate change and food security.

Climate-smart agriculture seeks to increase sustainable productivity, strengthen farmers’ resilience, reduce agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration. It strengthens food security and delivers environmental benefits. Climate-smart agriculture includes proven practical techniques — such as mulching, intercropping, conservation agriculture, crop rotation, integrated crop-livestock management, agroforestry, improved grazing, and improved water management — and innovative practices such as better weather forecasting, more resilient food crops and risk insurance.

Conservation agriculture is an approach to agricultural management based on three principles: Minimum soild disturbance, Retention of crop residues or otehr soil surface cover; Use of crop rotations

- This paper presents a review of the commercial sustainability, profitability, challenges, impact, and potential contribution of weather index insurance (WII) products to improving resilience in weather-affected agricultural systems in developing countries. This is important given the continuing demand on governments to manage the considerable weather risk faced by smallholders in Sub-Saharan Africa and other weather-exposed regions in developing economies.

This assessment has been developed in a two-step process. First, a literature review was conducted summarising the global experience in developing weather index insurance programmes. Second, we conducted a field investigation designed to extract a more detailed understanding of whether the results of recently launched WII pilots in Sub-Saharan Africa (in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) are in line with the global experience.

This Literature Review is the rst step towards a comparative assessment of Weather Index Insurance (WII) in the agricultural sector in East and Southern Africa. The second step involves visits to four countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Zambia) covered by the Climate Smart Agriculture Programme (Vuna) funded by DFID, which have weather index insurance programmes. The visits will allow collection of information on the recent performance of those programs and obtain the perceptions of key stakeholders on lessons learned, constraints, sustainability, and potential of those insurance programmes to address issues related to strengthening the resilience of agricultural systems to weather risk. The ndings from both stages will be summarised in an Evidence and Learning Report focussing on the determinants of success or failure of the programmes under implementation.

This paper summarizes the main findings of the global experience on the implementation of WII specically the lessons learned on the mechanics of the index, pro tability, bundling, impacts, and potential role in climate change adaptation. It also discusses the challenges of current pilot projects in East and Southern Africa, wherever secondary information is available.

CCARDESA ICKM System overview pamphlet.

CCARDESA aspires to be a regional knowledge hub that facilitates the sharing of agricultural information and research across the SADC region. Thus, CCARDESA has incorporated knowledge, information and communication as one of the key Thematic Focal Areas of the organisation.

CCARDESA undertakes programmes and projects that promote knowledge generation, knowledge management and dissemination of agricultural research through the utilization of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), among others. CCARDESA strives to ensure that credible information is made accessible to all interested stakeholders from policy makers to smallholder farmers.