Launched at a side event during COP22, Adaption of African Agriculture (AAA) is a new initiative aimed at reducing vulnerability of African agriculture to climate challenges. Working both with individual projects and with international policy, the initiative specifically targets soil and water management in agriculture, climate risks management and financing of smallholders.
”Agriculture is being severely impacted by climate change, but it can also contribute significantly to meeting mitigation targets”, explained Michael Hailu, Director of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, CTA. “Addressing agriculture is critical to reducing the effects of global climate change, both in terms of adaptation and mitigation.” The problem is particularly evident on the African continent, a home to 6 out of 10 of the countries most threatened by climate change. By 2050, yields on the continent could decrease by 20% if agriculture does not adapt to climate change. This would pose a major threat to food security. Yet, Africa only attracts 5% of the climate funds and just a small part of that is intended for funding of climate smart agriculture projects.
Adaptation of African Agriculture AAA is actively supported by 25 African countries, the UNFCCC, the FAO and several sustainability investment funds, including Livelihoods Ventures, Mirova and One Acre Fund.
Basing on the three pillars of soil, water and climate risk management, the AAA initiative works along two pathways: One objective is to place the Adaptation of African Agriculture at the heart of climate negotiations and their financial aspect. The second objective is to promote and foster the implementation of specific projects and solutions.
Examples of successful adaptation exist. One of them was presented during the session about AfricaRice’s work with West African rice farmers, the project that resulted in roughly doubling of rice yields.
Interested to find out more about the Initiative for Adaptation of African Agriculture? Check out their website. You can also use the hashtag #weAAAre to stay tuned for more info about the campaign or tweet yourself!
If you want to read more about the launch of the initiative, have a look at the CTA website.
Initiative for Adaptation of African Agriculture’s website
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, CTA’s website