Abstract
Many projections of the impact of climate change on the crop, livestock and fishery production sectors of African agriculture are reported in the literature. However, they may be arguably too general to understand the magnitude of impact and to inform adaptation strategies and policy development efforts that are tailored to promoting climate-smart agriculture in the West African region alone. This paper was synthesized from several scholarly literature and aimed at providing up-to-date information on climate change impacts, adaptation strategies, policies and institutional mechanisms that each agriculture subsector had put in place in dealing with climate change and its related issues in West Africa. For each subsector (crop, fishery and livestock), the current status, climate change impacts, mitigation and adaption strategies have been analyzed. In addition, we reviewed recent policy initiatives in the region that foster the development and adoption of climate-smart agricultural options to improve resilience of farming systems and livelihoods of smallholder farmers to climate change risks. From community to national and regional levels, various strategies and policies are also being taken to guide actions and investment for climate-smart agriculture in West Africa.
Highlights
West Africa remains vulnerable to episodic climate shocks
In view of the above challenges, a major question arises: How will West Africa adapt its agriculture to the impacts of climate change and variability today and in the future? Among other factors, providing answers to this question requires starting with an understanding of various agricultural subsectors and their respective current adaptation strategies; policy developments and institutional settings may foster the adoption of sustainable agricultural systems that effectively mainstream climate change in the region
Together with other scholarly materials, some contents of this paper were synthesized from a working paper (WP N°118-http://hdl.handle.net/10568/67103) that served as a background document during the high-level forum of climate-smart agriculture stakeholders in West Africa, organized by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in June 2015, Bamako, Mali
Summary
West Africa remains vulnerable to episodic climate shocks (primarily drought). Food crises continue to hit the region ( in the dry areas), with resultant loss of lives and livelihoods, and a cycle of disaster relief that compete with long-term developments [1]. Protocols in the implementation of the initiative involve the (1) creation of a platform to share knowledge: capitalization of technics and ecology-intensive practices, data on investments and data on carbon sequestration; (2) promotion of these practices through agro-meteorological support: climate modeling and of its impacts on agriculture, strengthening of the production and dissemination of information systems; (3) production and dissemination of best practices; (4) supporting the scale-up of best practices: the use of agroforestry species with carbon sequestration capacities, storm water management, soil regeneration and fertilization; (5) reinforcement of national and regional capacity building in policies and strategies: promotion of best practices in programs and projects, trainings; and (6) mobilizing financial and technical resources: access to the International Climate Fund (primary channel of climate change finance), creation of expert pools. Research for development and dissemination of CSA technologies has to be intensified in the region
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