A climate smart agriculture tool: increasing farming system resilience in East Africa through adoption and mitigation
A team of researchers from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in collaboration with Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) carried out a Climate Smart Agriculture Rapid Appraisal (CSA-RA) in four districts in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT). The CSA-RA, part of a project funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), was used as a tool to assess within and between district variations in farming systems, agricultural management practices, challenges for current agricultural practices, and climate vulnerability among smallholder mixed crop-livestock farmers. Major constraints for the cropping season were identified, such as unreliability of the onset and cessation of the rains, and associated with identified impacts including the influx of pests and diseases associated with too much rainfall. The tool can help to identify locally appropriate climate-smart solutions. More information about the tool can be found here.