Climate solutions that work for farmers
This book (PDF) by The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is offering 14 best practices and policies that increase agricultural productivity and farmers’ resilience to climate change. Key ingredients for success can be distilled out of these cases, such as active farmer participation and youth attraction. Moreover, the importance of over-the-fence learning is discussed: farmers are more likely to adopt new technologies when they see that they have been successfully implemented by other farmers. Local champions that can help to build enthusiasm and spread the message are, among a range of factors that are likely to help trigger widespread scaling up and adoption of new practices and technologies. Also some of the pitfalls are discussed. Projects which involve high levels of initial investment or drudgery, fail to attract young people, and are costly in terms of time and labour are unlikely to be successful. Lack of information and the failure to successfully involve farmers in the design and implementation of projects, are also likely to lead to failure, as is inadequate technical support.