The Climate-smart Agriculture Papers ― Investigating the Business of a Productive, Resilient and Low Emission Future

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.

This volume shares new data relating to Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA), with emphasis on experiences in Eastern and Southern Africa. The book is a collection of research by authors from over 30 institutions, spanning the public and private sectors, with specific knowledge on agricultural development in the region discussed. The material is assembled to answer key questions on the following five topic areas: (1) Climate impacts: What are the most significant current and near future climate risks undermining smallholder livelihoods? (2) Varieties: How can climate-smart varieties be delivered quickly and cost-effectively to smallholders? (3) Farm management: What are key lessons on the contributions from soil and water management to climate risk reduction and how should interventions be prioritized? (4) Value chains: How can climate risks to supply and value chains be reduced? and (5) Scaling up: How can most promising climate risks reduction strategies be quickly scaled up and what are critical success factors? Readers who will be interested in this book include students, policy makers, and researchers studying climate change impacts on agriculture and agricultural sustainability.

Todd Rosenstock is a Scientist with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Kinshasa, Democratic Repbulic of Congo where he uses observational and manipulative experiments, data synthesis and modeling techniques to understand the synergies and tradeoffs among food production, society and the environment. Methods development for monitoring social and environmental change and climate-smart agricultural are central themes of his current research portfolio. Dr. Rosenstock is particularly interested in integrative, multidisciplinary science that can be applied to emerging issues in development and thus works with partners including: farmers, civil society, international NGOs, national governements and intergovernmental institutions. He is trained in agroecology (PhD, UC Davis), International Agricultural Development (MS, UC Davis), and horticulture (BS, University of Georgia, Athens). 

Andreea Nowak is a research scientist with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). Over the past six years, she has coordinated and carried out stakeholder-driven research on climate-smart agriculture (CSA) across Africa, Latin America and South Asia. Andreea has been working with governments and development partners in setting up participatory tools and analytical frameworks for prioritization, scaling, monitoring, and evaluation of national CSA investments. She contributed to the development of the ICRAF-CCAFS CSA Monitoring, Reporting and Verification Profiles and co-led the development of the CIAT-CCAFS CSA Country Profiles and CSA Prioritization Framework. Andreea holds an MSc degree in international development and project management, specializing in natural resource management (Lund University, Sweden) and a BA in political science (University of Bucharest, Romania).

Dr. Evan Girvetz is a Senior Scientist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), team lead for the CIAT Decision and Policy Analysis Research Area in Africa, and an affiliate assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. His research spans climate-smart agriculture (CSA), sustainable agricultural intensification, ecosystem services, environmental decision support, and water resources management. Dr. Girvetz works on these issues globally through innovative partnerships with the World Bank, African Development Bank, USAID, African Union, government agencies, NGOs, and the private sector. He sits on the steering committees of the Africa CSA Alliance and the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies, led the development of the Climate Wizard climate change analysis tool, and contributed to the development of the CSA 101 Website. Dr. Girvetz earned a PhD from the University of California, Davis, and is widely published and his research has been featured in top media outlets including the San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times and New Scientist magazine.