Climate-Smart Agriculture?: new FAO working paper
Graciela Mariani
The FAO Economics and Policy Innovations for Climate-Smart Agriculture (EPIC) Programme has recently published a new Working Paper:
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| Climate-Smart Agriculture? A review of current practice of agroforestry and conservation agriculture in Malawi and Zambia by David Kaczan, Aslihan Arslan and Leslie Lipper
Malawi and Zambia are promoting the use of agroforestry and conservation agriculture with the aim of improving the productivity of their smallholder agricultural systems under climate change. This review synthesizes evidence on the use, yield and socio-economic impacts of these farming techniques.
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Key messages · There is strong evidence for the benefits on annual food crop yields from agroforestry in Malawi, both as a substitute and a complement for inorganic fertilizers. Agroforestry appears to offer income and livelihood benefits, but adoption in Malawi has been slow to date. · There is modest evidence of yield, financial and livelihood benefits of conservation farming in Zambia. There are considerable constraints to its adoption in Zambia. · Literature suggests that agroforestry offers high potential to sequester carbon while conservation agriculture offers lower potential. There is very little evidence specific to Malawian and Zambian conditions. · Further research is needed on the carbon sequestration potentials and socio-economic impacts of these practices in different agro-ecological conditions under climate change in Malawi & Zambia. | |
For further information:
Aslihan Arslan, PhD
Economist
Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA)
Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO)
www.fao.org/climatechange/epic
