The Alliance
is Africa’s leading platform to catalyze result-oriented and on-the-ground
implementation support in response to both the challenges and
opportunities that climate change brings.
This is towards
the attainment of the Africa Union Vision on CSA, within the context of Comprehensive
Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) and the overarching AU-NEPAD
Framework on Agriculture-Climate Change.
The 2014
Malabo Declaration by African Heads of State and Government prioritized the
agriculture-climate change nexus as critical factor in the next ten years (2015-2025)
of the CAADP implementation.
“For
many years now we’ve heard voices and witnessed the effects of climate change on
agriculture in our continent; crop failures and death of livestock have become more
frequent, leading to economic losses, undermining food security and
contributing to higher food prices,” observed Mrs
Estherine Fotabong,NEPAD
Programmes Director.
She therefore
believes the Africa CSA
Alliance will help address the concerns of countries
and communities in the implementation of programmes that impact on livelihoods
and development.
“In
order to make rural transformation attainable, climate change needs to be also
mainstreamed in the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme
(CAADP), Africa’s instrument for agricultural growth and economic development,”
Mrs Fotabong said.
Climate change
is projected to have severe impact on agricultural productivity on the
continent, according to the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC).
Climate
Smart Agriculture is defined as agriculture that sustainably
increases productivity, resilience and adaptation, as well as contributes
towards reducing the emission
of greenhouse gases – leading to
overall food security and nutrition in the face of climate change.
Ethiopia’s
State Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ato Sileshi Getahun, says
the Alliance provides an opportunity to take concrete action in climate change
for the benefit of African agriculture.
He noted that Ethiopia has moved
beyond the rhetoric of defining and understanding what climate change and its
effects is all about, to implementing concrete projects to address the challenges.
“With
Agriculture as the mainstay of Africa’s economy, it is important that we invest
in and practice climate smart agriculture,” stated Mr. Gatahun. “We need to
show the rest of the world our adaptive capacity and remain positive that more
development partners will come on board to help Africa upscale all the various
CSA investments on the continent”.
Meanwhile,
the maiden forum of the Africa Climate-Smart Agriculture Alliance has opened on
the theme: Fostering Alignment and Harmonization in the CSA Efforts in Africa”.
Participants
drawn from farmer organizations, civil society, technical institutions, private
sector, regional economic communities and development partners, are contributing
to building shared understanding of CSA and broaden accessible information on
CSA initiatives across the continent.
Story by
Kofi Adu Domfeh/ in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
