Andrea Maji, a Tanzanian farmer from Seloto village in Babati district, looks in despair at the stream that used to flow through his farm and irrigate his crops during the dry season. The riverbed is parched, meaning his maize plants are drying out; yet another lost harvest because of this year’s El Nino induced drought that struck East and Southern African countries in 2015.

Like many neighbouring farmers, Andrea can do little but watch his entire crop waste away as he is not insured against weather hazards. In addition to food security worries for him and his family, he will have less capital to invest in the next growing season, and if another disaster strikes, fewer resources available to cope with it.  

Researchers work with extension agents and farmers to scale up more sustainable and climate resilient farming practices. Babati district, Tanzania.

IITA/Gloriana Ndibalema.

Improving resilience of smallholders is key for poverty reduction

Farmers are finding innovative ways to adapt to climate uncertainties but it is often the poorest farmers that are both the most vulnerable and have least capacity to deal with unexpected events.  While 2.5 billion smallholders rely directly on agriculture to survive, their resilience – i.e., being able to absorb and recover from shocks and stresses while adapting to cope with them the next time – is highly uneven. Scientists from the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) are working with local partners to identify, test and scale up actions that increase the resilience of smallholder production systems and livelihoods.

“Any initiative aiming at improving farmers’ resilience should also take into account the resilience of the ecosystems,” Bioversity International landscape ecologist Sarah Jones reminds us. “Only healthy and resilient ecosystems can continue to deliver services that are valuable for sustaining local livelihoods, such as nutritionally diverse food supplies, good quality water and healthy soils.”

CIAT agronomist Fred Kizito explains that the impact of a climate shock like the 2015 drought will be felt differently in different farming systems.

“When designing solutions to help a farmer like Andrea cope better in the future, we have to take into account his local climate, environment and socio-economic conditions.”

Fred is studying water dynamics in places like Seloto to get the bigger picture of how water is used and give better advice on what crops would produce the best yields with less water.

A collective effort to build resilience for farmers

While having farmers adopt practices and technologies that improve their personal resilience is worthwhile, building meaningful collective resilience requires an adequate extension strategy. WLE scientists working in Tanzania have found that, in order to scale up more sustainable and climate resilient farming practices in places like Seloto, it is essential to target suitable agro-ecologies and work together with established outreach networks (e.g., agro-dealers). 150 farmers are now implementing WLE recommendations in Babati district, and the approach has spread to five other districts as well.

A farmer-to-farmer video in Kenya further emphasizes that resilience at the landscape level can only happen through collective action.  For instance, to effectively tackle an infestation of striga (a parasitic weed that can be especially harmful for maize and sorghum cultivation), all farmers in a landscape have to follow a strict control and restoration recommendations and work together. If even a few farmers do not follow these recommendations, rain will sweep their striga seed infested topsoil downhill and contaminate neighboring fields.

Resilience is more than adopting new technologies or practices

Resilience is not just a technical issue; it is also dependent on social, economic and institutional factors, like domestic dynamics, market access, government policies, and existing institutions. For instance, in parts of the world where women have poor access to capital or education opportunities, they are likely to have a lower capacity to handle shocks and stressors than their male counterparts.

Community Seed Bank in Uganda that is part of Bioversity International's Pest and Disease initiative.

D. Jarvis/Bioversity International.

For farmers to choose resilient options like crop diversification, setting up the right market conditions and policies is essential. Under WLE guidance, over 20,000 farmers from Kabwohe, Uganda have established a community seed bank that includes over 50 common bean varieties and 40 banana varieties, giving farmers reliable access to crop biodiversity. This community gene-bank received a national award for seed management excellence from the government of Uganda.

In a time of growing uncertainty, to ensure that farmers are better equipped for the next shock, communities and decision makers have to consider the multiple factors that influence resilience. WLE has developed a monitoring instrument for resilience to better track changes in resilience in any agricultural initiative, including monitoring the adaptive capacity of farming and fishing communities, as well as changes to ecosystem services and livelihoods.

For Andrea, preparing for further disaster is critical. He is now one of two farmer representatives in the Babati multistakeholder Research for Development platform, JUMBA, which includes not only farmers, but two representatives each from local and regional government, national and international research institutions, extension services, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), the private sector and policy makers. JUMBA was established to speed up the response of research and extension to new threats. Andrea is reassured that farmer voices are being heard and that, by working together, the platform can plan a more resilient future for farming.

Resilience for smallholder farmers requires a multidisciplinary, integrate approach that not only promotes better technologies and farming practices, but also a suitable socio-economic and ecological context. Initiatives like JUMBA are a step towards ensuring positive futures for agricultural communities in the face of uncertainty.

Acknowledgments:

• Regulating current and future damage from pests and diseases through enhanced use of intra-specific crop diversity in agricultural production landscapes; Lead Center : Bioversity. Partners: Unión de Organizaciones Campesinas Indígenas de Cotacachi, Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, National Agriculture Research Laboratories, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Yunnan Agricultural University; Donor: IFAD
• CIAT participatory video in Kenya was produced under a GIZ-funded Scoping studies on soil research and management project
• Monitoring instrument for resilience, CCAFS, WLE and FTA
• Water dynamics study in Tanzania, CIAT under Africa Rising initiative