Agriculture employs most rural households in East Africa and is also the sector most exposed to a changing climate. Governments, development partners and climate funds are directing resources to adaptation and resilience, yet projects often falter because practices are chosen without a clear understanding of local risk, farmer constraints or market realities.

The Applied Climate-Smart Agriculture & Food Systems Training Course gives participants a practical route from risk analysis to implementation. It opens with the climate trends and impacts that matter for different farming systems, then introduces the concept of climate-smart agriculture and its trade-offs between productivity, adaptation and mitigation. Technical modules explore soil fertility and water management, resilient crop and livestock options, agroforestry, climate services and risk transfer. A food systems block examines storage, processing, markets, nutrition and inclusion, and the policy and finance environment that determines whether good practices spread.

Teaching is applied. Participants analyse scenarios drawn from smallholder, pastoral and commercial settings, score practices against agreed criteria and develop an adaptation plan with indicators. They leave with a prioritised package of interventions and a plan for engaging farmers, partners and funders.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Explain the climate-smart agriculture approach and its productivity, adaptation and mitigation goals.
• Assess climate vulnerability and risk for a given crop, livestock or landscape system.
• Select and sequence climate-smart practices appropriate to local conditions.
• Describe soil, water and agroforestry measures that improve resilience.
• Use climate information services and risk transfer tools in farm and programme planning.
• Analyse food system constraints from production through post-harvest, markets and nutrition.
• Integrate gender and social inclusion into climate-smart interventions.
• Prepare an adaptation plan with costs, indicators and financing options.

The course is relevant to those who plan, advise on or fund agricultural change, including:

• Agricultural extension officers and field facilitators
• County and national agriculture and livestock officers
• Programme managers in NGOs and development organisations
• Agribusiness managers and cooperative leaders
• Researchers and university lecturers in agriculture and environment
• Climate change and environmental officers
• Staff of climate funds and agricultural finance institutions
• Value chain and food security specialists

Participants leave with:

• A climate risk and vulnerability screening for their own production system.
• A scored shortlist of climate-smart practices matched to farmer constraints.
• A draft adaptation plan with indicators and a monitoring approach.
• An understanding of how food systems, markets and nutrition shape adoption.
• Guidance on gender-responsive design for field interventions.
• Ideas for financing and scaling interventions through partners and climate funds.

Sessions are practical and grounded in real farming conditions. The delivery includes:

• Short technical briefings with illustrated examples from the region
• Farm-level case files and field scenarios for group analysis
• Scoring and prioritisation workshops for candidate practices
• Exercises using climate and rainfall data
• Facilitated review of each participant's adaptation plan

Participants who attend all sessions and complete the group exercises and planning task receive a CPD-accredited Certificate of Completion issued by Vision Reach Global Consultancy.