Strategic Climate-Smart Agriculture & Food Systems Training Course

Agriculture is both a victim and a driver of climate change. It employs most of the rural population in many African countries, yet it is exposed to drought, flood and shifting seasons, and contributes emissions through land use change, livestock and fertiliser. Leaders must therefore design strategies that protect food security and livelihoods while meeting climate commitments.

This programme begins with the logic of climate-smart agriculture and a systems view of food production, processing, trade and consumption. It then covers climate risk assessment, vulnerability mapping and the selection of context-appropriate practices at farm, landscape and value chain level. Strategic planning follows: aligning with national policy instruments, building partnerships, mobilising public, private and climate finance, managing trade-offs between productivity, adaptation and mitigation, and tracking progress with credible indicators.

Participants work in teams on a regional case, using prioritisation matrices, practice screening and investment sketches. Teaching draws on field scenarios and policy documents. At the end each participant produces a short strategy outline and an implementation roadmap for their own organisation or territory.

Participants will be able to:

• Explain climate-smart agriculture and its three pillars of productivity, adaptation and mitigation.
• Analyse climate risk and vulnerability for crops, livestock, farmers and value chains.
• Screen and prioritise practices and technologies for specific agro-ecological zones.
• Align local and organisational strategies with national adaptation and mitigation commitments.
• Evaluate options for climate and agricultural finance, including blended and carbon finance.
• Integrate gender, youth and nutrition concerns into food system strategies.
• Design a results framework to monitor resilience, productivity and emissions outcomes.

The programme is for people who shape or implement agricultural and food system strategy, including:

• Directors and senior officers in ministries and county departments of agriculture
• Agricultural policy advisers and planners
• Programme managers in NGOs and development agencies
• Agribusiness executives and value chain coordinators
• Extension and advisory service leaders
• Environment and climate change officers
• Donor and climate fund programme officers
• Researchers and academics working on food systems

At the end of the programme participants will have:

• A climate risk and vulnerability profile for a chosen production system.
• A scored shortlist of climate-smart practices for their own context.
• An alignment map linking their strategy to national climate and agriculture policy.
• A funding pathway sketch identifying likely public, private and climate finance sources.
• A monitoring framework with a handful of workable indicators.
• A one-page strategy outline ready for internal discussion.

The programme is organised around field realities and strategy decisions:

• Expert presentations backed by national and regional policy documents
• Field scenarios describing farms, cooperatives and value chains under climate stress
• Team-based use of prioritisation matrices and vulnerability tools
• Short peer teaching sessions on practices participants know well
• A closing roadmap clinic with feedback from the facilitator

Vision Reach Global Consultancy issues a CPD-accredited Certificate of Completion to every participant who attends the full programme and contributes to the exercises and team presentation.