Scaling CGIAR science with tools, trainings and TV shows

AICCRA has reached a million smallholder farmers in Africa with climate-smart agriculture and climate information services. As we look at the year ahead, our projects and partnerships move us closer towards our vision of a?#ClimateSmartAfrica.

In our first LinkedIn newsletter of 2023, we're sharing with you stories of innovative climate-smart tools and services for farmers.

But we believe that to achieve scaleable and sustainable impact, these innovations alone aren't enough.?We must package and scale innovation in ways that take root and thrive in Africa.?

We need to move to truly understanding and working with the operating environments and target users of those tools and services.

Our stories show how African countries can scale CGIAR innovation to strengthen the ability of smallholder farmers and their communities to adapt to climate change.

Turning ‘shapeless’ climate data into powerful tools of action for farmers with Maprooms

‘Maprooms’ are freely accessible, online analytical and visualization tools to make climate data more usable. These knowledge products are designed to meet the need for climate data to be turned into actionable information for decision-making and adaptation in agriculture.

Having access to and being trained to use this detailed, location-specific climate data will be game-changing for rain-dependent African farmers and the partners who support them. Building upon the success of these innovations led by AICCRA and its partners, they are now being tailored and scaled to support adaptation in African agriculture.

Merging local knowledge with climate data for the first time

A new tool called TILKIT is — for the first time — merging local and indigenous knowledge with empirical observations of climate and weather in relatable ways. The tool allows the local traditional knowledge of smallholder farmers to be used, adapted, and validated for agricultural planning.

AICCRA is now working to connect TILKIT to national and regional policy frameworks and decision makers at different levels, involving more stakeholders to scale the impact of TILKIT.

Women are driving digital tool uptake in Mali

With Africa Rice Center and partners, AICCRA Mali trained 120 women service providers in the use and application of the RiceAdvice app. These service providers were intentionally trained to reach female farmers who — due to cultural barriers — are not usually able to access such agricultural advice.

?? As a result of working with women service providers, over 20,400 women and youth farmers (45% of the area's total number of farmers) have adopted the technologies recommended by RiceAdvice.

This contributed to rice yields increasing by 1.0 t/ha on women’s fields against 0.8 t/ha on men’s fields.

Harnessing the power of real-time weather data for decision-making in African agriculture

Recent initiatives have worked to increase the availability and quality of climate data in Africa, particularly by investing in networks of automated weather stations (AWS). But they’ve also created a new problem in the lack of coordination among the various projects, programs, and donors.

To address some of these challenges, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, Columbia Climate School (IRI) developed the Automatic Weather Station Data Tool (ADT). The tool enables users from national meteorological services to access, process, perform quality control, and visualize data from different AWS networks in one place.

Thanks to support from AICCRA and Adapting Agriculture to Climate Today, for Tomorrow (ACToday) projects, use of the new tool has increased significantly among African national meteorological services.

In less than a year, AICCRA has trained national meteorological staff from five of its focus countries—Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and Zambia—to use ADT to help synchronize their data streams.

Reaching more Zambian farmers through national television

One of AICCRA's key objectives is to scale climate information services to better inform African farmers' decision making. In Zambia, one way we're doing that is through a new reality tv show called Munda Makeover.

In a region where many farmers may lack access to technologies such as smartphones or the internet, live national television has the potential to spread knowledge and awareness of climate-smart agriculture practices more widely.

Developed in partnership with AICCRA, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), CGIAR initiatives, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, and The Mediae Company, Munda Makeover is a first-of-its-kind “farmer makeover" show targeting smallholder farmers. The show focuses on climate-smart agriculture - promoting best farming practices for crop, tree, and livestock production, including the needs of the farming family, with particular attention to women’s role in farming.

You can read all of these stories and more on our news page or follow us on social media (@CGIARAfrica) for ongoing updates.

Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) is a project that helps deliver a climate-smart African future driven by science and innovation in agriculture. It is led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and supported by a grant from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank.