Blog Strengthening Climate Resilience of Ethiopia’s Smallholder Farmers: Bundled Climate-Smart Solutions for Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACCs)

Dr. Sintayehu Workneh - Research Management Coordinator at the Alliance - presented an overview of the existing climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices used by the maize farmers to adapt to the climate variability and change-induced risks as well as increase maize yield across four zones. The study identified 17 practices under 6 categories including conservation agriculture, integrated soil fertility management, soil and water management, agroforestry, water harvesting and irrigation and small/micro-scale irrigation. His presentation further mapped CSA practices in the four zones and proposed a set of unexplored CSA practices for each zone.  

The presentation highlighted several barriers to adopting CSA across four zones. These include a lack of knowledge and practical skills among farmers, limited access to timely and relevant climate information, and inadequate agro-climate advisory services. Additionally, the inconsistent transfer of climate-resilient technologies, widespread capacity limitations among stakeholders and restricted access to reliable climate information services were also identified as challenges. 

To address these challenges, the presentation proposed the need for a suitability analysis for maize and other crops under current and future scenarios, inclusive digital solutions, bundled climate advisory, credit and insurance services and capacity building of all stakeholders as solutions.  

Professor Nigussie Dechassa emphasized the value of climate information services (CIS) as a key climate-smart agriculture (CSA) approach for all ACC clusters and commodities. He highlighted CIS as a promising area for exploration and stressed the importance of integrating Indigenous knowledge with modern scientific methods to develop innovative climate risk management solutions. 

Professor Nigussie also emphasized the crucial role of smallholder farmers, stating: “Smallholder farmers are the basis of the CSA system; therefore, we need to ensure access to finance to implement the CSA practices effectively.

Finally, he praised the progress made, adding: “This is a promising start. Building a strong working relationship and exploring synergies will be key to achieving successful results.”

Dr. Aweke  Mulualem, Director for Natural Resource and Climate Change of ATI, reflected:

“We need to understand what policymakers need to make the right decisions, and how research institutions such as CGIAR can support in the assessment of the existing challenges in adopting and scaling CSA practices and the science-to-policy development process.”

He further emphasized the need to engage private sector actors such as Lersha in addressing the challenges. He applauded “ACC II will be implemented with these advanced CSA tools at hand, which is an enormous achievement.” 

The workshop concluded by reaffirming the project's substantial contribution to the ACCs program, particularly through the successful pilot of maize climate risk profiling and the development of a climate-smart credit scoring tool. These tools are designed to strengthen the ACCs' decision-making processes and will be integrated with ATI’s digital platform for wider impact. Participants praised the positive outcomes and the collaborative efforts of the Alliance, ATI and Lersha. A follow-up validation workshop is planned to gather feedback from key regional stakeholders and ensure broad support for scaling the initiative across other zones.