Climate snapshots help prioritize action in three more countries in Africa

Zambia: Agriculture in Zambia employs almost half of the population and can contribute significantly to increased income generation and economic growth. Unfortunately, much of farming in the country is subsistent and reliant on seasonal rains, so farmers are unable to maximize their production. With increased unpredictability of weather patterns, rural smallholder farmers continue to be affected. This Zambia Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Profile offers possible pathways to increase farming communities’ adaptive capacity using climate smart agriculture technologies. Increased weather variability and climatic hazards like droughts, floods, and extreme temperatures pose major threats to agriculture in Zambia. The government has taken major steps – in its National climate change strategy, mainstreaming of climate change in National development plans - to create enabling technical and political environments for the adoption and scaling out of climate smart practices. These practices aim at sustainable development and reduction of smallholder farmers’ vulnerability from the climate change risks with a great example case study: Integrated crop-livestock systems for climate-smart agriculture in southern, Eastern and Central provinces of Zambia. The profile establishes a national baseline for CSA by assessing all current activities that are climate-smart and identifying promising initiatives for making these practices, technologies and services available to more farmers. The profile highlights current institutional frameworks, policies and programmes associated with CSA and identifies avenues for financial l uptake and adoption of Climate Smart Practices. Tanzania Like many African countries, agriculture is pivotal to the economy of Tanzania with a GDP contribution of 32 percent, employing 59 percent of the population. It is key for food security in the country. The livestock sub-sector in the country is the largest in Eastern Africa, but is yet to realize its potential, contributing roughly 7.4 percent towards total Gross Domestic Product. Rural smallholder farmers make up most of the sector – 91 percent. Yet because they rely on rain fed systems, they are the most exposed to climate risks, leading to serious economic losses to agriculture and livelihoods. The United Republic of Tanzania has made major efforts in climate risk management. This is noted through the numerous policies, strategies and programs that address emerging climate change issues. The existence of a Tanzania Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance presents an opportunity to facilitate a coordinated, coherent and effective response to challenges that climate change presents. The recent Climate smart Agriculture Profile identifies CSA actions that are underway and potential activities or efforts through better policymaking and institutional frameworks. It also outlines the risks climate change poses to agricultural production such as reduced yields and offers adaptation strategies to minimize effects and maximize opportunities. The CSA profile sets the stage for more discussions on formulation of integrated responses to climate risks and development of food security strategies that respond to ever changing needs Mozambique The Republic of Mozambique is a well-endowed country with great abundance of water offering great irrigation potential for agricultural production especially in the large river basins of Limpopo, Zambezi and Lurio. However, agriculture is rain fed and dominated by rural smallholder farmers. These underlying factors make the sector highly vulnerable to effects of climate change, hindering efforts to reduce poverty. Women are heavily involved in agriculture, contributing more than half - 61 percent - of the agricultural labor force. Although they dominate the production of most crops, they lack control and access to productive resources such as land that weakens their adaptive capacity. Efforts by the government of Mozambique to mainstream climate agenda in their development plans is a step in the right direction. More actions to increase awareness and advocate change at policy level to build resilience should be done. It is also important to integrate gender and other cross-cutting issues in farming communities. The CSA Profile outline different enabling environments and barriers for climate smart practices adoption while identifying suitable actions for CSA implementation for each of the different Agro-ecological zones. The profile can guide investment planning, especially establishing CSA coordination unit to manage knowledge and scale out CSA across the country.