Adaptation in African Agriculture

Whatever the commitments countries are making about decarbonizing their economies, one thing is certain: climate change is happening, and its impacts are being felt disproportionately by resource-poor communities. In sub-Saharan Africa, the agricultural sector, dominated by small producers and subsistence farming, is especially vulnerable.

Adaptation can play a vital role in helping these farmers, and in this podcast you'll hear from Rodger Voorhies, president for Global Growth and Opportunity at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio, co-author of a new Global Commission on Adaptation paper on how digital services can transform the lives of hundreds of millions of farmers.

— Rodger Voorhies, President for Global Growth and Opportunity, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

“What I’m trying to say is not that it’s an easy problem to solve, or that we’re almost out of the woods in terms of addressing it. But rather this is where we have the existing infrastructure and technology is emerging that can have a massive impact on livelihoods and a massive impact on sustainability in a part of the world, Africa, that had almost nothing to do with global warming.”

— Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio, Senior Adaptation and Resilience Advisor, WRI

“The return on investment is high because it gives farmers the information they need to make more informed decisions about what resources they purchase and use, in terms of inputs, fertilizers, varieties; how they manage their agricultural resources, whether it’s livestock or fish or crops; when to harvest. And it’s also often bundled with other services, like access to finance and savings and credit or insurance.”

Useful Links:

• WRI Climate Resilience Practice
• WRI Center for Equitable Development
• WRI Climate Resilient and Transformative Adaptation for Agriculture Initiative
• Global Commission on Adaptation Working Paper: “A Blueprint for Digital Climate-Informed Advisory Services: Building the Resilience of 300 Million Small-Scale Producers by 2030”
• WRI Insights article: To Tackle Food Insecurity, Invest in Digital Climate Services for Agriculture
• WRI Report: “Food Systems at Risk: Transformative Adaptation for Long Term Food Security
• WRI podcast: Why Transformative Adaptation is Needed to Build Climate Resilient Food Systems
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Global Commission on Adaptation