Communication Strategies for Building Climate-Smart Farming Communities

Abstract

Farming communities across the globe, especially in the drylands of Asia and Africa, are already facing the effects of climate change. With droughts, unseasonal rains and unpredictable dry spells becoming more frequent, reaching farmers with timely climate information and cropping advice is crucial as are coping strategies to face future climate shocks. There is also an urgent need to create, among farming communities, an awareness on reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) which contribute to a third of all human-generated GHGs. For this, holistic communication strategies that use best available technologies and target not just farmers but link all the stakeholders along the agricultural value chain are needed. Working for over 40 years in the semi-arid tropics with varied partners, ICRISAT has developed resilient dryland crops and a pool of climate-smart technologies besides researching on biofuels as alternatives for fossil fuels. These technologies are being implemented in locations across sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. This article records the various approaches used, lessons learnt and successes achieved in building climate smart villages/communes that restore/nurture the environment, use scientific innovations and climate information for cropping decisions, diversify livelihoods, link to markets, influence policy makers and ultimately make agriculture profitable.