The US government initiative has made adaptation a priority but are small-scale farmers reaping the rewards? An Oxfam America study reviews practices in Senegal

It should come as no surprise that rural Senegalese farmers like Odette Camara are already having to adapt to climate change. Given the pattern of dwindling and more erratic rainfall and increases in temperature (pdf) in the Kédougou region of south-eastern Senegal where she lives, the growing seasons and yields of her maize, rice, and potato crops are all affected. For Camara and millions of smallholder farmers like her, now more than ever it's important to integrate climate change adaptation within agriculture and food security programming .

Some international donors agree. Feed the Future, the US government initiative on food security and agriculture, for example, has prioritised climate change adaptation (pdf) as a cross-cutting issue throughout its programmes. Climate change also features prominently in Feed the Future's research agenda, with a focus on improving the resilience of crops and animals to climate stresses. But the question is: has climate change adaptation caught on in the places where it's most pressing to farmers' livelihoods?

"Assisting small-scale food producers to adapt to climate change and better manage natural resources is essential for the long-term success of the Feed the Future initiative and efforts to promote sustainable development," our colleague Paul O'Brien said in a US Senate foreign relations committee hearing at the end of last year.

"For food producers, climate adaptation requires developing the tools and knowledge and building the capacity to address current hazards and manage risk and uncertainty associated with weather … there is also a need to implement programmes that address power dynamics that shape access to resources essential for smallholder agriculture," he added.

Oxfam America commissioned a study earlier this year to understand how Feed the Future was contributing to the capacity of small-scale farmers to adapt to climate change in a project called Wula Nafaa in the Tambacounda and Kédougou regions of Senegal. In this case, researchers found that the project had increased farmers' yields and sustainable land use, thereby indirectly reducing vulnerability to climate change impacts. That is good.

However Oxfam also identified four other investments that Feed the Future and other agriculture sector donors could use to improve the ability of people like Odette Camara and other farmers around the world to adapt to climate change:

Raising awareness about climate change

Empowering farmers to better anticipate and plan for climate change starts with raising their awareness of the phenomenon itself and its effects on their farming, as well as its relationship to such sustainable techniques as conservation farming. Recent studies cited in The New Yorker and New Scientist suggest that donors would do well to know that this awareness raising will work better if aid projects focus more on the messenger, not the message.

Providing weather forecast information for the short- and long-term

Farmers surveyed by Oxfam in Senegal saw this as a priority. They need accurate and timely weather information, as well as skills to gather and interpret weather data from their own observations, to enable them to plan their farming activities. In the context of climate change, this is especially vital when depending on rainfall to grow crops.

Strengthening local institutions' ability to programme and monitor projects

Local institutions also lack relevant climate change adaption information that could inform local development plans. Though 'institutional strengthening' may be considered less sexy than funding innovations, capacity building for formal and informal institutions at the local level are vital. They are the "first defence" in helping farmers anticipate and prepare for climate-related risks.

Incorporating climate change in national policies for development and agricultural investments

Donors should support governments to have a forward-looking and long-term orientation and incorporate all aspects of climate change vulnerability analyses and adaptation approaches at the policy level.

At the end of the day, it is local communities that are at the centre of adaption to climate change. Efforts to foster adaptation hinge on their awareness of the issues, and their owning the process and having the ability to undertake the appropriate activities. By taking advantage of all opportunities to incorporate climate change adaptation into agriculture development programming, small-scale farmers like Odette Camara will be better prepared to cope with a changing world.

Jennifer Lentfer is a senior writer and Emmanuel Tumusiime is a researcher, both at Oxfam America. Follow @OxfamAmerica on Twitter

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