Climate change creates extreme weather patterns that are especially challenging for people in developing countries and can severely impact agricultural yield and food security.
Climate change creates extreme weather patterns that are especially challenging for people in developing countries and can severely impact agricultural yield and food security. International aid organizations have invested billions of dollars in promoting climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, but the effects of those programs are rarely documented.
A new University of Illinois study helps provide such documentation. Researchers Festus Amadu, Paul McNamara, and Daniel Miller, Departments of Agricultural and Consumer Economics and Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at U of I, evaluated the effectiveness of a major United States Agency for International Development (USAID) program in southern Malawi. They found impressive results; farmers who implemented CSA practices saw a 53% increase in maize yields.
Those findings, published in the journal Food Policy, document the efficacy–as well as the long-term impact–of CSA programs that provide training and resources to farmers, says Amadu, post-doctoral research associate at U of I and lead author on the study.
“Our research showed that farmers were able to maintain these practices. Their perceived benefits outweighed constraints, to the extent that when we conducted the study two years after the USAID project had ended, retention rates were high,” he states.
Read more at University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
Image: Festus Amadu, post-doctoral research associate in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois, conducted research on the efficacy of international aid programs supporting climate-smart agricultural practices in Malawi. (Credit: College of ACES, University of Illinois)
