| Summary: | Since 2011, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture
and Food Security (CCAFS) is facilitating a partnership around
collective action in seven villages that integrates a science approach to
deliver development outcomes in Nyando. The approach is based on a
climate-smart village (CSV) model, focusing on improving local knowledge
of climate risks and variability in seasonal rainfall, dry spells, and
diseases and pests to inform farming decisions. The goal is to respond
to climate variability, improve food security and enhance household
incomes. This is achieved through the participatory testing of resilient
technologies, training to build the knowledge and capacity to change
local practices and improve planning for adaptation to changing farming
conditions. Through participatory action research approaches, the
partnership is facilitating the testing of a portfolio of climate-smart
agriculture (CSA) interventions, allowing farming households to make
progressive changes to their crops and cropping patterns as well as
introducing new resilient livestock breeds. The new livestock breeds
are able to withstand heat stress, better utilize low quality forage, cope
with the disease burden, recover from drought with faster compensatory
growth, therefore maturing to market weight within a shorter
period compared to the local breeds. The farming households are able
to combine these scientific tools and products with changes from adaptive
management to address climate related risks and build resilience at
local scales.
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