The Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (ARAA/ECOWAS) organized from July 17 to 19, 2023, in Manga (Centre-South region) a regional workshop to strengthen the technical capacities of local actors working on the ground on integrated approaches to climate-smart agriculture to promote agricultural practices that are resilient to the adverse effects of climate change.
"This training, which includes a theoretical phase and a field visit, aims to give participants the tools, methods and concrete techniques to be able to roll out climate-smart agriculture in the field," said the West Africa coordinator. from the International Center for Agricultural Research (CIAT)/AICCRA, Robert Zougmoré.
According to Mr. Zougmoré, Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is a new concept developed by FAO.
“It aims to achieve three pillars at the same time, which are the sustainable improvement of agricultural productivity, adaptation to climate change and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture,” he said.
The thirty or so local actors who take part in the training on the subject in Manga are made up of executives and agents from local communities and municipalities, technical services for agriculture, water, livestock and the environment, as well as representatives of CSOs, NGOs and farmers' organizations (POs).
By initiating the session on their behalf, it is also a question of "making them ambassadors of climate-smart agriculture throughout the Central-South region", argued Robert Zougmoré.
During the three days of activities, the theoretical training concerned, among other things, the understanding of the problem of climate change, the identification and proposal of solutions by the actors in connection with AIC and the formulation of related projects, underlined the main trainer, professor Irénikatché Akponikpé.
As for the practical aspect, it concerned the field visit to allow participants “to see firsthand cases of successful AIC interventions”, he added.
"This workshop was very useful to us because it allowed us to understand the benefits of smart agriculture, whether it is to improve our production or to fight against the effects of climate change", noted the Adissa Congo participant from the special communal delegation of Guiba.
The Manga workshop is part of the regional project to promote Climate-Smart Agriculture (AIC) in West Africa (AIC-AO) implemented by the Regional Agency for Agriculture and Agriculture. 'Food (ARAA/ECOWAS) in partnership with the Alliance Bioversity International and CIAT through the ''Accelerating the Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa'' (AICCRA) Program and the National Climate Management Units Program (PMU).
This project is financed by BOAD and the Adaptation Fund to approximately 12 million US dollars, i.e. approximately 7 billion 9.58 million CFA francs and operates in five West African countries which are Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso, Togo and Ghana, said the West Africa coordinator of the International Center for Agricultural Research (CIAT)/AICCRA, Robert Zougmoré.
In Burkina Faso, the areas of intervention of the project are mainly the Center-South and the Center-East, specified Mr. Zougmoré.
Source: Burkina Information Agency