Monday, 5 August 2013

Climate Change and Gender in Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services


State of affairs and challenges relating to climate change

·         There is little information on how extension takes climate change into account in the services that are provided
·         Agricultural services need to be adaptive in the face of emergent realities of climate change
·         It was noted that even though issues of climate change directly affect agriculture , the ministries of agriculture do not have climate change as primary focus  i.e, climate change is not led by agriculture
·         Funding to support agriculture and climate change in particular is low in most cases.
·         Most of the learning in the area of climate change is still at project level and needs to find its way to policy level.
·         Extension and AAS providers need to provide multi focused services not just to focus on production
·         Need for development of early warning system is important
·         ICT use should be expanded
·         Problems of climate knowledge  must be clearly articulated in terms of governance, participation and assets

 Directions for future action

Studies:
  • Socioeconomic conditions and determinants in climate change adaptation and mitigation.
  • Institutional issues in extension and implications for programme development and result measurement framework.
  • Documentation of innovations of small holder farmers in climate change adaption and mitigation.
  • Climate change related risk assessment in African agricultural value chain systems.
Capacity Building:
  • Country fora to build capacity of national extension stakeholders and practitioners in the facilitating sustaining innovations for climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Climate change information and knowledge management:
  • Development of manuals and protocols for communicating climate change information.
  • Development of frameworks for integrating climate change issues into national extension policies, and operational plans.
Presented by Dr. Verona  Parkinson

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