Editorial for the Thematic Series in Agriculture & Food Security: Climate-Smart Agriculture Technologies in West Africa: learning from the ground AR4D experiences

摘要

This Thematic Series on “Climate-Smart Agriculture\udTechnologies in West Africa: learning from the ground\udAR4D experiences” contains seven papers presented by\udresearchers from four West African countries based on\udparticipatory action research conducted since 2012 in\udthe region. These research activities were funded by the\udCGIAR Research Program on Climate Change Agriculture\udand Food Security (CCAFS) through a project titled\ud“Developing community-based climate-smart agriculture\udthrough participatory action research in CCAFS benchmark\udsites in West Africa” (see [1]). This research action\udunder the scientific lead of the World Agroforestry Centre\ud(ICRAF) aimed to test and validate, in partnership\udwith rural communities and other stakeholders, scalable\udclimate-smart village models for agricultural development\udthat integrate a range of innovative agricultural risk\udmanagement strategies. The project also aimed to enable\udfarmers, developers, managers and policy makers for the\udagriculture sector to develop cost-effective climate-smart\udagriculture (CSA) options that support local sustainable\uddevelopment and enhance livelihood resilience. It is\udtherefore a response to the challenges (degraded lands,\udlow crop productivity, high level of poverty for rural people,\udetc.) faced to satisfy the food needs of an increasing\udpopulation in the face of a changing climate...