IFAD - Climate Change Adaptation and Agribusiness Support Programme (CASP) in the Savannah Belt of Nigeria

Increase incomes, enhance food security and reduce vulnerability for smallholder farmers, particularly women and young people.

Productivity enhancement and climate resilience. ASAP will encourage communities to adopt sustainable land management and erosion control techniques. Seven demonstration sites will help to showcase innovative techniques such as semi-circular and trapezoidal bunds. Eight pilot sites in the states of Borno, Katsina, Kebbi and Yobe will test rangeland management techniques and new species. CASP will promote sustainable land management, water harvesting and soil and water conservation techniques over a total of 10,500 hectares in the programme area. These will include establishing on-farm and community woodlots, rehabilitating rangelands and existing animal drinking points, as well as establishing new ones. In addition, existing contour bunds will be rehabilitated and control hedges and stone works will be established to combat gully erosion. South-South learning exchanges with countries such as Morocco and Niger, where sustainable land management, cropping and irrigation technologies are supported by IFAD, will further encourage farmers to adopt these techniques. This component will also support the development and implementation of community rangeland management plans. Institutional development. ASAP will strengthen and scale up the participatory land-use planning (PLUP) models developed by a previous IFAD-funded project. The PLUP models will include participatory climate change vulnerability mapping (PCCVM) carried out by NGOs and other qualified service providers. The process will build local capacity in climate risk analysis and management. The PLUP models will help the programme to identify priority areas for targeting climate-related investment, such as the most vulnerable sections of roads across the states. ASAP funding will be used to protect rural roads from the increased risks of flooding and erosion and enable a more effective harvesting of water run-off from road surfaces. ASAP will finance the establishment of a geographic information system (GIS) to support the climate proofing of PLUP models. Women and young people will be consulted separately in the PLUP and PCCVM processes, so that they can voice their priorities freely. Training in monitoring climate adaptation will enhance capacity to monitor the impact of investments to increase climate resilience. CASP will facilitate the establishment and strengthening of community development associations (CDAs), which are apex bodies of the commodity/producers or enterprise groups. Funds will be made available directly to the CDAs for community infrastructure identified through the community action plan (CAP) process. ASAP will provide incentives within the CAP process to scale up and leverage additional funding for the promotion of climate-resilient agricultural practices. Programme coordination and management. Programme experience and findings from analytical studies will inform policy dialogue on climate adaptation, through support for activities of the Advisory Committee on Adaptation and Resilience in Nigeria (ACARN). Expected Impacts: ASAP assistance will enable 200,000 smallholder farmers to adopt climate-resilient agricultural practices on 225,000 hectares of land. Direct benefits from the programme's climate change adaptation approach will include greater food security, reduced soil erosion (increase by 40 per cent the number of farmers with reduced erosion in their fields) and reduced impact of climate hazards on rural infrastructure. Other benefits will include a better understanding of climate-resilient agricultural practices and the integration of these into local planning processes. Atsuko Toda Country Programme Manager IFAD Country Office in Nigeria, c/o RUFIN, PMB 2851 Garki Abuja FCT, Nigeria Tel: 234 0818 4828 770 at.toda@ifad.org Naoufel Telahigue Regional Climate and Environment Specialist (WCA) IFAD Via Paolo di Dono 44 Rome, Italy Tel: 39 06 5459 2572 n.telahigue@ifad.org