Integra is pleased to announce that it has been awarded USAID’s Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Uptake Study under the REPLACE IDIQ. The study, commissioned by USAID’s Africa Bureau, will assess the barriers to and incentives for African farmers to adopt CSA practices.

Climate Smart Agriculture refers to the suite of practices or approaches that sustainably increase agricultural productivity, adapt and build resilience to climate change in agricultural systems, and/or reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. There are hundreds of CSA practices, and the most well-known include drip irrigation, no-till farming, and the use of weather information systems to make planting decisions. Donor agencies and governments have been promoting these and similar practices to African farmers for years, with mixed results.

The study will assess the current status of CSA uptake, and it will gather information on known barriers to the adoption of CSA practices and effective incentives for encouraging their uptake. This will be done through an in-depth literature review, interviews with key actors in both Africa and the United States, and through two field-based case studies in different regions of Africa. The information will be rigorously  analyzed, and, working with USAID, we will develop recommendations for future programming. Our work will result in USAID Missions and others in Africa taking more effective and realistic approaches to promoting CSA practices.