CATIE joins agricultural risk management project for families in Rwanda and Ethiopia

• El The project consists of integrating the analysis of meteorological and climatic services for the management of a more resilient agriculture.

December 1, 2022. In order to develop investment plans that integrate weather and climate services for long-term impact on agriculture, since the beginning of 2022, CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) together with the Bioversity International Alliance and CIAT-CGIAR have been collaborating on Clim-ARM, a project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and implemented by local partners in Rwanda and Ethiopia.

This project aims to scale up towards an investment-oriented analysis of opportunities for managing agricultural risks in Sub-Saharan Africa, as the majority of its population depends on small-scale agriculture, which is susceptible to climate shocks, hazards and risks, such as prolonged or unexpected droughts, storms, floods, among others, that affect crops, harvests and livestock, eventually leading to hunger, malnutrition and lack of income for families.

Therefore, climate services for agriculture are key to anticipate and prepare farmers for the risks caused by climate change.

In early 2022, the Clim-ARM project kicked off with a national workshop where CATIE participated as a facilitator to prioritize livelihoods, value chains and identify key stakeholders in the development of the project. During the month of July, the Center trained teams from both countries and local experts to replicate the participatory mapping methodology and identification of climate risks and responses.

Currently, the teams have developed about 10 workshops distributed in different regions of each of the countries, with the participation of representatives with a high level of knowledge in the different livelihoods and value chains.

The project will continue its efforts during the next year, where validation and prioritization workshops are expected to be held to launch the investment plan.