News

Farming Woman [GIZ/GRAPE]

Agricultural development projects often emphasize the need for climate change adaptation (and mitigation) in production. Yet upstream and downstream functions of agricultural value chains bear a similar importance for resilience of the agricultural system. Guidance for the use of adequate tools and at best a comprehensive approach can enhance the effectiveness of development projects.

The Task Force Climate-Smart Agricultural Value Chains of the SNRD Asia/Pacific formed in February 2022 to fill the gap for a streamlined guidance. The Task Force has produced several products that can help project planning and implementation. As of February 2023, the following products are available:

• A database for Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) measures that are being used in GIZ projects around the world.
• An overview of existing tools/methods/guides for climate change adaptation and mitigation in agri-food systems in the form of a
• An interactive Product Landscape that combines the developed products and additional relevant documents in a user-friendly design.
• An upgrade of ValueLinks 2.0 methodology by integrating relevant climate-sensitive aspects for analysis and solutions of value chains.

The CSA database includes more than 100 measures that have been successfully applied by African and Asian projects. It lists CSA measures along the complete value chain and categorizes these according to agroclimatic zones. It is an excel database and will be updated with suitable measures whenever available. Further down the line the excel database will be upgraded to a dynamic online database.

The Compendium gives an overview of the most relevant tools that can be applied for climate change adaptation and mitigation in agri-food systems. Numerous tools have been developed to integrate climate change aspects into development projects, they differ in level and complexity of application, methodology and target group. The Compendium categorizes these and prepares the tools for a more convenient application by practitioners.

The interactive Product Landscape complements the Compendium and gives a visual overview of and easy access to the developed products as well as additional relevant documents.

The ValueLinks 2.0 methodology was upgraded by integrating climate-smart aspects in the suitable modules for analysis and solutions. New training slides were created in English and field-tested in Vietnam and Nepal. With this upgrade, ValueLinks 2.0 is comprehensively taking account of climate change challenges that value chain development needs to consider and prepares ValueLinks practitioners to apply suitable tools. An accompanying brochure is providing more in-depth information on the utilized tools. The new training material is currently translated in additional languages.

The topics and ongoing activities of the Task Force Climate-Smart Agricultural will be continued in 2023 within the WG Agriculture of SNRD Asia/Pacific.

Link to further materials

Contact person
Till Ludwig — Advisor, Task Force Lead
GRAPE Nepal

Key buzzwords
Agricultural value chains, climate change