Drivers of climate risk in African agriculture

Abstract

Climate-related risks to African agriculture are highly contextual. Climatic conditions are changing in diverse agro-ecological environments throughout Africa, and populations are being affected by, and responding to, these changes. The paper describes how climate change risks in African agriculture are mediated by multiple factors, ranging from the availability of physical resources through policy contexts to the role of culture. Consequently, support to adaptation needs to be complemented with research that can generate contextual information to inform adaptation policies, strategies, and measures. Interventions need to go beyond just technical fixes such as the development of new crop varieties, and must be based on an understanding of how different factors interact in a complex manner to drive risks and results in specific contexts to diverse outcomes.