Perspectives On Climate Effects On Agriculture: The International Efforts Of AgMIP In Sub-Saharan Africa.

Agriculture in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) is experiencing climate change-related effects that call for integrated regional assessment (IA) information, yet capacity for these assessments has been low. The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP; www.agmip.org) is advancing research on integrated regional assessments of climate change involving climate, crop, and economic modeling and analysis. Through AgMIP, IA is increasingly gaining momentum in SSA and multi-institutional regional research teams (RRT) centered in eastern, western, and southern Africa are generating new information on IA of climate change impacts and adaptation in selected agricultural systems. AgMIP research in Africa is organized into four holistic RRT and a coordination team. Each of the RRT is composed of several CGIAR institutions, multiple NARs and regional programme scientists constituting experts in crop and economic modeling, climate and IT. Stakeholder involvement, to define specific agricultural systems to be evaluated, the outcomes and the representative agricultural pathways, is undertaken at 3 levels: local (or Country research), regional (defined by RRT focus area) and SSA in order to create influence at these levels. Capacity building for IA is a key component undertaken continuously through joint implementation with experts in regional and SSA-wide workshops, and through joint creation of tools. Many young students and research affiliates have been identified and brought on board as part of capacity building in IA. Bi-monthly updates on scholarly publications in climate change in Africa also serve as a vehicle for knowledge sharing. With already 60 scientists trained and actively engaged in IA and over 80 getting monthly briefs on latest information on climate change, a climate-informed community of experts is slowly taking shape in SSA.