Fanny C. Howland

Climate-Smart Farms? Case Studies in Burkina Faso and Colombia

The climate-smart agriculture concept aims to encourage reflection on the transition to sustainable agricultural systems adapted to climate change. This chapter is based on participatory research studies carried out in Colombia and Burkina Faso to investigate, with farmers, the relevance of new (agroclimatic information) or long promoted (compost) solutions that could be considered climate-smart. These studies were based on an analysis of farmers’ strategies to cope with climate change and variability, while also relying on modelling in the case of Burkina Faso. We highlight that these solutions should be dovetailed with existing strategies. The range of adaptation mechanisms used by farmers in Colombia influenced their agroclimatic information needs. In Burkina Faso, these adaptation mechanisms led to specific effects of compost on climate-smart agriculture assessment criteria. We discuss methodological lessons learned for the co-design of farms adapted to climate change.