Title: Adapting Innovations for Resilience to Climate Change for Smallholder Cotton Farmers in Africa. Dec 2022 to Dec 2026.
Project administrative staff: Mr. Eric Trachtenberg, Ms. Maria Borisova & Ms. Caroline Taco
Project technical coordinator: Dr. Keshav Kranthi, Chief Scientist, ICAC
Collaborating institutions: CIRAD, France; IRAD & SodeCoton, Cameroon
Project funding: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. GIZ project Agreement number: 81290203; Eur 1,923,893.31.
Documents:
- A Practical Guide on Production and Application of Biochar and Bokashi to Rejuvenate Soil Health: English, Français
- Invitation to Tender on Technical Equipment under the project Adapting Innovations for Resilience to Climate Change for Smallholder Cotton Farmers in Africa: Terms and Conditions, Annex 1 – Technical Bid Form, Annex 2 – Financial Bid Form
The project was launched in December 2023 and is in its initial stages of implementation. The project aims to introduce climate-resilient innovations to rainfed smallholder cotton farms in Africa, where 95% of farms are vulnerable to climate change. The innovations include non-GM crop varieties, soil health rejuvenation through biochar, and eco-friendly pest management using Zein nanoparticles. The objectives include validating and adapting these innovations to double farm income, improve soil health, and revive biodiversity.
The project also aims to create entrepreneurship opportunities for women and youth. It will be implemented in Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire, targeting smallholder farmers, extension workers, women, youth, cotton companies, and agronomy students. Innovative tools like virtual reality and AI-based apps will be used for training and dissemination. These innovations offer significant potential for improving livelihoods and climate resilience in African smallholder farming.
This project aims to achieve several key outcomes, including: rejuvenating soil health for 4,800 smallholder farmers (over 15% of whom are women) with a 10-20% increase in soil organic carbon, increasing income for smallholder farmers through higher yields and climate-resilient technologies, generating additional income for women entrepreneurs, training 60 extension workers in each of the two countries, providing direct training to 2,400 smallholder farmers (over 15% women) in each country, offering farmer field schools for 24,000 smallholder farmers in each country, and training 50 women and youth (with 30% women) in biopesticide production and entrepreneurship.
Additionally, knowledge and skill development opportunities are provided for scientific staff, MSc researchers, and undergraduate/polytechnic students from partner research institutions.
The project “Climate Resilience of Smallholder Cotton Farmers” is part of the Fund for the Promotion of Innovation in Agriculture (i4Ag), commissioned and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.