AGRA

By Kindie Fantaye, Head of Climate Resilience at AGRA

 The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) region is home to over 270 million people, encompasses diverse landscapes ranging from semi-arid areas to fertile agricultural zones. This diversity, however, also means that the region is acutely vulnerable to climate events like El Niño and La Niña, which have increasingly severe impacts on our communities, economies, and food systems.

Climate Impacts on the IGAD Region

El Niño events often bring unseasonal rainfall and flooding, devastating farmlands, infrastructure, and entire communities. On the other hand, La Niña events tend to lead to prolonged droughts, water scarcity, crop failures, and livestock deaths. Both phenomena exacerbate food insecurity and economic hardship, disproportionately affecting rural populations, women, children, and smallholder farmers and herders who rely heavily on rain-fed production systems. As a result, millions in our region face food shortages, malnutrition, displacement, and loss of livelihoods. The economic toll is equally staggering, with agricultural losses directly impacting GDP and livelihoods, while further straining national budgets that are already stretched thin.

What Needs to Be Done

To address these challenges, immediate, coordinated actions at multiple levels are essential. National governments in the region must prioritize climate adaptation strategies, including strengthening early warning systems, promoting climate-resilient agricultural practices, and improving disaster response mechanisms.

In this space, the AGRA has increasingly recognized the critical need to support smallholders in adapting to and managing climate risks. To this end, AGRA has established a dedicated Climate Adaptation and Resilience Unit tasked with developing and implementing strategies to help farmers adapt to a rapidly changing climate and climate variability. This unit plays a pivotal role in coordinating AGRA’s efforts to empower smallholders with climate-smart resources, information, and tools.

One of AGRA’s primary initiatives is the delivery of climate advisories to smallholders. By providing timely, location-specific climate forecasts and agricultural advisories, AGRA ensures that farmers can make informed decisions about planting, harvesting, and managing crops and livestock resources. These advisories, often disseminated via mobile platforms, radio, and community-based networks, equip smallholders with actionable insights to mitigate the risks of extreme weather events, ultimately enhancing their resilience.

 Facilitating Agricultural Insurance

Facilitating agricultural insurance is another vital component of AGRA’s strategy. By working with financial institutions and insurance providers, AGRA helps make agricultural insurance more accessible and affordable for smallholders. Insurance products tailored to the needs of smallholders provide a safety net, enabling them to recover more quickly from climate shocks. This initiative is especially important in helping smallholders avoid the cycle of debt and loss that often follows adverse weather events.

Additionally, AGRA focuses on enhancing climate risk management at the farm level. Through training and support, AGRA promotes practices such as conservation agriculture, water management, and soil health improvement, which help farmers manage risks posed by erratic rainfall, drought, and other climate challenges. These practices not only increase resilience to climate shocks but also improve productivity and sustainability.

AGRA is also dedicated to building the resilience of smallholders by reducing asset depletion during consecutive climate shocks. By supporting diversified income streams, promoting access to credit, and enhancing food storage systems, AGRA helps farmers maintain and even strengthen their economic base through multiple climate events. This approach ensures that farmers can continue to support their households and maintain their agricultural activities even during periods of environmental stress. To scale these efforts, AGRA seeks to work with institutions like the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC), which plays a crucial role in providing accurate and timely climate information. ICPAC’s expertise in climate prediction can help AGRA, national governments, and communities anticipate these events, take preventive measures, and mitigate their impact on agriculture and food security.

As we move forward, it is clear that a holistic approach is needed. This includes promoting cross-sector partnerships, encouraging investment in sustainable agriculture, and ensuring that policy frameworks are responsive to the realities of climate-induced food insecurity. Together, we can strengthen the resilience of the IGAD region to El Niño and La Niña extreme events and climate change, protecting our communities, preserving livelihoods, and promoting sustainable food systems.By working together—governments, regional institutions, the private sector, civil society, and the international community—we can forge a resilient path forward for the IGAD region.