Climate change is expected to have significant impacts on the agricultural sector in Sub-Saharan African countries. In this regard, adaptation mechanisms to climate change play a paramount role in reducing the impact on agricultural productivity and food security. With this motivation, the EfD-EEU in Gothenburg, hosted a first collaborative research workshop on the theme “adaptation to climate change in African agriculture” in Gothenburg, Sweden, February 9-10, 2012.
The collaborative research project is led by Salvatore Di Falco of London School of Economics, and Peter Berck of the University of California at Berkeley.
“The primary objective of this workshop is to discuss the potential sources of data and identifying existing stock of knowledge in relation to the impact of climate change on African agriculture and the role of adaptation mechanisms” said one of the collaborative research team leaders, Salvatore Di Falco.
Researchers in the area such as John Mduma of the University of Dar es Salaam, and EfD-Tanzania, Yonas Alem from EfD/EEU, Menale Kassie of EfD- Ethiopia, and Martine Visser of the University of Cape Town and EfD-South Africa made presentations related to existing research related to the impact of climate change and the role of adaptations mechanisms in their respective countries.
At the end of the workshop, clear research questions in relation to the impact of climate change on African agriculture and the role of adaptation were made and the research team agreed to make progress in the research and meet up again for debriefing the progress in the near future.