This technical document addresses the question: what really is different about ‘climate-smart’ smallholder agriculture that goes beyond regular best practice in development? It suggests three major changes: 1) project and policy preparation need to reflect higher risks, where vulnerability assessments and greater use of climate scenario modelling are combined with a better understanding of interconnections between smallholder farming and wider landscapes; 2) this deeper appreciation of interconnected risks should drive a major scaling up of successful ‘multiple-benefit’ approaches to sustainable agricultural intensification by smallholder farmers; 3) climate change and fiscal austerity are reshaping the architecture of public international development finance. This calls for: (i) new efforts to enable smallholder farmers to become significant beneficiaries of climate finance and (ii) better ways to achieve and then measure a wider range of multiple benefits beyond traditional poverty and yield impacts.

Download file: ENG

Organization: IFAD

Topics: Agriculture and Food, Economic and Development Planning, Land Use Management

Type of material: Analytical-Technical Document

Publication date: 2011

Language: English