The ability of farmers to adapt to climate change in Benin is dependent on them having access to information and involving them in decision-making. That is the key recommendation made by the DFID funded Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) research and capacity development program.

In Benin, agriculture represents 36% of the GDP and 88% of export revenues. This means agriculture is vital to the national economy. Climate change has brought about extreme variations of weather in West Africa over recent decades. Droughts and floods have begun to follow each other in succession causing widespread concerns among the farming community and beyond.

Growing seasons are no longer predictable and as a result adaptation is crucial. For instance, a rural township in Southern Benin called Tori-Bossito, has seen the pattern of farm life completely disrupted. The crop cycle once dominated by two dry and two rainy seasons has changed dramatically. Harvested maize used to be dried under September’s sun, but this is no longer possible because September has increasingly become a wet month.

Benin researchers have calculated that if nothing is done to adapt agriculture to climate change, yields of maize, peanuts, cassava, cowpeas and rice could fall by 6%. In real terms this is a highly significant drop. Further, cotton, an important cash crop in Benin, could decline by as much as one-third.

The CCAA program in Benin seeks to give farmers the means to make informed decisions on when crops should be sown and harvested. This rests on the sharing of knowledge between researchers, farmers and local decision makers over climate variability. The aim is to remove farmers’ vulnerability to in this situation, and to increase food security.

The program favours practical action and shared learning among all the relevant stakeholders. Across Benin rural municipalities known as ‘communes’ will bring stakeholders together to form pre-alert committees. Here information will be shared on the risks of drought and tropical storms, among other hazards. Adaptation strategies will be developed, tested and implemented at the local level to ensure that different contexts are taken into account. This is a crucial element within the process of adaptation.

Farmers in Benin are traditionally isolated from this form of knowledge, and this program aims to readdress the balance. In September 2007 floods ravaged Benin destroying around 50 villages. Farms were hit hard, and it is hoped that in the future well communicated weather warnings will limit the effects of this kind of disaster.

In terms of adaptation for flooding, improvements need to be made in building standards. This will largely involve discouraging construction on flood-prone and unstable land. To combat drought, adjustments need to be made to the agricultural calendar, the adoption of cultivation practices that retain soil moisture, the introduction of drought-adapted plant varieties, and better management of rainwater runoff and wells.

This program has brought the need for agricultural adaptation along with knowledge brokering to the fore. However, Benin is not alone in the challenges it faces. To find out more on the CCAA’s work in Africa visit their project file on R4D through the following link: Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA)

If you are interested in the debates surrounding climate change, agriculture and food security the CABI global conference ‘Food Security in a Climate of Change’ takes place in London, October 19-21.