Effective scaling of climate smart agriculture innovations in African smallholder agriculture: A review of approaches, policy and institutional strategy needs

Climate variability and change is a major source of risk to smallholder farmers in Africa. Climate related risks are linked to low productivity, food insecurity and poverty. However, the research and development community is widely promoting Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) to transform livelihoods under a changing environment. To date, adoption of CSA practices is low across Africa despite their demonstrated effectiveness. The low adoption challenge calls for prudent policy and institutional efforts in finding ways to effectively take CSA practices to scale. CSA scaling (upgrading) is the expansion of the adoption of the proven and beneficial CSA practices and/or technologies. This article is guided by the Institutional Analysis and Development framework to review current literature and weigh possible approaches/strategies, policy actions and institutional needs that can promote the upscaling of CSA technologies among smallholder farming communities. Various methodologies, policy actions, institutional strategy focal issues and possible determinants of scaling success are discussed. The article concludes that scaling of CSA practices, and technologies is not autonomous, there is need for facilitation in terms of conducive policy and institutional actions. Policy strategies are important as they clearly define the rules of the game that will ultimately establish responsibilities in the scaling process by stakeholders. Effective and complementary institutional actions towards scaling can minimize farmer challenges, reduce adoption constraints, and improve sustainability in scaling processes, which can ultimately improve impacts of CSA practices and technologies to society.