The 25 chapters in this book have been divided among 5 themes. Four chapters explore issues around climate change, including impacts and risks. Six investigate mechanisms in seed and crop germplasm delivery systems. Six examine various perspectives and lessons learned on technologies and practices through a CSA lens. Five more examine the resilience to climate change of value chains; and four look at financing, extension and other mechanisms to reach scale. Each chapter reflects on a fundamental question: how to make complex crop and livestock systems more climate-smart? Each chapter ends with messages on the implications for development practitioners to inform future decision-making.

The chapters that explore climate change, along with its impacts and risks, include one on future projections, two on impacts and one on systems. Girvetz et al. investigate the certainty and uncertainty of future climate change in sub-Saharan Africa. This involves longer term and near-term predictions of traditional indices, such as temperature and precipitation, as well as new bioclimatic indicators that help make forecasts relevant to the risks faced by agricultural systems. The authors use a freely accessible online tool known as Climate Wizard (www.climatewizard. org), which is available to practitioners to help them incorporate climate information in programme and policy design. Bett et al. describe two cases of how predicted climate change will affect the occurrence of livestock pests and diseases that already cause significant damage to livelihoods and economies. The authors’ concrete recommendations around mitigating future impacts support the notion of taking action today to prepare for the challenges of tomorrow. Hunter and Crespo analyse the climate risks and impacts for both staple (maize and cassava) and cash (coffee) crops at the subnational level in Angola. The authors’ findings demonstrate a clear need for future investments—for example, in long-lived coffee—despite the inherent uncertainty in climate models. Lastly, Masikati et al. look at the likely responses of maize and groundnut under climate change using common crop models. Their findings suggest that improved soil management can help mitigate future negative risks to productivity. Taken together, these chapters illustrate why this type of research is critical in moving beyond projections of the future to concrete action that can be taken today. Nonetheless, commissioning this section of the book was not unproblematic, pointing to an urgent need for more information around climate change impacts and risks—detail that is instrumental for initiating meaningful conversations on CSA.