• Integrating climate resilience into agricultural and pastoral production for food security in vulnerable rural areas through the Farmers Field School approach (GCP/NER/043/LDF)

Niger is a landlocked country situated at the centre of the Sahel - one of the poorest regions in the world and forecast to be one of the most affected by future climate change. The climate in Niger ranges from semi-arid to arid. Over three quarters of its land area is covered by desert plains and sand dunes, thus soils generally have very limited productivity and are very sensitive to water and wind erosion.

The project's objective is to enhance the capacity of Niger's agriculture and pastoral sectors to cope with climate change, by mainstreaming climate change adaptation practices and strategies into ongoing agricultural development policies and programmes. The project also aims to help stakeholders adopt a field-based, pragmatic community learning process that leads to an increased understanding, adaptation and eventual wide-scale adoption of improved agro-pastoral practices, which in turn creates a trend towards increasing production, improving livelihoods and enhancing food and nutrition security.

SHARP is being used as a baseline assessment and integrated into the FFS activities to help better understand resilience and assist in learning. Training for SHARP in Niger will commence in late 2016.