Scaling-up climate-Smart Agroforestry Technologies: Key achievement under Feed The Future Initiative in Mali

Abstract

The SmAT-Scaling Project is funded by USAID operating under the guidance of the USAID/Mali’s Feed the Future (FtF) strategy and implemented by a consortium headed by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in partnership with Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), World Vision (WV), Inter Church Cooperation (ICCO), Mali Biocarburant S.A. (MBSA), Near East Foundation (NEF), Institut d’Economie Rurale (IER) and Regional Directorates of Agriculture, Water and Forest (DRA&DREF). It aims to strengthen the value chain of tree products, improve the nutritional status and food security of the targeted population, and build local capacity. The overall objective of the project is to enhance access to and use of tree-based climate-smart technologies (including fodder) through effective scaling-up of already-developed and proven climate-smart technologies and improved market access, in order to increase food and nutritional security, as well as build resilience of farming systems in the ‘Feed the Future Zone’ of Mali. The project aims at contributing to increasing agricultural productivity, market access, household income and consumption of agroforestry-based products to improve the food security, nutrition and health status of rural women and children in Mali. Research insights and outputs produced under the framework of the CGIAR Research Program on Drylands Systems on both gender and youth were used to develop the implementation and upscaling approach of this USAID- funded SmAT-Scaling Project.