Event Information

Recent efforts have sought to promote investments that achieve the dual goals of increasing agricultural productivity and achieving positive environmental outcomes. Yet a lack of clarity on the full range of costs and benefits associated with such “win-win” innovations has limited the adoption of these technologies at scale. 

Join USAID’s demonstration of the Sustainable Agriculture Decision Support Tool that helps users evaluate the financial and climate impacts of agricultural technologies. 

This webinar will demonstrate a tool that was developed to assess the financial and climate impacts of alternative agricultural technologies, by accounting for climate forecasts to maximize agricultural and environmental outcomes. The presentation will discuss the pilot application of the tool for two agricultural technologies in Senegal: (1) dual-purpose millet and cowpeas that have higher crop and fodder yields, and (2) dual-purpose crops of millet and cowpeas with farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR), which involves nurturing tree growth around croplands. The tool supports decision making by allowing users to change assumptions to assess effects of technologies. Under varying assumptions around agricultural practices such as fertilizer use, tillage depth, and plant density, the pilot showed that farmers would benefit financially from adopting improved dual-purpose crops. However, these crop varieties sequester less carbon, resulting in reduced environmental benefits and economic returns compared to a business-as-usual scenario. The analysis of the pilot results shows that promotion of dual-purpose crops in conjunction with FMNR has the potential to deliver “win-win” outcomes by increasing incomes for farmers and yielding greenhouse-gas benefits.

The webinar will feature:

• William Akiwumi, Senior Agriculture Advisor, Agriculture Team Lead Africa Bureau
• Julia Bradley Cook, Climate Change Advisor, Africa Bureau/Sustainable Development Office 
• Tool presentation and demonstration by Tulika Narayan and Faraz Usmani of Mathematica
• Time for Q&A

Sponsored by

 USAID Bureau of Africa