What Policy Options can Promote
Agricultural Innovations for Climate
Change Adaptation and Food Security
in the West African Sub-region?
African Technology Policy Studies Network

TECHNOPOLICY BRIEF | No. 29
Ekwe Agwu Agwu
Chukwudumebi Leticia Egbule
Festus Onesimus Amadu
Teddy Amara Morlai
Emmanuel Topor Wollor
Leroy W. Cegbe

What Policy Options can Promote Agricultural
Innovations for Climate Change Adaptation andFood Security in the West African Sub-region?

Ekwe Agwu Agwu
University of Nigeria,Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria
Chukwudumebi Leticia Egbule
University of Nigeria,Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria
Festus Onesimus Amadu
Njala University, School of Social Sciences
Freetown, Sierra Leone

Teddy Amara Morlai
Leonard Cheshire Disability, West Africa
Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Emmanuel Topor Wollor
University of Liberia,
Monrovia, Liberia
Leroy W. Cegbe
University of Liberia,Monrovia, Liberia.

The African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) is a multidisciplinary network of researchers, private sector actors andpolicy makers promoting the generation, dissemination, use andmastery of science, technology and innovation (ST&I) for African
development, environmental sustainability and global inclusion.
ATPS intends to achieve its mandate through research, capacity
building and training, science communication/dissemination andsensitization, participatory multi-stakeholder dialogue,knowledge brokerage, and policy advocacy.
Published by the African Technology Policy Studies Network
P O Box 10081, 00100 GPO Nairobi Kenya
2011

Published by the African Technology Policy Studies Network

ISBN: 978-9966-030-09-2

Table of Contents
Acknowledgement

4Introduction

5

What Policy Gaps Limit Innovation
on Climate Change Adaptation &Food Security in West Africa?

5Policy Considerations

8

What Policy Options can Promote Agricultural Innovations for Climate Change Adaptation and Food Security in the West African Sub-region?| 3Acknowledgement
This paper was produced as part of the implementation of the African Technology
Policy Studies Network (ATPS) Phase VI Strategic Plan, 2008 – 2012 funded byATPS Donors including the Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken (DGIS) theNetherlands, Rockefeller Foundation, amongst others. The authors hereby thankthe ATPS for the financial and technical support during the implementation of theprogram. The Authors particularly thank the ATPS Climate Sense Program
Director, Dr. Kevin Urama (ATPS); and the Program Coordinators including Prof.
Michael Madukwe (ATPS Nigeria); Dr. Musa Dube (ATPS Swaziland), Prof. Bob
Orskov (ATPS, UK), Dr. Nicholas Ozor (ATPS), and Ms. Wairimu Mwangi (ATPS)
for their technical support during the research process.

4 |What Policy Options can Promote Agricultural Innovations for Climate Change Adaptation and Food Security in the West African Sub-region?

Introduction
Agricultural production is bisected with several factors among which are climatechange and food security issues. Climate change is a major development
challenge that has made the global community to take extraordinary actions
aimed at mitigating or adapting to its impacts on the earth system and livelihoods
in general. It is a serious threat to poverty reduction and threatens to undo
development efforts. Climate change is a global phenomenon but its effects are
more severely felt by the poor people and poor countries of the world.
A predominant feature of agricultural production pattern in West African countries
is its smallholder agriculture nature. Poverty and hunger are closely interrelated,though presently, there are considerable improvements in the food system; foodsecurity still remains a problem in the West Africa sub region. The first Millennium
Development Goal aims at halving poverty and hunger by 2015. This isincreasingly unlikely to be achieved within the timeframe because of
uncertainties posed by climate variability, absence of a strong policy base as well
as absence of strong institutional capacity to implement existing policies within
the sub region.
Climate change is taking a serious toll on livelihoods in the sub region andfarmers are the major stakeholders affected in the climate change discourse.
Unfortunately, the trend in the manpower structure across the three countries
show an unstable trend for farmers in Sierra Leone, which are dominated by poor
farm labourers. The absence of technical and managerial staff on the farms inNigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia reveal the need to strengthen and bridge thegaps that are existing in order to link the divide between agricultural innovations
on climate change and food security.

What Policy Gaps Limit Innovation on Climate Change
Adaptation & Food Security in West Africa?
Traditionally, the agricultural research systems in the region are characterized bya system of top-down, centralized, monolithic and isolated structures. Linkages,interactions and learning mechanisms among the component actors are notably
weak and/or often non-existent. Empirical evidence revealed several linkage
gaps and missing links among and between the actors in the systems.
What Policy Options can Promote Agricultural Innovations for Climate Change Adaptation and Food Security in the West African Sub-region? | 5

Institutions, for example, universities and research institutes innovate in isolation
and although research is taking place at various national and internationalorganizations, the coordination is dysfunctional, and poorly linked to theproductive sector, as the existing reward system favours the publication ofresearch endeavours in peer reviewed western journals. Besides, research has
revealed that farmer innovations were not being included in the knowledge
system because traditional approaches such as the NARS (National AgriculturalResearch System) perspective and AKIS (agricultural knowledge andinformation system) depict research as the sole source of innovation. Without
research, it implies, there is no innovation.
At the moment, there seems to be no specialized trainings on climate change
adaptation and food security issues in the West African sub region. The absenceof a specialized training is a reflection of the unstable manpower structure
especially in Sierra Leone and Liberia. A well balanced training on the subject
matter will not only boost manpower growth but will also enhance and increase
productivity.
The absence of a special training or programme on climate change and foodsecurity has a direct effect on the adaptation options available to the farmers. it isobvious that farmers are innovating through indigenous adaptive measures.
Though efforts are presently being channelled into more scientific ways ofadapting to climate change, these are not yet accessible or available to thefarmers who are the end users of such innovations. A possible reason for this
could be that research has not adequately covered the issues of climate change
adaptation and food security or that the available information is yet beyond thereach of the farmers. This points to the poor agricultural extension contacts thefarmers have had with agricultural extension outfits of the different countries.
Another factor directly connected to the issue of innovative adaptive measure isthe extent of collaboration existing among the different stakeholders. Studies oninnovation indicate that the ability to innovate is often related to collective action
and knowledge exchange among diverse actors, incentives and resources
available for collaboration, and having in place conditions that enable adoption
and innovation e.g., by farmers or entrepreneurs. However, there was a poor
intensity of collaborations with foreign partners across the three countries, eventhough there appeared to have been more collaboration with local institutions,especially in Nigeria. Foreign collaboration is needful to bridge the gap in
6 | What Policy Options can Promote Agricultural Innovations for Climate Change Adaptation and Food Security in the West African Sub-region?

knowledge and experience on innovative adaptive measures to climate change
and food security. Collaboration with foreign partners will also help in the transfer
and build up of strong teams of experts which could pull resources together
towards the generation of more innovative ways of adapting to climate change
and also ensuring that the sub region has better chances of being food secure.
The performance of system based on innovations generated does not reflect
adequate research efforts. The slow pace at which innovations are generated
could be an indication of poor or virtually non-existence of collaborations withforeign partners. In the transfer of knowledge or innovation, locally available
innovations are almost inadequate. There is need to generate innovations
blended with modern knowledge in order to increase the performance ofsystems.
Information is crucial to the advancement of generated innovations on adaptive
measures and food security issues. A close look across the three countries
revealed that farmers sourced information more from television, radio and otherfarmers. The internet, universities, Ministries of Agriculture and Environment andextension workers, who are supposed to be repositories/banks of information,
are not the first called for information. These bodies should be at the fore front ofinformation dissemination to ensure that current and specific information to theneeds of the farmers are tailored and directed to them as and when needed.
The mass media could significantly influence attitude and behaviour. Thus,
programmes dedicated to climate change should be aired regularly on radio andtelevision stations preferably in local languages. Awareness programmes which
illustrate the impact of climate change, through jingles on television, radio anddrama would be pertinent.
It has recently been reported that as of August 2010, Nigeria has a tele-density of
58.52 with mobile GSM having 74,074,793 active lines (Data from:http://www.ncc.gov.ng/subscriberdata.htm; accessed 01:11:10).This implies
that mobile telephony is accessible to at least half of Nigeria's population.
Telecommunication operators in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia could as partof their corporate social responsibility (CSR) send short messages (SMS) onclimate change and food security to their clients from time to time. SMS has been
What Policy Options can Promote Agricultural Innovations for Climate Change Adaptation and Food Security in the West African Sub-region? | 7

used extensively in marketing their products and promotion of social events suchas the recently concluded world cup tournament in South Africa. This would
prove to be an effective way of bringing climate change information to farmers inthe sub region.

Policy Considerations
The development challenges are enormous for any country coming out of a
protracted civil conflict. Sierra Leone and Liberia are not different. This document,in reviewing the acts and policies relating to agriculture, food security and climatechange in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia, as well as the agricultural innovation
system framework, underscores the importance of Government playing aleadership role in establishing a vision and strategy for the reconstruction anddevelopment of the agriculture and food sector, environmental sector as well as
the ministries of science and technology.
To play this role, government will first need to evolve (in mind and in action) froman implementation agency to one focused on coordination, facilitation,regulation and evaluation. In addition to reorienting its mission to one focused on
the provision of key public goods, the government will be challenged in theimmediate future to serve as a bridge between managing short-term safety net
activities and developing a long term vision and strategy for food security andclimate change issues.
In furtherance of this, the following are recommended for policy considerations:
1. Formulation of a comprehensive climate change policy at the a global level andwithin Africa and especially in the West African sub region will be a necessary firststep towards dealing with the challenge of climate change within the West African
sub region. A number of climate change conferences have been held in recent
years all over the world. Such conferences are platforms which provide
necessary input into a global climate change policy, which would in turn betranslated or domesticated in the respective countries taking cognizance of theirvarying agro-ecological and climatic characteristics.

8 | What Policy Options can Promote Agricultural Innovations for Climate Change Adaptation and Food Security in the West African Sub-region?

2. A conference on formulation of climate change policy in West Africa isproposed; the essence of this is to solicit for political support from the various
governments of countries in West Africa.
3.There should be increased and improved funding and training on climatechange and food security issues to boost manpower skill which will subsequently
lead to increase in productivity.
4. Collaboration efforts, between local and foreign partners should be intensified.
This will bring about the generation of better and improved innovations on foodsecurity and adaptive measures.
5. The various systems / Ministries / Parastatals involved in innovations
generation should work closely with research institutions and foreign partners toenhance the generations of innovations and also, to blend locally available
adaptive measures with those generated over time.
6. There is need to revisit the existing research reward system, which favours thepublication of research endeavours in peer reviewed western journals and link
rewards to impact on the productive sector in order to achieve functional
coordination of research efforts.
7. There is need to create more awareness of climate change and food security as
key issues by leveraging on the 2011 general elections in Nigeria.
8. Telecommunication operators should be encouraged to send SMS regularly totheir clients on climate change and adaptation measures for climate change.
9. Efforts should be made to promote the work of public and private extension
outfits, Ministries of Agriculture and Environment, and Internet in thedissemination of relevant climate change information.

What Policy Options can Promote Agricultural Innovations for Climate Change Adaptation and Food Security in the West African Sub-region? | 9

The African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) is a multidisciplinary network of researchers, private sector actors andpolicy makers promoting the generation, dissemination, use andmastery of science, technology and innovation (ST&I) for African
development, environmental sustainability and global inclusion.
ATPS intends to achieve its mandate through research, capacity
building and training, science communication/dissemination andsensitization, participatory multi-stakeholder dialogue,knowledge brokerage, and policy advocacy.

African Technology
Policy Studies Network
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ISBN: 978-9966-030-09-2