Agriculture is one of the sectors most impacted by climate change. The warming temperatures are increasing the frequency of extreme weather events, such as droughts and storms, which significantly affect farmers across the globe, but especially smallholder farmers in developing countries who have limited resources and access to infrastructure.
Against this background, climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an important approach that can guide action to transform agri-food systems, making them more sustainable, resilient, and adaptive to climate change. Climate smart agriculture has three key objectives: sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes; adapting and building resilience to climate change; and reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions, where possible.
Climate-smart agriculture offers a lot of benefits for farmers in South Africa. To help South Africans tap into those opportunities presented by CSA, UNITAR has partnered up with the Government of South Africa and the UNEP-implemented SWITCH Africa Green project to develop the “Climate-smart Agriculture in South Africa” e-course, which is being offered on UN CC:e-Learn.
The four-module e-course on climate-smart agriculture in South Africa, provides participants with an introduction to key concepts and approaches , and strives to strengthen their capacities to apply climate-smart tools and techniques in practice.
What will you learn?
By the end of this course, learners should be able to:
- Explain what climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is, its main principles, objectives and benefits
- Identify critical social, environmental, and economic opportunities for CSA in South Africa
- Describe applications of CSA in various agricultural domains, such as livestock and croplands
- Discuss the role of remote sensing and identify practical steps to apply CSA in South Africa
- Discuss enabling conditions for the adoption of CSA in South Africa
Who should take this course?
The course is geared towards anyone who is interested in the basics of the CSA and/or individuals involved in the agriculture sector in South Africa looking to enhance knowledge and skills regarding the subject. Specifically, the course should benefit representatives from:
- Professionals from national, provincial, local investment, agriculture, economic, labour, environment departments.
- Extension workers, farmers, professional associations.
- Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), academia and business representatives.
Will you get a certificate?
The successful completion of the course rewards the learner with a certificate. To complete the course, the learner must complete all four modules and pass each associated quiz with a minimum grade of 70% from no more than three attempts.