Nepal is a predominantly rural society, with 70% of the 27 million population relying on the agricultural sector as their primary source of income. Agriculture accounts for more than a third of the country’s gross domestic product. Recent temperature rises and reduction in winter rainfall are affecting productivity and the livelihoods of the most vulnerable populations.

The CDKN-supported project on Economic Impact Assessments of Climate Change in Nepal identified agriculture as highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Though many potential low- and no-regret climate change adaptation options for the agriculture sector exist at the small scale, the Ministry of Agriculture (now Ministry of Agriculture Development) identified a need to scale-up these practices. CDKN, through this project, facilitated ministry in  addressing major barriers to scaling-up climate-smart agriculture, and utilising specific opportunities to scale-up practices, which are proven to be viable and maximise climate compatible development benefits.

The project entailed a set of fully developed and costed pathways for up-scaling specific climate-smart agricultural practices. It included a strong component of capacity building of local researchers and practitioners, and disseminated new knowledge and learnings to the Government and other stakeholders to facilitate wider integration within the agricultural policy and programmes in Nepal. Among many some of the tested and proven climate-smart agricultural practices were  be piloted during the project, which not only produced the evidence base to prove the utility of such practices but also provided direct benefits to the farmers involved in terms of more resilient livelihoods. Through this project, CDKN aimed to:

• Strengthen the evidence base on the climate compatible development benefits and viability for large-scale application of climate-smart agricultural practices
• Facilitate scaling-up of climate-smart agricultural practices through the design and delivery of agreed scaling-up pathways;
• Understand and assess existing institutional arrangements in place and to identify policy and institutional gaps / weaknesses for climate change considerations. In particular, identify areas of capacity building and strengthening for mainstreaming climate change in agriculture sector.

Deliverables and Introductions

Under the project, the report ‘Champion climate-smart agriculture Screening Methodology’ was prepared. The report provides steps for identification, prioritization, and piloting and evaluation process for selection of the champions climate-smart agriculture through participatory action research method. You can find the report here. 

The report ‘Scaling up Pathways for Climate Smart Agriculture Technologies and Practices in Nepal’ presents the policy provisions, opportunities and challenges for scaling up and implementation plan for champion climate-smart agriculture technologies and practices in Nepal. This was achieved through applied qualitative method which included a combination of desk study, consultation and field observation. The research concluded that there is a lack of systematic efforts to identify climate-smart agriculture champions, and that climate-smart agriculture is not always backed with scientific evidence. The details of this can be read here.

The final assessment of the Climate Smart Agriculture project in Nepal was prepared by the suppliers and it contains the analysis of all the aspects of the project. The report analysed the current situation of Nepal’s agriculture, the literature available in this context and the climate smart approach for a system faltering due to climate change. The report also enumerated the lessons learnt in this context. Please read the complete report here.

The ‘Scaling-up Climate-Smart Agriculture in Nepal’ achieved all the objectives that were set out in the beginning. This project has become a milestone in terms of integrating the Climate Smart Agriculture Approaches to the climate change adaptation to agriculture sector of Nepal. Please find the final report for the project here.

Under the project, a situation analysis report, which was a part of the larger baseline survey, was conducted and the findings were reported in this document. This documents presents the findings of the survey conducted for the first phase of the project, and the details can be read here.

A policy brief was produced to draw together the research, field testing and work supported by CDKN. Access it here.

CDKN Funding: £550,000