The urgency of climate change forces us to revisit the wisdom lost in the African agricultural sector. Dr. Ibrahim Assan Mayaki is a special envoy for the African Union’s food system, observing that extreme weather, volatile rainfall and rising temperatures threaten the staple foods that govern the world’s agriculture, requiring a need to see beyond rice, corn and wheat.
“We live in a world where memes, buzzwords and emotions slowly take over discourse like the harmful fungi that form in the bathtub,” I quote these words in George Week. Because I’m going to throw two of my personal favorite buzzwords in your way. Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) and compensation. However, these are neither harmful nor fungal. Rather, they are life-building and essential for us to heal the underdeveloped devastation of Africa. If you move beyond rhetoric, you need to translate these concepts into actions.
The World Bank defines CSA as an integrated approach to managing landscapes, livestock, forests and fisheries while addressing food security and climate challenges. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) expands this definition by highlighting three core pillars: increased productivity, increased resilience and reduced emissions. Compensation, on the other hand, refers to the act of correcting past fraud, usually through financial compensation or other forms of support. The African Union emphasizes the importance of reparations in its 2025 theme, “Through Justice and Reparations for Africans and People of African Descent.”
The concept of CSA was first “launched” by the Food and Agriculture Organization in 2010 at the Hague Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change. At the time, 90% of the world’s calories came from around 20 plant species, with almost 50% coming from rice, corn and wheat alone. Climate change was pushing these crops to the limits. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that extreme weather, volatile rainfall and rising carbon levels have already reduced yields in major agricultural regions. FAO also acknowledged that the sustainability of agriculture through the CSA is about power and sovereignty, as is about soil, water and crops, and that it brings me back.
Reparations are often understood financially or politically, but another important aspect exists: reparations for knowledge. In the agricultural context, this means restoring the wisdom of colonialism, industrialized agriculture, and agricultural that has been suppressed or displaced by external intervention.
Africans have always practiced CSA. We have long adopted integrated approaches to managing landscapes, such as croplands, livestock, forests, and fisheries. Throughout history, African communities have developed ways to increase productivity and resilience in response to changes in climate conditions. CSA is in our DNA, that’s who we are.
Before colonial interventions formed agriculture in Africa, communities had an environmentally-established agricultural system. African farmers have grown diverse climate-sensitive crops that maintained their communities through droughts and floods. In Ghana, historical records reveal that colonial farmers of the Banda period cultivated crops that withstand widespread droughts and adopted agroecological methods that ensure food security even in harsh climates. These agricultural systems were destroyed by colonial policies that prioritized cash crops for export rather than local food production. Similarly, in Kenya, indigenous agricultural techniques included terrasing, mistakes and the use of natural fertilizers, all of which contributed to sustainable land management. However, colonial authorities overlooked these methods and imposed a European-style monoculture that ultimately led to soil degradation and reduced resilience.
Africa’s so-called “lost crops” – Fonio, Teff, Millet, Sorghum, and Cowpea have been nourishing for thousands of years. These crops require less water, resist pests, thrive in poor soil, and become invaluable in warm worlds. However, modern agricultural investments still prioritize high input genetically modified crops designed for monoculture farming. This approach is not only ecologically unsustainable, but also economically unstable for smallholder farmers. Governments, researchers and investors must work together to restore the status of these traditional crops. This requires funding Africa-led agricultural research, amending seed policies to support biodiversity, and ensuring smallholder farmers who produce more than 70% of African foods have access to resources in line with local ecology rather than external market demand.
For climate smart agriculture (CSA) to flourish in the 21st century, knowledge must flow in two directions. Politicians must listen to farmers as much as farmers adapt to policy changes. It should not be a systematic top-down approach. Although agricultural policies are often shaped by external institutions with little consideration of local realities, African farmers have long adapted to climate change using real-life techniques such as interspreading, agroforestry and water harvesting. These methods should not be dismissed as outdated, but should be accepted as essential tools of climate adaptation. True reparations of knowledge also demand false learning, as many young Africans are separated from traditional agriculture wisdom due to urban migration and underestimation of indigenous knowledge in formal education. By incorporating CSA principles into school curriculum and community training programs, future generations can inherit both science and the spirit of sustainable agriculture, filling the gap between ancestral wisdom and modern innovation.
The implementation of consecutive strategic frameworks within it, including initiatives such as the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), as well as the recently adopted decade of Agricultural Development Strategy (Kampala Declaration), must prioritize resilience building among African farmers. Founded under the leadership of the AU, the African Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance (ACSAA) plays a pivotal role in supporting smallholder farmers with CSA technology, including drought-resistant crops, agroforests and water-efficient irrigation systems. By promoting policies, promoting partnerships and ensuring financial support, the AU continues to occupy a key force in the transformation of Africa’s agriculture, ensuring that both ancestral knowledge and modern innovation will shape the future of resilience and food safety.
One of the biggest hurdles to scaling CSA in Africa is fundraising. Smallholder farmers don’t have access to credit, insurance, and subsidies that allow them to adopt climate-smart practices. International climate funds exist, but often get upset by bureaucracy, making them difficult for African farmers to access. Governments and development partners must prioritize funding mechanisms that meet the realities of agriculture in Africa. This includes expanding microfinance and cooperative lending for smallholder farmers, providing incentives for sustainable land management and agroecological practices, strengthening local markets to reduce reliance on volatile global commodity prices, and investing in climate-supply infrastructures such as water storage and solar power generation.
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Agriculture’s sustainability is about power and sovereignty, as is soil, water and crops. For too long, the African food system has been determined by foreign powers. From the colonial cash crop economy to structural adjustment programs that undermined the resilience of local agriculture. To achieve true CSA, Africa must reclaim its institutions by ensuring that agricultural policy is driven by local needs rather than global agribusiness interests. Reparations for knowledge mean investing in Africa-led solutions, supporting smallholder farmers, and promoting policies that prioritize biodiversity and resilience over short-term industrial benefits. In doing so, we are not simply protecting food security. We restore dignity, agency and the wisdom of past generations.
The path forward is not to reinvent the wheels, but to rediscover what Africa always knows and add science to it. Food sovereignty, climate resilience, and agriculture sustainability cannot be separated. The question is that climate-smart agriculture is no longer possible. It is whether we are ready to regain ancient knowledge and merge it with new scientific knowledge. Africa is the first home of humanity, so we have historically moved in harmony with the climate. CSA was born in our soil and was given the current reality of climate change.
