Achieving Nutrition Security in Zambia: Climate-Smart Agriculture and Policy Pathways for a Sustainable Future

A webinar to present a summary of methods and results for the CGIAR Research Initiative on Climate Resilience (ClimBeR) work on nutrition-sensitive policy development in Zambia.

Improving nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa under increasing climate risks and population growth requires a strong and contextualized evidence base. Yet, to date, few studies have assessed climate-smart agriculture and nutrition security simultaneously, with a lack of specific knowledge about climate extremes. In this webinar, we will present results from an integrated assessment framework (iFEED; https://ifeed.leeds.ac.uk/) that explores stakeholder-driven scenarios of food system transformation towards climate-smart nutrition security for Zambia. iFEED translates climate-food-emissions modelling into policy-relevant information. Results show that diversifying agricultural production towards more micronutrient-rich foods is necessary to achieve an adequate population-level nutrient supply by mid-century. Agricultural areas must expand unless unprecedented rapid yield improvements are achieved. While these transformations are challenging to accomplish and often associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions, the alternative for a nutrition-secure future is to rely increasingly on imports, which would outsource emissions and be economically and politically challenging given the large import increases required. Our results point to the specific crops to grow, and to the area and yield increases required, that would meet Zambia’s mid-century nutritional demands. We will conclude with a summary of how well current policies address the necessary agricultural transformations.

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