Resilient agriculture is a label that identifies agricultural approaches with the potential to reduce the negative impact farmers experience in response to challenges such as drought, conflict, and climate change. The Food Security and Nutrition (FSN; http://edn.link/627yny) Network is a global community of practitioners that shares opportunities and cross-disciplinary information with members. FSN is funded by USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance. 

Most resources are available in both English and French. Some interesting resources in their resilient agriculture toolkit include:

Permagardens

Permagardens incorporate aspects of permaculture and bio-intensive agriculture to maximize outputs for growers with limited growing areas. The approach has application for farmers with limited space for growing, longer-term refugee or internally displaced person camps, and homesteads seeking self-sufficiency. The updated permagarden technical manual also includes techniques for water harvesting over entire home landscapes (described in the manual as a compound-level approach). Resources for this technique include a manual, monitoring and evaluation tools, training materials, videos, and tips/checklists. 

Resilience Design

Resilience design, as used in FSNs resources, refers to the agroecological view of smallholder farming systems as a whole. These resources identify eight standard attributes to strive towards including community-led, resources, design, water, soil health, biodiversity, protection, and adaptation. One interesting case study which you can view reports and a webinar on, looked at using resilience design on 18 hills in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. To address soil erosion issues, farmers adopted agroforestry practices on the contour with the inclusion of percolation pits on all 18 hillsides. Percolation pits are holes for groundwater recharge and protection against erosion. For more details, see the following video: http://edn.link/jgrqk3. The program established farmer field schools to educate about compost making and use, new crops and varieties, mulching and residue use, and processing and marketing to support the economic and environmental concerns of the community. Leadership and advocacy groups created a social movement for land tenure security efforts. In this way, none of the challenges farmers faced were addressed in isolation from other factors. Resources on resilience design include a facilitator’s guide, case studies, checklists, and more!

African Women Rising is one organization that uses these resources in a Resilience Design Training-of-Trainers Certification Course in Regenerative Agriculture in Uganda. [http://edn.link/ezkyqy]