Reinforcement of Resilience to Food and Nutrition Insecurity in the Sahel

Adaptation Need

More than 99 percent of croplands in the Gambia are entirely rain-fed. Due to the reliance on rain-fed agriculture, prolonged dry spells, rising temperatures, and erratic rainfall have already had severe effects on food security in Central, Lower River and Western Coastal Regions of the Gambia. For example, Rice production dropped by 68 percent in 2007 compared to 2002, with similar declines recorded in 2011 due to poor rainfall. From 2001 to 2020, the country experienced seven major floods and 13 disaster events between 2008 and 2022, displacing thousands and damaging croplands. According to the 2022 National food Security survey, more than a quarter of Gambians (27 percent of the population) were food insecure, which translates into more than 646,800 people. Without climate-smart adaptation measures, climate change will continue to threaten agricultural productivity, with severe implications for food security.

GCA’s Added Value

GCA is supported the integration of climate-smart adaptation through development of the Gambia Google Earth Engine (GEE) web platform for improved weather & climate advisory services in target Gambian value chains. In addition, GCA conducted a market assessment on Digital Climate Advisory Services (DCAS) and strengthened capacity of government agencies to disseminate digital weather and climate information to smallholder Gambian farmers.