Climate change is a major constraint to the progress of Africa’s agriculture, food, and nutrition security; its effect is tied to geographical position and driven by the limited adaptive capacity of the agricultural households. The most vulnerable stakeholder group are the smallholder farming households with limited resources and knowledge of adaptation and mitigation techniques. Sub-Saharan Africa owns more than 60% of the world’s arable land with over 85% of the farmers being smallholder farmers, who are predisposed to various risks. This paper analyzes the adoption of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) processes and technologies by smallholder farming households in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study used mixed methods and an integrative literature review. This review indicated that the knowledge of CSA technologies by smallholder farmers in Africa is increasing and, thus, concerted efforts to continuously generate CSA technology would contribute to the desired positive outcome. To accelerate the pace of adoption and use of the technologies, the linkage of farmers, researchers, and extension practitioners is needed. Measures should also be put in place to ensure that CSA actions are implemented using bottom-up approaches.

Though secondary and micronutrients are known to improve crop production, their inclusion in fertilizer formulation has received minimum attention in efforts aimed at increasing maize production in northern Ghana. In this study, Sulphur, Boron, and Zinc were included in NPK formulations at different rates in northern Ghana. The experiment was a single factor, consisting of NPK 15-15-15 applied at rates (kg/ha) of 60-40-40, NPK 15-15-15 at rates of 90-60-60, NPK 15-15-15 at 100-40-40, NPK 11-22-21 + 5S+1B+1Zn at 60-40-38 + 9 + 1.8 + 1.8, NPK 11-22-21 + 5S + 1B + 1Zn at 90-60-57 + 14 + 2.7 + 2.7, NPK 11–22 21 + 5S+1B+1Zn at 100-40-38 + 9 + 1.8 + 1.8, NPS 14-31-0 + 9S + 1B + 1Zn at 60-40-0 + 11.6 + 1.3 + 1.3, NPS 14-31-0 + 9S + 1B + 1Zn at 90-60-0 + 17.4 + 1.9 + 1.9, NPS 14-31-0 + 9S + 1B + 1Zn at 100-40-0 + 11.6 + 1.3 + 1.3 and no fertilization. Treatments were randomly laid out in four farms. Urea at respective rates was applied at 6 weeks after planting. Data analyzed on growth and yield parameters at 5% probability showed that significantly higher growth and yield were recorded with the inclusion of secondary and micronutrients (P < 0.05). NPK 11-22-21 + 5S + 1B + 1Zn at 90-60-57 + 14 + 2.7 + 2.7 increased yield by 30% (mean: 3330 kg/ha) compared to the standard yield from NPK 15-15-15 at 90-60-60 (mean: 2585 kg/ha) which consisted solely of primary nutrients. Also, NPS 14-31-0 + 9S + 1B + 1Zn at 100-40-0 + 11.6 + 1.3 + 1.3 followed with yield increment of 26% (mean: 3252 kg/ha), with the zero-control treatment giving the lowest yield (mean: 356 kg/ha). While the study confirms the need for use of fertilizer in maize production across northern Ghana it demonstrates the need for secondary and micronutrient inclusion in fertilizer blends for soils of Northern Ghana.

Malnutrition is a big problem on the African continent, especially among children ages zero to twenty-four months up till a time that covers the 1st 1000 days of life. Expert opinion suggests that Africa could integrate more commodities into its food systems to solve this problem, especially using its underutilized food commodities. These commodities are known to thrive very well in their various ecological zones. Indigenous food commodities are nutrient-dense, but the limitation in their use have left their potential untapped. The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa organized a webinar to seek African stakeholders' opinions on the pathway to integrating forgotten Food into the African food system. This study extracted information from the stakeholder’s interaction in the webinar and used an integrative literature review method to draw inferences. The study suggests that considerable efforts are required to integrate the forgotten food commodities into the African food systems to enhance food security and sustainable agricultural livelihood. The needed actions include awareness creation on the importance of the forgotten food commodities, the establishment of a robust research program, active private sector engagement for investment into production, value chain development, and investment into commodity development infrastructures and businesses.

Agricultural mechanization is vital to achieving sustainable livelihood, food security and national development. Mechanization is pertinent for Africa where the predominant production system remains the smallholder’s system. The use of technologies from the West continues to face lots of constraints despite investment. The recent two-wheel tractors imported from Asia are also problematic. This chapter reports a synthesis on the pros and cons of the smallholder mechanization in Africa; it used key informant discussion for case studies on appropriate mechanization and access of smallholder to it in Africa. The study showed that larger percentage of the smallholders prefers to use mechanization but are limited because of availability of appropriate machines, the cost of owing and maintaining the machines and also the profitability of the smallholding farm enterprise where machines are used. Facilitating good access will require institutional change on access to land, supportive training policies and investments.