Leveraging Climate-Smart Agriculture And Indigenous Knowledge For Sustainable Food Security In Sub-Saharan Africa: Policy And Practice Insights

Abstract

Food security has continued to pose significant barrier in Sub-Saharan Africa, intensified by the rising climate change challenges on agricultural yield and rural sustainability. Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) represents an integrated approach that combines sustainable agricultural productivity, climate adaptation, and mitigation to strengthen food security in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, despite global advocacy and relevance, the integration of indigenous knowledge systems with modern CSA practices remains underexplored in both policy and implementation contexts. This paper, critically examines the potential of combining indigenous agricultural knowledge with climate-smart practices to enhance food security in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a focused case study on Nigeria and its neighbouring countries including Niger, Chad, Cameroon, and Benin. This study drawing from a holistic desk-based thematic analysis of diverse frameworks, articulation of relevant FAO and IPCC reports, germane literature review from Scopus based journal comprising of peer review studies in related subjects, identified major thematic codes within policy gaps, challenges relating to integration, and typical types of local experience and implications in climate resilience: Findings demonstrate that while indigenous knowledge including traditional crop selection, water conservation, and seasonal forecasting offers valuable context-specific adaptive strategies, its integration with CSA technologies varies across Nigeria and neighbouring countries (Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Benin) due to differing institutional barriers, policy frameworks, and community engagement levels. This disparity highlights the need for tailored policy reforms and localized CSA interventions to address the unique socio-cultural and environmental conditions within each country. However, institutional barriers, lack of policy recognition, and limited collaboration between local communities and formal agricultural systems hinder this integration. This article contends for policy reform inclusivity which identifies local experience and cultural knowledge as an invaluable input in discussing climate adaptation and food access game plans. The study also advocates for the interconnectedness between all major stakeholders including peasant farmers, academics and policy analysts to synthesize context-specific CSA solutions that are viable and scalable. Such participatory involvement can build stronger capacity for climate adaptation, resilience, and equality in food supply within the inevitable climate crisis era, and lastly, the research contributes to sustainability science by bridging traditional wisdom and scientific innovation, offering a pathway to more effective and culturally sensitive climate-smart agriculture policies in Sub-Saharan Africa.