Target Oriented Scaling Pathways for CLCA Initiatives for Bolivia and Mexico

Abstract

This report “Target oriented scaling pathways for CLCA initiatives for Bolivia and Mexico” is an output under Component 2: Development of a delivery system/participatory farmer-led extension system to accelerate adoption. The overall goal of the IFAD-funded CLCA Project is to sustainably increase production and enhance the climate resilience of small farmers’ communities and their crop-livestock production systems in drylands. Local challenges, such as the quinoa boom in Bolivia and soil erosion in Oaxaca, have displaced the livestock sector which has broken the balance between the livestock and agricultural production systems, resulting in unsustainable production systems. The innovations being piloted in this project, or CLCA practices, have to sustainably intensify the crop-livestock system as a whole, not just crops, or livestock but their combination. At the same time other multiple objectives of productivity, soil health and income need to be addressed. The following CLCA practices were selected that address multiple objectives and have potential to be used at large scale in Mexico were 1) Living barriers, 2) Controlled grazing of stubble and forage mixtures, 3) Relay cropping with fodders species, and in Bolivia 1) Improved fallow; 2) improved pastures; 3) windbreaks. We applied the USAID Agricultural Scalability Assessment Tool (ASAT) decision tree diagram to determine the appropriate scaling pathways for each one of the selected practices per country (). The scaling pathways identified were (i) Public sector, with donor support and/or capacity building; and (ii) Public-Private sector, with public or donor support. In year 4, it is suggested that the project team, partners, and stakeholders co-develop and test the business cases with the highest potential for scaling the impact of the selected practices.