Africa Illovo Sugar: Developing climate resilience through collaboration
Sugarcane production is an important activity and a major employer in African agriculture, with an estimated six million people deriving their livelihood from the sugar industry. Given these contributions, any factor affecting the industry has an impact on the overall economy. With a relatively low adaptive capacity and poor forecasting systems and mitigation strategies, sugarcane farming is anticipated to be significantly impacted by climate change, just like other agricultural sectors, especially in developing countries.
In the sugar sector particularly, large corporates such as Illovo Sugar, Africa’s largest sugar producer, have recognized the business risk that smallholder farmers face when they have low capacity to withstand climate shocks. To improve the climate resilience of sugar cane growers, taking their climate-related risks into account, a partnership between the Climate Resilience Infrastructure Development Facility (CRIDF) and Illovo Sugar was developed. A trans-boundary tool to assess climate vulnerability was developed based on the principle of “shared risks are shared benefits”. This climate vulnerability assessment and response tool was developed throughout numerous activities that engaged a broad range of stakeholders.
This case shows how the resilience of sugar cane out-growers can be improved through collaboration among relevant stakeholders. With the help of the trans-boundary tool in providing sounder information of the smallholders, it facilitates in investing in adaptive capacity. Lessons learnt from the Illovo sugar cane initiative could be transferred to the entire sugar industry in developing countries to improve the understanding of the risks and vulnerabilities faced by out-growers. Similarly, the experience in the sugar-growing sector could be used to see how to apply and adapt these models and tools to other sectors or crops. As a result, by raising awareness of the importance of climate-resilient development, the initiatives could inform and lead to changes in the policy and regulatory environment. Such efforts are counted as scaling up.