It is critical to develop technologies that simultaneously improve agricultural production, offset impacts of climate change, and ensure food security in a changing climate. Within this context, considerable attention has been given to climate-smart agricultural practices (CSA). This study was conducted to investigate the effects of integrating different CSA practices on crop production, soil fertility, and carbon sequestration after being practiced continuously for up to 10 years. The CSA practices include use of soil and water conservation (SWC) structures combined with biological measures, hedgerow planting, crop residue management, grazing management, crop rotation, and perennial crop-based agroforestry systems. The landscapes with CSA interventions were compared to farmers’ business-as-usual practices (i.e., control). Wheat (Triticum sp.) yield was quantified from 245 households. The results demonstrated that yield was 30–45% higher under CSA practices than the control (p < 0.05). The total carbon stored at a soil depth of 1 m was three- to seven-fold higher under CSA landscapes than the control. CSA interventions slightly increased the soil pH and exhibited 2.2–2.6 and 1.7–2.7 times more total nitrogen and plant-available phosphorus content, respectively, than the control. The time series Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) revealed higher soil moisture content under CSA. The findings illustrated the substantial opportunity of integrating CSA practices to build climate change resilience of resource-poor farmers through improving crop yield, reducing nutrient depletion, and mitigating GHG emissions through soil carbon sequestration.

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Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs) were established by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) in the East African countries of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to test and promote a portfolio of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices that have climate change mitigation potential. This study evaluated the soil carbon sequestration potential of these CSVs compared to the control land use that did not have CSA practices. At the one-meter depth, soil carbon stocks increased by 20–70%, 70–86%, and 51–110% in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda CSVs, respectively, compared to control. Consequently, CSVs contributed to the reduction of emissions by 87–420 Mg CO2 eq ha−1. In the topsoil (0–15 cm), CSVs sequestered almost twice more soil carbon than the control and subsequently emissions were reduced by 42–158 Mg CO2 eq ha−1 under CSVs. The annual increase in carbon sequestration under CSVs ranged between 1.6 and 6.2 Mg C ha−1 yr−1 and substantially varied between the CSA land use types. The forests sequestered the highest soil carbon (5–6 Mg C ha−1 yr−1), followed by grasslands and croplands. The forest topsoil also had lower bulk density compared to the control. The findings suggest that CSA practices implemented through the CSVs approach contribute to climate change mitigation through soil carbon sequestration.

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