Climate-Smart Family Farming (CS-FF)

The two-year Climate-Smart Family Farming (CS-FF) project aimed to increase sustainable food production in the Basins of La Paz and Comayagua in Honduras. The project was funded by the European Union through the EUROCLIMA+ programme.

Honduras is amongst the countries most affected by climate change. The use of obsolete technologies, poor agricultural production practices, little access to financing and technical assistance, severely increases the population's vulnerability to climate change. Women and indigenous peoples in the Honduran and Guatemalan dry corridor are especially vulnerable, due to their high dependency on dryland agriculture.

The CC-FF project promoted climate smart approaches in food production in the target areas. First, through the implementation of a sustainable water resource management systems by local organisations and smallholder famers; second, through the validation and adoption of climate-smart agricultural production systems in Central America by facilitating the dissemination of experiences and best practices throughout the region.

Specifically the project:

1. Supported Lenca and Mestizo families to reduce their vulnerability to climate change and improve their food security

2. Designed and promoted an inclusive rural financing scheme for climate smart approaches for smallholder producers in specific food and cash crop value chains.

3. Created and/or strengthened water governance mechanisms for the integrated management of water resources, forests, and soils of the La Paz and Comayagua sub-basins

4. Communicated and promoted learning about climate smart approaches through inter-institutional platforms at the Central American level to facilitate their scaling in the region.

SNV (lead) implemented the project in partnership with ASOMAINCUPACO, the Association for the Integrated Management of Watersheds of La Paz and Comayagua; as well as Centro Universitario Regional del Centro (CURC-UNAH). The project was implemented in collaboration with the Presidential Office of Climate Change of Honduras (Clima+), and the Guatemala Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.

Project results:

• Established 704.3 hectares of climate resilient production systems in coffee, livestock and basic grains

• Benefited a total of 871 family producers, 271 of whom are women, who have implemented climate adaptation practices and measures for resilient food production.

• Water governance models have been structured, institutionalised and are in operation in three sub-basins.

• Implemented three water action plans institutionalised by the municipal governments and adopted by landscape planning processes.