Scaling Climate-Smart Food Systems: From Policy Ideas to Practice
How do we move from promising policy ideas and pilot projects to practical, sustained action at scale? This was the central question explored in the third webinar of the series From Soil Health to Climate Action: Unlocking the Power of Soil Organic Carbon.
On 28 July 2026, the African Climate Action Partnership (AfCAP) held the final session of the webinar series, titled Scaling Climate-Smart Food Systems: From Policy Ideas to Practice. It brought together insights on soil organic carbon, climate-smart agriculture and the practical systems needed to support wider adoption.
The session examined why soil organic carbon and climate-smart agriculture matter for national food security, climate resilience and long-term agricultural transformation. Across Africa, many regenerative and climate-smart practices have shown strong potential, but adoption often remains limited because farmers face real barriers, including upfront costs, delayed benefits, limited advisory support, weak market access and insufficient risk-sharing mechanisms.
A key message from the discussion was that scaling must be designed from the beginning. It is not enough to recognise soil health in policy documents; policies must be connected to delivery systems that farmers can actually use, including access to finance, inputs, training, climate information, extension services, monitoring tools and markets that reward sustainable production.
The session was moderated by Nina Pretorious, Junior Project Manager for AfCAP, and featured Dr Ermias Betemariam, a land health scientist, at the World Agroforestry, specialising in land restoration, soil health, carbon dynamics and sustainable land management. His work links science, policy and practice to support resilient landscapes and food systems.
The discussion reinforced that building soil organic carbon is not only a technical issue, but a systems challenge requiring stronger alignment between agriculture, environment, finance and planning sectors.
Access the presentation below:
Watch the recording to discover how practical scaling pathways can align policy, finance and delivery with the everyday decisions farmers make on the ground here: