Abstract
Climate-resilient crops and crop varieties have been recommended as a way for farmers to cope with or adapt to climate change, but despite the apparent benefits, rates of adoption by smallholder farmers are highly variable. Here we present a scoping review, using PRISMA-P (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis Protocols), examining the conditions that have led to the adoption of climate-resilient crops over the past 30 years in lower- and middle-income countries. The descriptive analysis performed on 202 papers shows that small-scale producers adopted climate-resilient crops and varieties to cope with abiotic stresses such as drought, heat, flooding and salinity. The most prevalent trait in our dataset was drought tolerance, followed by water-use efficiency. Our analysis found that the most important determinants of adoption of climate-resilient crops were the availability and effectiveness of extension services and outreach, followed by education levels of heads of households, farmers’ access to inputs—especially seeds and fertilizers—and socio-economic status of farming families. About 53% of studies reported that social differences such as sex, age, marital status and ethnicity affected the adoption of varieties or crops as climate change-adaptation strategies. On the basis of the collected evidence, this study presents a series of pathways and interventions that could contribute to higher adoption rates of climate-resilient crops and reduce dis-adoption.
Highlights
Agriculture and food production are highly vulnerable to climate change
To cope with climate change, farmers need to modify production and farm management practices, such as adjusting planting time, supplementing irrigation, intercropping, adopting conservation agriculture, accessing short- and long-term crop and seed storage infrastructure, and changing crops or planting more climate-resilient crop varieties. This scoping review examines the conditions that have led to the adoption of climate-resilient crops over the past 30 yr in lower- and middle-income countries. But especially those that rely on domestic agriculture production for food security, one of the most critical and proactive measures that can be taken to cope with food insecurity caused by unpredictable weather patterns is for farmers to adopt climate-resilient crops
We focus on scoping the published evidence on the adoption of climate-resilient crops and crop varieties from climate-vulnerable countries and countries that have experienced climate-related impacts as determined by 45 indicators established by the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative
Summary
Agriculture and food production are highly vulnerable to climate change. Extreme weather events such as droughts, heat waves and flooding have far-reaching implications for food security and poverty reduction, especially in rural communities with high populations of small-scale producers who are highly dependent on rain-fed agriculture for their livelihoods and food. To cope with climate change, farmers need to modify production and farm management practices, such as adjusting planting time, supplementing irrigation (when possible), intercropping, adopting conservation agriculture, accessing short- and long-term crop and seed storage infrastructure, and changing crops or planting more climate-resilient crop varieties. This scoping review examines the conditions that have led to the adoption of climate-resilient crops over the past 30 yr in lower- and middle-income countries. On the basis of the collected evidence, this scoping review presents a series of pathways and interventions that can contribute to higher adoption rates of climate-resilient crops and reduce dis-adoption (Box 2)
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