Community-Level Impacts of Climate-Smart Agriculture Interventions on Food Security and Dietary Diversity in Climate-Smart Villages in Myanmar

Andrew Hanley,Wilson John Barbon,Su Myat Noe,Peter C Mckeown,Galina Brychkova,Julian Gonsalves,Phyu Sin Thant,Charles Spillane,Chan Myae

doi:10.3390/cli9110166

Andrew Hanley, Wilson John Barbon + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/cli9110166

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Journal: Climate	Publication Date: Nov 21, 2021
Citations: 4	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway

Abstract

Diversification of production to strengthen resilience is a key tenet of climate-smart agriculture (CSA), which can help to address the complex vulnerabilities of agriculture-dependent rural communities. In this study, we investigated the relationship between the promotion of different CSA practices across four climate-smart villages (CSVs) in Myanmar. To determine the impact of the CSA practices on livelihoods and health, survey data were collected from agricultural households (n = 527) over three years. Within the time period studied, the results indicate that some the CSA practices and technologies adopted were significantly associated with changes in household dietary diversity scores (HDDS), but, in the short-term, these were not associated with improvements in the households’ food insecurity scores (HFIAS). Based on the survey responses, we examined how pathways of CSA practice adoption tailored to different contexts of Myanmar’s four agroecologies could contribute to the observed changes, including possible resulting trade-offs. We highlight that understanding the impacts of CSA adoption on household food security in CSVs will require longer-term monitoring, as most CSA options are medium- to long-cycle interventions. Our further analysis of knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAPs) amongst the households indicated a poor understanding of the household knowledge, attitudes and practices in relation to nutrition, food choices, food preparation, sanitation and hygiene. Our KAP findings indicate that current nutrition education interventions in the Myanmar CSVs are inadequate and will need further improvement for health and nutrition outcomes from the portfolio of CSA interventions.

Highlights

Climate change is recognized as a major threat to food security and adequate nutrition in the twenty-first century [1,2,3]
These results indicate that, in Myanmar, food security varies between climate-smart villages (CSVs) locations, where, within this study, the Saktha CSV in Chin State is the most food-insecure compared to the other CSVs
Our results indicate that the Htee Pu and Ma Sein have the best mean dietary diversity scores, while Saktha has the worst average Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS)

Summary

Introduction

Climate change is recognized as a major threat to food security and adequate nutrition in the twenty-first century [1,2,3]. The quantity and nutritional quality of products generated by agricultural systems is influenced by a range of factors, including, inter alia, soil quality, nutrient availability, temperature, water availability, CO2 concentrations and the prevalence of pollinators [2,6,7]), many of which are undergoing changes due to climate change. Changes in temperature and water availability are factors influenced by changing climates, in vulnerable regions. The yields of most crop species are sensitive to alterations in temperature [8,9]. Higher temperatures are coupled with decreases in water availability due to increased evaporation and evapotranspiration, leading to crop yield reductions [9,12]

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