Abstract
Across the tropics, smallholder farmers already face numerous risks to agricultural production. Climate change is expected to disproportionately affect smallholder farmers and make their livelihoods even more precarious; however, there is limited information on their overall vulnerability and adaptation needs. We conducted surveys of 600 households in Madagascar to characterize the vulnerability of smallholder farmers, identify how farmers cope with risks and explore what strategies are needed to help them adapt to climate change. Malagasy farmers are particularly vulnerable to any shocks to their agricultural system owing to their high dependence on agriculture for their livelihoods, chronic food insecurity, physical isolation and lack of access to formal safety nets. Farmers are frequently exposed to pest and disease outbreaks and extreme weather events (particularly cyclones), which cause significant crop and income losses and exacerbate food insecurity. Although farmers use a variety of risk-coping strategies, these are insufficient to prevent them from remaining food insecure. Few farmers have adjusted their farming strategies in response to climate change, owing to limited resources and capacity. Urgent technical, financial and institutional support is needed to improve the agricultural production and food security of Malagasy farmers and make their livelihoods resilient to climate change.
Highlights
Smallholder farmers constitute a significant portion of the world’s population, with an estimated 450–500 million smallholder farmers worldwide, representing 85% of the world’s farms [1]
Because smallholder farmers typically depend directly on agriculture for their livelihoods and have limited resources and capacity to cope with shocks, any reductions to agricultural productivity can have significant impacts on their food security, nutrition, income and well-being [5,6]
While several studies have characterized the livelihoods of Malagasy farmers and explored factors influencing poverty and food insecurity [8,12,14,18,19], there is limited information on the overall vulnerability of farmers to different agricultural risks and the strategies that farmers use to cope with these risks
Summary
Smallholder farmers constitute a significant portion of the world’s population, with an estimated 450–500 million smallholder farmers worldwide, representing 85% of the world’s farms [1]. While several studies have characterized the livelihoods of Malagasy farmers and explored factors influencing poverty and food insecurity [8,12,14,18,19], there is limited information on the overall vulnerability of farmers to different agricultural risks (both climate and non-climate related) and the strategies that farmers use to cope with these risks. By increasing knowledge of the impacts of risks to agriculture and the existing coping strategies that farmers use, our study provides critical information for development organizations and donors focused on food security and poverty alleviation in rural areas of Madagascar, as well as for policymakers working on the design of both national and international strategies for climate change adaptation, agricultural productivity, and hunger and 2 poverty alleviation
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