Impact of climate-smart agricultural practices on smallholder farmers' resilience in Ethiopia

Abstract

Climate change poses challenges to smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, including Ethiopia. To address this, adopting Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices (CSAPs) is crucial for building resilient communities. However, limited evidence exists on the impact of CSAPs on farmers' resilience. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the impact of Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices (CSAPs) on the resilience of smallholder farmers and identify the factors determining their resilience. The study collected both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data was obtained from 646 survey households using household surveys, while qualitative data was gathered through focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Findings reveal that there is an agroecological difference in resilience status and factors like the education level of the household head, livestock size, and agricultural extension worker visits positively influence the resilience of CSAP-adopting smallholder farmers. Conversely crop share leases negatively impacts the adoption of climate-smart practices. Crop CSAPs adopters show significantly higher resilience gains (37.74% ATT) compared to non-adopters. Non-adopters could have experienced a substantial improvement (23.83% ATU) if they had adopted CSAPs. Positive and significant effects on resilience were also observed for livestock and soil management CSAPs adopters, with an improvement of 28.36% and 40.58%, in resilience capacity, respectively. Non-adopters of these CSAPs could have enhanced their resilience by 24.74% and 10.80%, respectively, if they had adopted these practices. This underscores the need to adopt more CSAPs and the importance of considering these factors in designing policies and promoting CSAPs to enhance the resilience of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia and similar contexts.