Impact of climate-smart agricultural services on farmer resilience in Ethiopia

BackgroundClimate change in Sub-Saharan Africa has had a negative impact on agricultural production leading to food insecurity. Climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices have the potential to reverse this trend because of its triple potential benefits of improved productivity and high income, reduction or removal of greenhouse gases and improved household food security. Hence, we empirically find the determinants of choice and the effect of CSAs on household food security among smallholder farmers in Kenya.MethodsPrimary data were collected in Teso North Sub-county, Busia County of Kenya, among smallholder farmers. CSA practices used by farmers were grouped by principal component analysis and linked to food security by multinomial endogenous switching regression model.ResultsWith the application of principal component analysis, we clustered the CSA practices into 4 components: crop management, field management, farm risk reduction and soil management practices. We find that the greatest effect of CSA adoption by smallholder farmers on food security is when they use a larger package that contains all the four categories of practices. Adopters of this package were 56.83% more food secure in terms of HFCS and 25.44% in terms of HDDS. This package mitigates upon the impacts of climate change as well as enhancing nutrient availability in the soils for higher productivity. Further, adoption of this package was positively influenced by gender of the household head, farm size and value of productive farm assets.ConclusionsCSAs have the potential to alleviate food insecurity among smallholder farmers if used in combinations and to a larger extend. To enhance adoption, land fragmentation should be discouraged through civic education and provision of alternative income-generating activities for farmers to benefit when practiced on relatively bigger land. Farmers should be sensitized on the need to invest in farm productive assets in order to absorb the risks of climate change while enhancing adoption of CSA practices.

Climate change and variability increasingly constrains the technical efficiency (TE) of smallholder vegetable production. This study analyzes the impact of climate smart agricultural (CSA) practices on TE among high value vegetable production in Northwestern Ethiopia. The analysis draws on cross sectional data from 550 smallholder farmers selected through a multistage sampling procedure from the North Gojjam, Awi, and South Gondar zones of Amhara region. TE was first estimated using stochastic frontier analysis, after which a multinomial endogenous switching regression (MESR) model was employed. Through factor analysis, CSA practices were categorized into three bundled domains: soil management (S), climate resilient technology (C), and water management (W). Integrated CSA adoption enhanced TE in onion 19.1% to 20.5%, potato 38.3% to 39.5%, and tomato 22.0% to 23.1% efficiency, depending on the combination of CSA practices. The greatest efficiency gains were, however, realized from the joint adoption of soil management and water management practices and integration of soil management and climate resilient technologies. The study concludes that bundled CSA adoption improves resource use efficiency among vegetable producers. Based on these findings, policy implications point to prioritizing context specific, bundled CSA interventions tailored to crop type and agro ecological conditions, rather than one size fits all approaches. Strengthening extension services, improving access to credit, and expanding climate advisory support can facilitate adoption and increase efficiency.

From Vulnerability to Viability: Climate-Smart Agriculture as Drivers of Productivity and Food Security in Nigerian Maize-Based Farming Households

This study mainly aimed to evaluate the impact of small-scale irrigation on the livelihood and resilience of farmers toward climate change in Kersa district of the eastern Oromia region of Ethiopia. A sample of 288 randomly selected households (158 non-adopters and 130 adopters) was used to gather the data. The data were analyzed using the resilience capacity index and propensity score matching methods. The resilience capacity index was utilized to summarize all the resilience indicators into a single value, and propensity score matching was used to evaluate the impact. The results of the average treatment effect on the treated analysis revealed that adopters were better-off in crop yields by 84.72 quintals per hectare, 55641.60 birr in total income, and by 2.02 resilience capacity index compared to non-adopters. The results of the study indicate that small-scale irrigation significantly improves farm households' livelihoods and mitigates the effects of climate change by enhancing their ability to respond to erratic weather events, which builds their resilience. Therefore, policymakers should prioritize small-scale irrigation practices to improve rural households' livelihoods and farmers’ resilience in areas with irregular rainfall and a high risk of drought.

Climate change is causing serious challenges for smallholder farm households, especially in sub‐Saharan Africa. The overarching objectives of this study are as follows: (i) to estimate household resilience and vulnerability indices, (ii) identify factors that explain these indices and (iii) to examine the impact of climate‐smart agriculture (CSA) on households’ resilience and vulnerability, and (iv) to identify which CSA package performs better in enhancing resilience and reducing vulnerability. For this study, 278 farm households from 4 districts and 8 kebeles from the Central Rift Valley (CRV) of Ethiopia were randomly selected using a three‐stage proportional to size sampling procedure. Cross‐sectional data applying a structured and pretested survey questionnaire was collected for 2020/21 production season. Household resilience and vulnerability indices were estimated using resilience index and measurement analysis and indicators approaches, respectively. Multinomial endogenous switching regression was used to estimate the average treatment effects (ATEs) of the adoption of CSA practices on households’ resilience and vulnerability. The results show that livestock holding, land size, level of education, and state of food consumption are major explaining factors of resilience, whereas educational level of households, livestock holding, and access to credit are found to be major factors explaining vulnerability. The estimated ATEs indicate that households which adopted more diversified combinations of CSA packages were more resilient and less vulnerable than non‐adopter households. The impacts of soil fertility management and conservation agriculture practices have better performance in improving resilience, whereas conservation agriculture and small‐scale irrigation performed better in reducing the vulnerability of rural households in CRV. Boosting resilience and reducing vulnerability, hence, requires scaling up CSA among smallholder farmers by diversifying and raising farm households’ income, educational status, and livestock holding.

Resilience capacity among the vulnerable farming households in Meki River catchment, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia: Present situation and future prospects

Climate change poses significant challenges for rural households, particularly in farming communities, leading to crop loss and reduced incomes that threaten livelihoods. This study analyzed resilience capacity of rural households to climate change, the case of Gubalafto distracts, Ethiopia. Moreover, the study examined the effect of agroecological differences on the households' resilience level. The study utilized a survey research design, in which gathering data from 355 households selected through random surveys. Principal component analysis, analysis of covariance, and descriptive statistics were employed to analyze the data. This study presents an estimation of the overall household resilience capacity, derived from three key dimensions of resilience: absorptive, adaptive, and transformative capacities. The analysis revealed significant loadings for these dimensions, with values of 0.612, 0.534, and 0.583, respectively, indicating their importance in building resilience capacity. Moreover, findings reveal that 44% of households were found to be have a low resilience capacity index (RCI), while 37% and 19% were a medium, high, with an overall mean RCI of 0.33. Surprisingly, lowland households demonstrated a higher average climate resilience score compared to midland and highland households, with p-values of 0.02 and 0.001, respectively. However, no significant difference was found between midland and highland households. Relevant institutions should prioritize investments in communication infrastructure, institutional services, and social safety nets. Particular emphasis should be given due emphasis to highland and midland agro-ecological zones, where targeted support is essential for strengthening household resilience capacities.

Climate-smart agriculture is one of the most important actions for agricultural climate change adaptation, especially in Togo, a sub-Saharan African country with a fragile ecology and where agriculture is profoundly impacted by climate change. Using a multinomial endogenous switching regression (MESR) and a multinomial endogenous treatment effect (METE) approach, we conducted empirical research to identify the factors influencing the adoption decisions of climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) and their impact on household food security among smallholder farmers in Togo. The findings of this study revealed that the adoption of CSAPs by farmers is influenced by a range of factors, such as age, marital status, the household head’s gender, engagement in off-farm activities, level of education, farm size, agroecological zone, regional location, land ownership, distance between homestead and farm, access to credit, the presence of agricultural associations and cooperatives, and access to extension agents. On the one hand, the MESR analysis demonstrated a positive correlation between the number of adopted CSAPs and households’ food consumption score. Similarly, greater adoption of CSAPs resulted in a significant reduction in the food insecurity experience scale. On the other hand, the METE model portrayed an increase in acceptable food consumption when households adopted up to three CSAPs. Likewise, it significantly alleviated severe food insecurity. Further results based on the propensity score matching technique showed that the adoption of a crop rotation system, utilization of improved varieties of seeds, plant protection products, inorganic fertilizer, organic fertilizer, and irrigation improved adopters’ food consumption scores while reducing their level of food insecurity.

Smallholder farmers in Ethiopia rely on family labour and lack the efficient skills necessary to produce crops. They frequently own less than one hectare of land and use animal draft power to cultivate the soil. Rainfall serves as the primary source of water for crops in agriculture. This study aims to investigate the impacts of crop diversification, agroforestry, and adjusted planting dates on the efficiency of farmers. A multinomial endogenous switching regression (MESR) model was used to analyse these factors. Multistage sampling is used to obtain cross-sectional data from 385 randomly selected households. The results revealed that adopting adjusted planting dates, crop diversification, and agroforestry significantly increased technical efficiency by 25%, 57%, and 54%, respectively. Adopting an adjusted planting date and agroforestry decreases the efficiency yield gap by 2.52 t/ha and 1.16 t/ha, respectively. Compared to nonadoption, adopting crop diversification, agroforestry, and adjusting planting dates results in a greater average technical efficiency score and a smaller average efficiency yield gap per hectare. CSA practices operate best in combination with high farmer efficiency, which is crucial for realizing their highest productivity potential. However, in scenarios where farmers do not possess the technical capability to be effective, the adoption of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) can be compromised. On this basis, we recommend to policymakers that they give top priority to measures that enhance farmers' technical efficiency as a primary cornerstone of CSA policy.

Uganda continues to be prone to climate shocks especially drought which has adverse impact on food security. This paper studies household resilience capacities with special focus on how different resilience capacities mitigate the impact of drought on food security. The study follows the TANGO framework to identify resilience components, and two-step factor analysis to construct three resilience capacity indexes (absorptive, adaptive, and transformative) and overall resilience capacity index. To examine the mitigating role of resilience capacities, we interact resilience capacity indexes with the different measures of drought. The study employs a panel data from the Uganda National Panel Surveys (UNPS) undertaken between 2010/11 and 2018/19, spanning five waves. To minimise the bias arising from subjective self-reported drought shock, we introduce an objective measure of drought from the global SPEI database into the UNPS data. We also address attrition bias by controlling for attrition hazard estimated from the attrition function. Our analysis reveals that households in Uganda exhibit significantly low and nearly static resilience capacities. This implies majority of households in Uganda remain highly vulnerable to food insecurity in the event of severe drought. The study shows that building resilience capacities is an effective way of protecting households from such devastating situation. Whereas there are mixed results on the effectiveness of different resilience capacities in mitigating the effects of drought depending on the measure of food security and drought, decomposition of each of the three resilience capacities reveals critical aspects in each capacity. Succinctly, access to climate related information and linking social capital are very critical under adaptive capacity, infrastructure services are very key under transformative capacity, while informal safety nets are critical under absorptive capacity. Therefore, interventions that enhance households’ access to the above aspects are very important in building resilience to shocks, especially drought.

How do climate change and associated hazards impact on the resilience of riparian rural communities in Bangladesh? Policy implications for livelihood development

Impact of adoption of climate-smart agriculture on food security in the tropical moist montane ecosystem: The case of Geshy watershed, Southwest Ethiopia

Climate change threatens rural farming households in sub-Saharan African nations, particularly South Africa. Addressing these challenges could be achieved through climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices (drought-resistant maize varieties (DTMVs), and organic manure), recognized as a sustainable solution. DTMVs are specific types of maize that have been genetically modified to withstand periods of low rainfall and water scarcity. This study employed a multistage sampling technique to select rural maize farmers across some selected villages in South Africa. Data were analysed using propensity-score matching (PSM) and multinomial endogenous switching regression (MESR) model. The results showed that DTMVs and organic manure adoptions had significant impacts on productivity and welfare outcomes, with joint adopters experiencing a 28% increase in the DTMVs productivity. More so, the per capita household expenditure for the joint adopters of DTMVs and organic manure was 4% higher than DTMVs adopters alone and 8% higher than organic manure adopters only. We concluded that the adoptions of DTMVs and organic manure alone or the combination significantly increase rural farmers’ household maize productivity and welfare. Government and major stakeholders should encourage the use of CSA, such as the joint adoption of DTMVs and organic manure, to help farmers resist climate-change-related threats, improve productivity and welfare in rural South Africa.

Assessing resilience of small ruminant farms in Spain: A longitudinal analysis based on FADN

Resilience capacity and vulnerability: A joint analysis with reference to Slovak urban districts