Linking smallholder farmer climate change adaptation decisions to development

Abstract

This paper synthesizes peer-reviewed literature on smallholders' adaptation to climate change in developing countries. The synthesis shows that multiple definitions of adaptation were used across studies, resulting in a conceptual murkiness that is a barrier to generalizing the findings to inform planned adaptation policies and projects. By using a seven-category typology to classify and compare smallholder farmer adaptations across communities, the synthesis shows that in order to reduce their vulnerability smallholder farmers have mostly taken action on environmental management and diversified their livelihoods through market exchange. Some have engaged in labour migration. Very few have pursued communal pooling, storage, or mobility as risk-reducing strategies. Despite the increasing recognition that adaptation is driven by multiple stressors, less than half of the adaptation studies included discussions of multiple stressors. The synthesis points to the need for (1) improved methodological clarity in climate change adaptation research, (2) more research on labour migration and climate change interactions, (3) more research to determine the conceptual and practical significance of communal pooling and storage as risk-reducing strategies, (4) the incorporation of the assessment of multiple stressors into climate change adaptation research and policy, and (5) more empirical research on what adaptive strategies are not adopted by smallholder farmers and why.