Abstract
Abstract Climate-smart agriculture has emerged as a way of increasing food productivity, building resiliency to climate change and reducing carbon emissions. Despite rapid technical advances, research on climate-smart agriculture has arguably under-theorized the socio-political processes that continue to marginalize vulnerable groups such as smallholder farmers. This review discusses the potential usefulness of political ecology perspectives for improving climate-smart agriculture. Political ecology theory elucidates how three interrelated socio-political processes that perpetuate smallholder farmer vulnerability significantly influence climate-smart responses: inequality, unequal power relations and social injustice. The article discusses these three inter-connected political ecology factors using a number of examples from the Green Revolution, smallholder farming communities, and indigenous farmers. In comparison to conventional technical approaches, our article argues that Climate-Smart Agriculture needs to consider political ecology perspectives at different levels to explore the vulnerability of smallholder farmers to current and future climate change impacts. Interventions to support climate-smart agriculture should examine local risks, specificities and priorities of smallholder farmers. The article concludes with a renewed call for concepts of inequality, unequal power relations and social injustice to be embedded into both the policy and practice of climate smart agriculture. Keywords: climate-smart agriculture, equality, political ecology, power, smallholder, social justice
Highlights
More than 500 million smallholder farmers across the world manage less than ten hectares of land each, and yet they produce as much as 80 percent of the food consumed in Africa and Asia (IFAD 2013)
A common definition of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) was offered by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): "agriculture that sustainably increases productivity, enhances resilience, reduces/removes GHGs where possible, and enhances achievement of national food security and development goals."2 CSA can contribute to future food security and the sustainably of smallholder agriculture in developing countries
The review has argued that CSA falls short of promoting the socio-political concerns of smallholder farmers, and many of the vulnerabilities that they face
Summary
More than 500 million smallholder farmers across the world manage less than ten hectares of land each, and yet they produce as much as 80 percent of the food consumed in Africa and Asia (IFAD 2013). Supported by a multitude of research organizations (the majority originating in the global North), the Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) research program, international agencies and donors are establishing the scientific knowledge and credibility of CSA by launching projects on agricultural resilience to climate change targeting rural communities in the global south. We discuss theoretical perspectives from political ecology focusing on inequality, unequal power relations and social injustice and illustrate with examples how these are the key determinants of vulnerability for smallholder farming communities and indigenous farmers. Socio-economic and political analysis is an important step to accompany scientific and technological solutions for green growth, increasing food security and responding to climate change. This needs to take the form of designing participatory and inclusive strategies using a rights-based approach within CSA interventions
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