Climate Change Adaptation Benefits Research Articles

Climate change adaptation benefits from rejuvenated irrigation systems at Kiwere and Magozi schemes in Tanzania

ABSTRACT We examine whether soil moisture and nutrient monitoring tools and Agricultural Innovation Platforms improve farmers adaptive capacity to climate change in the context of two small-scale irrigation schemes in Tanzania. Analysis of household surveys and farmer field books show that these interventions have significantly increased household income and diversification and reduced water use and conflicts. This has contributed to rejuvenating the schemes and increased the willingness to collaborate. Farmers within these schemes report less COVID-19 impact than farmers within surrounding schemes. We argue that the interventions have increased farmers’, and their communities’, resilience and capacity to adapt to climate change.

Adapting to Climate Change Through Conservation Agriculture: A Gendered Analysis of Eastern Zambia

This study explored the use of conservation agriculture (CA) as a climate adaptation strategy among smallholder farmers in Eastern Zambia. Using 761 household interviews and 33 focus group discussions (FGDs) with smallholder farmers from six districts, data was collected on how smallholder farmers in the region experience climate change, what CA practices they had adopted, and benefits and challenges associated with CA practice. Results show that men and women farmers had similar experiences of climate change, namely late onset of a shortened rainy season, intra-seasonal drought and higher temperatures. Farmers' perceptions of gender-mediated effects of climate change had important nuances. The three most cited effects of climate change on women mentioned by women were lower crop yields, outbreaks of armyworms and reduced livestock fodder. The men thought women were most affected by increased hunger, lower crop yields and reduced domestic water sources. According to the women FGDs, men were most affected through reduced crop yields, increases in livestock diseases and increased hunger. The men self-reported reduced crop yields, reduced water for livestock and outbreaks of armyworms. Both men and women saw CA as having climate change adaptation benefits. For the women, men most benefitted from CA through the high moisture holding capacity of basins, higher crop yields and reduced labor requirements through use of oxen ripping. The men most appreciated the high crop yields, improved soil fertility and reduced costs as less fertilizer is used. The women cited the high moisture holding capacity of basins, high crop yields and improved soil fertility as benefits they most commonly derived from CA, while the men thought the women most benefitted from CA through the higher crop yields, improved soil fertility and crop tolerance to droughts. The study concludes that there is room for CA to serve as a climate smart agricultural system for both men and women smallholder farmers in Eastern Zambia. However, this will require addressing important challenges of high weed pressure, high labor demands, and low access to manure, and CA farming implements. The CA package for Zambia should include access to timely climate information and climate informed crop choices.

Prioritization of watershed management scenarios under climate change in the Jemma sub-basin of the Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia

Study regionJemma sub-basin, Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia. Study focusThis study develops watershed management alternatives which can ensure optimal climate change adaptation benefits under different climate scenarios. The climate scenarios were developed using the statistically bias corrected, multi-model ensemble mean and the RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 emission scenarios. The hydrological impact of climate change was assessed using a multi-gauge calibrated and validated the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. Watershed management alternatives were prioritized using a multi-criteria decision analysis which intercompared watershed management criteria and alternatives through the Analytic Hierarchy Process. New hydrological insightsThe findings showed a consistent decline of rainfall, surface runoff and total water yield under all climate scenarios and climate impact scenarios. Water harvesting structures were the most prioritized watershed management alternatives to reduce climate change impacts. More than half of the watersheds of the Jemma sub-basin are highly and optimally suitable for in-situ water harvesting under baseline and future climate scenarios. Observed terrace and anticipated in-situ water harvesting structures significantly (p < 0.05) reduced surface runoff and thereby significantly increase soil water under baseline and future climate scenarios. However, both in-situ and ex-situ water harvesting structures caused an insignificant change in the total water yield under climate scenarios. We conclude implementing in-situ water harvesting structures can help to increase green water without a decline in blue water.

Climate change adaptation benefits of potential conservation partnerships

We evaluate the world terrestrial network of protected areas (PAs) for its partnership potential in responding to climate change. That is, if a PA engaged in collaborative, trans-boundary management of species, by investing in conservation partnerships with neighboring areas, what climate change adaptation benefits might accrue? We consider core tenets of conservation biology related to protecting large areas with high environmental heterogeneity and low climate change velocity and ask how a series of biodiversity adaptation indicators change across spatial scales encompassing potential PA and non-PA partners. Less than 1% of current world terrestrial PAs equal or exceed the size of established and successful conservation partnerships. Partnering at this scale would increase the biodiversity adaptation indicators by factors up to two orders of magnitude, compared to a null model in which each PA is isolated. Most partnership area surrounding PAs is comprised of non-PAs (70%), indicating the importance of looking beyond the current network of PAs when promoting climate change adaptation. Given monumental challenges with PA-based species conservation in the face of climate change, partnerships provide a logical and achievable strategy for helping areas adapt. Our findings identify where strategic partnering efforts in highly vulnerable areas of the world may prove critical in safeguarding biodiversity.

Psychological influence on survey incentives: valuing climate change adaptation benefits in agriculture

Psychological influences affect the way people value the environment. However, traditional economic valuation models often do not account for how people are asked about valuing the environment. We examined how valuations by Nepalese farmers differ based on how the questions are asked and which incentives are provided. In a face-to-face choice experiment, incentive receivers spent more time than incentive non-receivers answering the survey, but were not more likely to choose a status quo option. Prepaid survey incentives had minimal effect on the stated welfare measures. The results suggest that prepaid incentives increase response rates, but do not increase welfare estimates. The findings also strengthen the methodological validity of our results, which indicated that farmers are willing to pay a substantial amount to secure climate change adaptation benefits on their land.

Observing climate impacts on tea yield in Assam, India

Tea is an important cash crop for the economy in northeast India. It also supports the livelihoods of a large proportion of the population. At the same time, tea growth is sensitive to climatic conditions making it vulnerable to climate change and variability. Identifying the tea yield response to climatic variability in operational plantations, and identifying the most important climatic variables that impact tea yield is critical to assessing the vulnerability of the industry and informing adaptation. Here, we developed a garden level panel dataset and estimated statistical models to identify the causal effect of monthly temperature, monthly precipitation, drought intensity, and precipitation variability on tea yield. We found decreasing tea yield returns to warmer monthly average temperatures, and when monthly temperatures were above 26.6 °C warming had a negative effect. We found that drought intensity did not affect tea yield and that precipitation variability, and in particular precipitation intensity, negatively affect tea yield. An increase in average temperatures as expected with global warming will reduce the productivity of tea plantations, all else held equal. Further, interventions to reduce the sensitivity of tea plantations to warming and precipitation variability will have immediate pay-offs as well as providing climate change adaptation benefits.

Mitigation Co-Benefits of Adaptation Actions in Agriculture: An Opportunity for Promoting Climate Smart Agriculture in Indonesia

The government of Indonesia has been promoting the system of rice intensification with emphasis on resource use efficiency and climate change adaptation benefits. One question remained to be seen is how the system of rice intensification compares with other technologies such as zero tillage, composting, and leaf color charts which have also been advocated for resource conservation, climate change adaptation and mitigation benefits. In this paper, we made an attempt to quantify the mitigation co-benefits of various agriculture technologies and compared them with the system of rice intensification through marginal abatement costs and cost benefit analysis. The analysis has indicated higher mitigation potential for the system of rice intensification compared to other technologies in question. However, zero tillage provides least marginal abatement cost and higher returns per dollar invested and hence could be a better choice. When assessed for the nationwide mitigation potential, system of rice intensification provides greater mitigation potential compared to other technologies.

Microhydro electrification and climate change adaptation in Nepal: socioeconomic lessons from the Rural Energy Development Program (REDP)

This article explores the potential for microhydro installations in Nepal to improve adaptive capacity in addition to their ability to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. After explaining its methods of data collection—namely field research and research interviews—the article explores the climate change adaptation benefits of microhydro plants being promoted under the Renewable Energy Development Project (REDP). Besides displacing fossil fuels, in particular kerosene for lighting, microhydro electrification offers an effective way of improving community assets and bolstering social resilience (thereby enhancing the adaptive capacity of communities there). Our own survey of REDP project sites reveals how microhydro units have improved community income levels, equalized gender roles, enhanced access to education and information, and reduced migration patterns. The article concludes by highlighting three key lessons—the role of extensive community mobilization, proactive capacity building for efficient electricity use, and the need for comprehensiveness—for those wishing to adapt to climate change in other rural and developing economies.