Climate-smart Agricultural Practices Research Articles

Efeito de práticas agrícolas inteligentes para o clima na segurança alimentar entre famílias agricultoras no estado de Kwara, centro-norte da Nigéria

ABSTRACT Climate change brings a huge threat to the sustainability of food production and other livelihood activities in vulnerable areas like Nigeria, because it relies majorly on rain-fed agriculture. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of climate smart agricultural practices (CSAP) on food security of farming households in the Kwara State, North-Central Nigeria. A three-stage sampling technique was used to select ninety farming households, and a structured questionnaire to obtain information for the study. The collected data were analyzed using the food security index, adaptation strategy use index and logistic regression model. The result revealed that crop rotation is the most used CSAP in the study area, and that 16.67 % of the respondents are low users, 53.33 % medium users and 30 % high users of CSAP. It was also observed that 58.9 % of the farming households are food secured, while 41.1 % are food insecure. The logistic regression showed that the food security of the farming households is significantly affected by education, access to extension visits, farm size, off-farm income and CSAP.

Classifying the Involvement of Men and Women in Climate Smart Agricultural Practices in Kayonza Sub-county, Kanungu District, Uganda

Globally, climate change is currently recognized as one of the most serious risks to communities' socio-economic activity, health, and livelihood. Climate Smart Agriculture is an essential tactic to developing the technical, policy, and investment conditions that enable actions aimed at achieving sustainable agricultural development for food and nutrition security in a changing climate. The purpose of this study was therefore classifying the involvement of men and women in climate smart agricultural practices in Kayonza sub-county, Kanungu district, Uganda. The study was guided by the specific objectives which include investigating the engagement of both men and women in climate-smart practices, establishing different climate-smart practices that are being used and assessing the climate smart agricultural practices adopted in in Kayonza sub-county. The study used descriptive research design utilizing both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analyses methods. Using simple random and purposive sampling techniques, a total of 374 respondents were selected to participate in the study. Questionnaires, key informant interviews, observation methods of data collection were used in this study. It was found out that both men and women were involved in the planting of trees and crops on farms that are typically used for fruit, fodder. Improved cooking stoves, fisheries and aquaculture, pasture management and planting of plant tolerant verities were among the CSA practices. The study recommends that the government should develop a strategy plan for gender quality based on goals that reflect an awareness of the economic and social implications of compromised climate smart agriculture. It was also concluded that both men and women were active in climate-smart farming methods.

Determinants of Awareness Levels of Climate Smart Agricultural Technologies and Practices of Urban Farmers in Kuje, Abuja, Nigeria

Determinants of Awareness Levels of Climate Smart Agricultural Technologies and Practices of Urban Farmers in Kuje, Abuja, Nigeria

Adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices among smallholder farmers in Western Kenya: do socioeconomic, institutional, and biophysical factors matter?

Rigorous efforts should be channeled to the current low adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) in sub-Saharan African countries to improve food production. What determines the adoption level and intensity of CSAPs among smallholder farmers in Kenya? While considering their joint adoption, smallholder farmers' CSAPs adoption determinants were assessed based on a sample size of 300 smallholder farmers in Western Kenya. The CSAPs considered were animal manure, soil water conservation, agroforestry, crop diversification, and crop-livestock integration. A multivariate and ordered probit models were used to assess the determinants of joint adoption of CSAPs in Western Kenya. Both complements and substitutes between CSAPs were established. The multivariate probit analysis revealed that household head's gender, education, age, family size, contact with extension agents, access to weather information, arable land, livestock owned, perceived climate change, infertile soil, and persistent soil erosion influenced CSAPs adoption. The ordered probit model revealed that gender, arable land, livestock owned, soil fertility, and constant soil erosion were crucial determinants of CSAPs adoption. The findings implied that policymakers and relevant stakeholders should consider farmer, institutional, and biophysical factors in upscaling or promoting the adoption of CSAPs.

Uptake of Climate Smart Agriculture in Peri-Urban Areas of South Africa's Economic Hub Requires Up-Scaling

Climate variability and change impact significantly on food security and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers making it necessary for the farmers to prioritize investment in adaptation and mitigation approaches, such as climate smart agriculture, to enhance resilience. Climate smart agriculture approaches have been adopted in many countries around the world to address the adverse impacts of climate change on agricultural production. There is limited information about climate smart agriculture adoption by peri-urban farmers in developing countries. The present study aimed to assess the extent to which agricultural activities by smallholder crop farmers in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng province of South Africa are climate smart, and to establish the sustainable measures to be put in place to enhance the adoption of climate smart agriculture. The study made use of a mixed method design combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. A combination of simple random and non-probability sampling techniques was employed to select the study locations and identify respondents. A sample of thirty-six farmers were selected for the study. The main findings revealed overwhelming awareness of climate change and the impacts thereof on crop productivity and yields. However, the respondents' level of awareness of climate smart agriculture technologies was generally low. Despite the lack of knowledge of climate smart agriculture practices, the farmers were, to an extent, utilizing adaptation mechanisms acquired from indigenous systems or scientific knowledge. Examples of these practices include mulching, cover cropping, crop rotation and use of crop varieties. The study concludes that much more can be done to scale up the uptake of climate smart agriculture in the Gauteng province. The study recommends formal and informal strategies including one-on-one extension programs to raise the awareness of climate smart agriculture technologies appropriate to the unique conditions of the farmers.

Gendered impacts of climate-smart agriculture on household food security and labor migration: insights from Bihar, India

PurposeIncreasing trends of climatic risk pose challenges to the food security and livelihoods of smallholders in vulnerable regions, where farmers often face loss of the entire crop, pushing farmers (mostly men) out of agriculture in destitution, creating a situation of agricultural making agriculture highly feminization and compelling male farmers to out-migrate. Climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) are promoted to cope with climatic risks. This study aims to assess how knowledge related to CSAPs, male out-migration, education and income contribute to the determinants of male out-migration and CSAPs adoption and how they respond to household food security.Design/methodology/approachSex-disaggregated primary data were collected from adopter and non-adopter farm families. STATA 13.1 was used to perform principle component analysis to construct knowledge, yield and income indices.FindingsYield and income index of adopters was higher for men than women. The probability of out-migration reduced by 21% with adoption of CSAPs. An increase in female literacy by 1 unit reduces log of odds to migrate by 0.37. With every unit increase in knowledge index, increase in log-odds of CSAPs adoption was 1.57. Male:female knowledge gap was less among adopters. Non-adopters tended to reduce food consumption when faced with climatic risks significantly, and the probability of migration increased by 50% with a one-unit fall in the nutrition level, thus compelling women to work more in agriculture. Gender-equitable enhancement of CSAP knowledge is, therefore, key to safeguarding sustainable farming systems and improving livelihoods.Social implicationsThe enhancement of gender equitable knowledge on CSAPs is key to safeguard sustainable farming systems and improved livelihoods.Originality/valueThis study is based on the robust data sets of 100 each of male and female from 100 households (n = 200) using well-designed and validated survey instrument. From 10 randomly selected climate-smart villages in Samastipur and Vaishali districts of Bihar, India, together with focus group discussions, the primary data were collected by interviewing both men and women from the same household.

Effect of Climate-Smart Agriculture Practices on Climate Change Adaptation, Greenhouse Gas Mitigation and Economic Efficiency of Rice-Wheat System in India

Conventional rice–wheat (RW) rotation in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) of South Asia is tillage, water, energy, and capital intensive. Coupled with these, crop residue burning contributes significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and environmental pollution. So, to evaluate the GHG mitigation potential of various climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs), an on-farm research trial was conducted during 2014–2017 in Karnal, India. Six management scenarios (portfolios of practices), namely, Sc1—business as usual (BAU)/conventional tillage (CT) without residue, Sc2—CT with residue, Sc3—reduced tillage (RT) with residue + recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF), Sc4—RT/zero tillage (ZT) with residue + RDF, Sc5—ZT with residue + RDF + GreenSeeker + Tensiometer, and Sc6—Sc5 + nutrient-expert tool, were included. The global warming potential (GWP) of the RW system under CSAPs (Sc4, Sc5, and Sc6) and the improved BAU (Sc2 and Sc3) were 33–40% and 4–26% lower than BAU (7653 kg CO2 eq./ha/year), respectively. This reflects that CSAPs have the potential to mitigate GWP by ~387 metric tons (Mt) CO2 eq./year from the 13.5 Mha RW system of South Asia. Lower GWP under CSAPs resulted in 36–44% lower emission intensity (383 kg CO2 eq./Mg/year) compared to BAU (642 kg CO2 eq./Mg/year). Meanwhile, the N-factor productivity and eco-efficiency of the RW system under CSAPs were 32–57% and 70–105% higher than BAU, respectively, which reflects that CSAPs are more economically and environmentally sustainable than BAU. The wheat yield obtained under various CSAPs was 0.62 Mg/ha and 0.84 Mg/ha higher than BAU during normal and bad years (extreme weather events), respectively. Thus, it is evident that CSAPs can cope better with climatic extremes than BAU. Therefore, a portfolio of CSAPs should be promoted in RW belts for more adaptation and climate change mitigation.

“Illegal” Gold Mining Operations in Ghana: Implication for Climate-Smart Agriculture in Northwestern Ghana

Globally, climate-smart agriculture is highly recognized as an approach for sustainable agriculture and food systems. In Africa and other developing countries, climate-smart agriculture is observed to reposition and modify agricultural systems for improved food and nutritional security. Despite the relevance of the approach to sustainable agricultural planning, illegal gold mining in many parts of the society is placing constraints to its implementation and adoption through its contest with agricultural land for space and activities. Illegal gold mining is on the rise due to the lucrativeness of the non-regulated gold rush opportunities with hard consequences on sustainable agriculture and resilience food systems. As a result, this study seeks to investigate illegal gold mining and its environmental implication for climate-smart agriculture in Ghana. The study used a single case study using a mixed-methods approach to research. The study adopted purposive and systematic sampling techniques to select the study communities and respondents, respectively. Questionnaire and interviews were used to gather the primary data from respondents at the household level, as the unit of analysis. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis reveal that known agricultural practices such as terracing, crop rotation, use of domestic waste/manure, and irrigation of crops were affected adversely by activities of illegal mining. The study recommends the need for conscious efforts from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to sustain the ban on illegal mining with intensified monitoring and supervision while a systematic scheme involving relevant stakeholders is developed and implemented to ban illegal mining in Ghana completely. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture needs to develop an approach to support the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices by smallholder farmers to meet the food demand of their households.

ROLES OF SOCIAL NETWORKS IN ADOPTION OF CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES AMONG RURAL FARM HOUSEHOLDS IN SOUTHERN NIGERIA

Social networks are usually based on trust and commitment and are important in the farm households decision-making process on adoption of new innovation. They also served as technical, moral and financial support centres for rural farm households. Climate change presents a great development challenge for the global community in general and particularly for rural farm households in developing countries. Climate-smart agriculture is one strategy aimed to help farmers in the study area adopt more sustainable farming practices. The study looked at adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) and the role of social networks in the process. The objectives of the study were to describe the determinants and barriers affecting farm household adoption of CSAPs in Nigeria; and to explore how social learning and networks contributes to knowledge and decision making during adoption of CSAPs in Nigeria. Primary data were collected on socio-economic and cultural activities among rural farm households, social networks and adopted CSAPs’ used on cultivated parcels using a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using percentages, mean and Multivariate Probit model. The multivariate model of CSAPs’ results showed that determinants and constraints for the adoption of agricultural innovation existed at multiple levels. The study concluded and presented evidence of the value of social networks for the adoption of CSAPs, identified the promising social networks that influenced the adoption process. The study suggests a range of factors, such as access to market information, knowledge, social and language barriers, access to extension services, member of a social group, physical or financial access to inputs, institutional or policy support, that could be restricting farmers from adopting CSAPs.

Adoption intensity of climate smart agricultural practices in arabica coffee production in Bududa District

Uganda is one of the largest producing and exporting countries of coffee in the world and second in Africa, but it continues to experience significant impacts of climate change, including erratic rainfall variability and environmental degradation. This research investigated the determinants of adoption intensity of Climate Smart Agricultural (CSA) practices in Arabica coffee production in Bududa district. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted to collect data from 117 respondents, where face to face questionnaire were used to collect the quantitative data of the study. Descriptive statistics such as frequency count and percentages were used to characterize coffee farmers. Tobit regression model was used to assess determinants of adoption intensity of CSA practices. Results showed that majority of the farmers (67.3%) hardly obtained any credit and majority of them (64.5%) never had access to extension services. Majority of the respondents highly adopted the use of shades (71.7%), CBI (76%), mulching (61.5), organic fertilizer (89%), contour trenches (58.9), cover crops (84.6), and stumping (55.5). Tobit regression analysis revealed that farmer’s level of education, access to extension services and marital status showed a positive and significant (P≤0.01), (P≤0.01), and (P≤0.05) influence on adoption intensity of CSA practices, respectively. Years of farming, access to credit, farm size, and farmer’s age showed a negative relationship with adoption intensity of CSA practices. In conclusion, the government of Uganda should intensify extension of adoption of CSA practices among coffee farmers.

Community-Level Impacts of Climate-Smart Agriculture Interventions on Food Security and Dietary Diversity in Climate-Smart Villages in Myanmar

Diversification of production to strengthen resilience is a key tenet of climate-smart agriculture (CSA), which can help to address the complex vulnerabilities of agriculture-dependent rural communities. In this study, we investigated the relationship between the promotion of different CSA practices across four climate-smart villages (CSVs) in Myanmar. To determine the impact of the CSA practices on livelihoods and health, survey data were collected from agricultural households (n = 527) over three years. Within the time period studied, the results indicate that some the CSA practices and technologies adopted were significantly associated with changes in household dietary diversity scores (HDDS), but, in the short-term, these were not associated with improvements in the households’ food insecurity scores (HFIAS). Based on the survey responses, we examined how pathways of CSA practice adoption tailored to different contexts of Myanmar’s four agroecologies could contribute to the observed changes, including possible resulting trade-offs. We highlight that understanding the impacts of CSA adoption on household food security in CSVs will require longer-term monitoring, as most CSA options are medium- to long-cycle interventions. Our further analysis of knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAPs) amongst the households indicated a poor understanding of the household knowledge, attitudes and practices in relation to nutrition, food choices, food preparation, sanitation and hygiene. Our KAP findings indicate that current nutrition education interventions in the Myanmar CSVs are inadequate and will need further improvement for health and nutrition outcomes from the portfolio of CSA interventions.

Projected changes in East African climate and its impacts on climatic suitability of maize production areas by the mid-twenty-first century.

Maize crop (Zea mays) is one of the staple foods in the East African (EA) region. However, the suitability of its production area is threatened by projected climate change. The Multimodel Ensemble (MME) from eight Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 (CMIP5) models was used in this paper to show climate change between the recent past (1970-2000) and the future (2041-2060), i.e., the mid-twenty-first century. The climatic suitability of maize crop production areas is evaluated based on these climate datasets and the current maize crop presence points using Maximum entropy models (MaxEnt). The MME projection showed a slight increase in precipitation under both RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 in certain places and a reduction in most of southern Tanzania. The temperature projection showed that the minimum temperature would increase by 0.3 to 2.95°C and 0.3 to 3.2°C under RCP4.5 and 8.5, respectively. Moreover, the maximum temperature would increase by 1.0 to 3.0°C and 1.2 to 3.6°C under RCP4.5 and 8.5 respectively. The impacts of these projected changes in climate on maize production areas are the reduction in the suitability of the crop, especially around central and western Tanzania, mid-northern and western Uganda, and parts of western Kenya by 20-40%, and patches of EA will experience a reduction of as high as 40-60%, especially in northern Uganda, and western Kenya. The projected changes in temperature and precipitation present a significant negative change in maize crop suitability. Thus, food security and the efforts towards the elimination of hunger in EA by the mid-twenty-first century will be hampered significantly. We recommend crop diversification to suit the new future environments, modernizing maize farming programs through the adoption of new technologies including irrigation, and climate-smart agricultural practices, etc.

Adoption of complementary climate-smart agricultural technologies: lessons from Lushoto in Tanzania

BackgroundAgriculture is important for economic growth and development in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Tanzania. However, agricultural production and productivity remain relatively low, with significant yield gaps attributed to factors such as limited access to and low adoption of appropriate agricultural technologies, and climate-related risks resulting from climate variability and change. This paper explores the drivers of adoption of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) technologies and practices, taking into account the complementarity among agricultural technologies and heterogeneity of the farm households, using data from Lushoto in Tanzania.MethodsWe use a Multivariate Probit analysis of cross-sectional data collected from 264 smallholder farmers in Lushoto—a climate hotspot in Tanzania—to understand the drivers of household decisions to adopt CSA technologies and practices. The technologies included diversification of multiple stress (drought, floods, pests, diseases)-tolerant crop varieties, use of fertilizers, and application of herbicides and pesticides. The Multivariate Probit model was preferred as it takes into account the inter-relationships of the technologies as well as heterogeneity of the smallholder farmers for more robust estimates. The independent variables used in the analysis included household socio-economic factors such as the relative importance of crop and livestock enterprises, household land size, social capital, access to agricultural credit and weather information, previous experience with fertilizer use and household characteristics (age, education and gender of household head, and household size).ResultsAbout 63% of the households diversified their crop enterprises, shifting to improved resilient crops and crop varieties. Another 37% adopted fertilizers, while 38% applied pesticides and herbicides. Conditional on the unobservable heterogeneity effects, the results show that household adoption decisions on diversification of multiple stress-tolerant crops and crop varieties, fertilizer, and pesticides and herbicides are complementary. In addition, the results confirm existence of unobserved heterogeneity effects leading to varying impact of the explanatory variables on adoption decisions among farmers with similar observable characteristics.ConclusionsThe findings indicate that any effective CSA technology adoption and diffusion strategies and policies should take into account the complementarity of the technologies and heterogeneity of the smallholder farmers. Therefore, inter-related technologies should be promoted as a package or bundled while taking into consideration household and farm-level constraints to adoption.

Exploring the Major Climate-smart Agricultural Practices for Dry Season Crop Production in Salinity Affected Fallow Land in the Coastal Areas of Bangladesh

The landmasses of the coastal areas of Bangladesh still remains under-utilized, thus cropping intensity is much less than the national average. Most areas remain fallow during dry (rabi) season from December to May due to presence of higher concentration of salts in soil and water, and scarcity of suitable irrigation water. Available adaptation options or technologies are not capable to solve these problems at all. Nevertheless, the areas receive a lot of water from monsoon rain, most of that rainwater is drain-out as surface runoff. The present study results suggest that the use of harvested rainwater and conservation agriculture either in combination or alone could mitigate the problem for bringing huge areas under crop cultivation. The public social safety net programmes such as cash-for-work, food-for-work etc. can be deployed for excavating or re-excavating the abandoned coastal ponds, ditches or canals for storing rainwater. Salt-, drought- and/or heat-tolerant crop varieties with short life span can also be cultivated to get the better results. Early plantation or growing crops with early-maturing varieties can ensure safer harvest in ahead of stress arrives. The avenues have immense potential as climate-smart practices for growing crops preferably non-rice crops during dry season in vast fallow land that will not only ensure food security for coastal people but could turn the entire southern Bangladesh as a food surplus zone. The findings refer the broad recommendation, therefore, specific research works based on the locations and resources available are necessary.

Adaptation Implications of Climate-Smart Agriculture in Rural Pakistan

In this paper, we analyze the drivers of the adoption of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices and the impact of their adoption on farm net returns and exposure to risks. We use recent farm-level data from three agroecological zones of Pakistan to estimate a multinomial endogenous switching regression for different CSA practices used to reduce the adverse impact of climate change. These strategies include changing input mix, changing cropping calendar, diversifying seed variety, and soil and water conservation measures. The empirical results show that the adoption of different CSA practices is influenced by average rainfall, previous experience of climate-related shocks, and access to climate change information. The findings further reveal that adoption of CSA practices positively and significantly improves farm net returns and reduces farmers’ exposure to downside risks and crop failure. The results also reveal significant differences in the impacts of CSA practice adoption on farm net returns in different agroecological zones. Thus, policies aimed at achieving sustainability in agricultural production should consider agroecological, specific, climate-smart solutions.

Constraints and Prospects of Improving Cowpea Productivity to Ensure Food, Nutritional Security and Environmental Sustainability.

Providing safe and secure food for an increasing number of people globally is challenging. Coping with such a human population by merely applying the conventional agricultural production system has not proved to be agro-ecologically friendly; nor is it sustainable. Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L) Walp) is a multi-purpose legume. It consists of high-quality protein for human consumption, and it is rich in protein for livestock fodder. It enriches the soil in that it recycles nutrients through the fixation of nitrogen in association with nodulating bacteria. However, the productivity of this multi-functional, indigenous legume that is of great value to African smallholder farmers and the rural populace, and also to urban consumers and entrepreneurs, is limited. Because cowpea is of strategic importance in Africa, there is a need to improve on its productivity. Such endeavors in Africa are wrought with challenges that include drought, salinity, the excessive demand among farmers for synthetic chemicals, the repercussions of climate change, declining soil nutrients, microbial infestations, pest issues, and so forth. Nevertheless, giant strides have already been made and there have already been improvements in adopting sustainable and smart biotechnological approaches that are favorably influencing the production costs of cowpea and its availability. As such, the prospects for a leap in cowpea productivity in Africa and in the enhancement of its genetic gain are good. Potential and viable means for overcoming some of the above-mentioned production constraints would be to focus on the key cowpea producer nations in Africa and to encourage them to embrace biotechnological techniques in an integrated approach to enhance for sustainable productivity. This review highlights the spectrum of constraints that limit the cowpea yield, but looks ahead of the constraints and seeks a way forward to improve cowpea productivity in Africa. More importantly, this review investigates applications and insights concerning mechanisms of action for implementing eco-friendly biotechnological techniques, such as the deployment of bio inoculants, applying climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices, agricultural conservation techniques, and multi-omics smart technology in the spheres of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, for improving cowpea yields and productivity to achieve sustainable agro-ecosystems, and ensuring their stability.

Small Scale Irrigation Farming Adoption as a Climate-Smart Agriculture Practice and Its Impact on Household Income in Ethiopia: A Review

Small Scale Irrigation Farming Adoption as a Climate-Smart Agriculture Practice and Its Impact on Household Income in Ethiopia: A Review

Leveraging social protection to advance climate-smart agriculture: An empirical analysis of the impacts of Malawi’s Social Action Fund (MASAF) on farmers’ adoption decisions and welfare outcomes

This article assesses the interactions between participation in Malawi’s largest public works programme, the Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF), and three widely promoted climate smart agriculture (CSA) practices. Drawing on three waves of national panel household survey data, we find that participation in MASAF significantly increases the probability that farm households adopt the resource intensive CSA practices of building soil water conservation structures and applying organic fertilizers. Moreover, participation in MASAF contributes to a sustained adoption of these practices over multiple agricultural seasons. We empirically demonstrate that the standalone impact of the CSA practices on maize productivity and the value of crops harvested under normal and dry conditions is, in most cases, not significantly different from zero. However, we find a reduction in sensitivity to low precipitation when MASAF participation occurs in the previous agricultural season. Moreover, the joint treatment effect of MASAF participation with sustained adoption of soil water conservation structures substantially increases households’ productivity and welfare. This synergistic benefit is likely driven by the transfer of skills learned during MASAF public works to farmers’ own fields. Results suggest that the CSA agenda can be enhanced by explicitly integrating existing social protection interventions with the promotion of CSA practices.

Constraints for adopting climate-smart agricultural practices among smallholder farmers in Southeast Kenya

CONTEXTClimate uncertainty challenges the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Awareness of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices and access to climate-smart technologies are key factors in determining the utilization of farm and land management practices that may simultaneously decrease greenhouse gas emissions, increase the adaptive capacity of farmers, and improve food security. OBJECTIVEUnderstanding how biophysical and socio-economic constraints affect the adoption of CSA practices and technologies plays an essential role in policy and intervention planning. Our objective was to identify these constraints among smallholder farmers in Taita Taveta County of Southeast Kenya across varying agro-ecological zones. METHODSWe conducted a Climate-Smart Agriculture Rapid Appraisal that consisted of four mostly gender-disaggregated smallholder farmer workshops (102 participants), a household survey (65 participants), key-informant interviews (16 informants), and four transect walks. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSOur results indicate a dissonance in the perceived awareness of CSA practices and utilization of CSA technologies between state actors and farmers. State actors emphasize lack of awareness as a barrier to adoption, while farmers express knowledgeability regarding environmental change and climate-smart practices but are confined by limitations and restrictions posed by e.g. market mechanisms, land tenure issues, and lack of resources. These restrictions include e.g. uncertainty in product prices, lack of land ownership, scarcity of arable land, and simply lack of capital or willingness to invest. Farmers are further challenged by the emergence of new pests and human–wildlife conflicts. Our research findings are based on the contextual settings of Taita Taveta County, but the results indicate that adopting CSA practices and utilizing technologies, especially in sub-Saharan regions that are heavily based on subsistence agriculture with heterogenous agro-ecological zones, require localized and gender-responsive solutions in policy formation and planning of both agricultural extension services and development interventions that take into account the agency of the farmers. SIGNIFICANCEThis study contributes to existing climate change adaptation research by increasing our understanding of how physical and socio-economic constraints can affect the adoption of new farm and land management practices, and how CSA-based intervention strategies could be restructured by local stakeholders to be more inclusive.

Motivations, enablers and barriers to the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices by smallholder farmers: Evidence from the transitional and savannah agroecological zones of Ghana

This paper examined the prioritized climate-smart agricultural practices by smallholder farmers, the motivations of adopting climate-smart agricultural practices, the enablers to the successful adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices, and the barriers to the successful adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices in the transitional and savannah agroecological zones of Ghana. Specifically, we employed ethnographic research using participatory approaches, including two stakeholder workshops and household surveys with 1061 households in the transitional and savannah agroecological zones of Ghana. The weighted average index (WAI) and problem confrontation index (PCI) were used to rank smallholder farmers’ perceived enablers to the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices and the barriers affecting climate-smart agricultural practices, respectively. Results suggest that the majority of the respondents used a suite of climate-smart agricultural practices, including the timely harvesting of produce and storage, emergency seed banking, appropriate and timely weed and pest control, and early planting as practices to build climate resilience. The majority of smallholder farmers primarily employed climate-smart agricultural practices to improve household food security (96.2%), reduce pests and diseases (95.6%), and obtain higher yields and greater farm income (93.2%). Findings also show that secured land tenure system arrangement, understanding the effects of climate change, and access to sustainable agricultural technologies were ranked the first, second, and third most important enablers to the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices with the WAI values of 2.86, 2.75, and 2.70, respectively. Key barriers to the successful adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices included incidences of pests and diseases (PCI = 2530), inadequate access to agricultural credit (PCI = 2502), high cost of improved crop varieties (PCI = 2334), and limited government support with farm inputs (PCI = 2296). Smallholder farmers need to be better supported through the provision of appropriate institutional and policy arrangements together with improved land management extension advice to overcome these barriers and facilitate the more effective implementation of climate-smart agricultural practices in Ghana.