Climate-smart Village Research Articles

Assessing determinants of scaling up pathways for adopted CSA Climate Smart Agricultural practices: Evidence from Climate Smart Villages in Nyando Basin, Kenya

Assessing determinants of scaling up pathways for adopted CSA Climate Smart Agricultural practices: Evidence from Climate Smart Villages in Nyando Basin, Kenya

Distributional impact of climate-smart villages on access to savings and credit and adoption of improved climate-smart agricultural practices in the Nyando Basin, Kenya

Adoption of improved livestock breeds requires, as with other climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices, upfront investments, which might be a significant barrier for smallholders. For this reason, the climate-smart village (CSV) approach not only includes CSA interventions, but also interventions to improve access to savings and credit among smallholders by means of a community-based approach. In this paper we study smallholders in CSVs in Kenya who were encouraged, among others, to adopt improved livestock breeds for crossbreeding with indigenous breeds to improve their resilience to climate change and variability. The farmers were also encouraged to become part of savings and credit groups to improve smallholder access to finance. The objective of this paper is thus to determine the (distributional) impact of CSVs on access to savings and credit and the adoption of improved CSA practices. Due to the as good as random selection of CSVs, we are able to estimate the treatment effects on the treated for the smallholders who decided to participate in the CSA intervention by means of a linear probability model. The analysis is based on a balanced panel of 118 farm households interviewed in 2017, 2019, and 2020. The main findings of this study are that the CSV intervention increased the adoption of improved livestock breeds. It also stimulated the membership of savings and credit groups which in turn stimulated the adoption of improved livestock breeds. These findings point to the importance of community-based savings and loan initiatives to mobilize finance among farmers enabling them to invest in CSA practices. Also, the introduction of improved breeds in CSVs has benefited especially the larger livestock owners. However, the availability of credit is found to have mitigated the concentration of improved livestock ownership since the diffusion of improved livestock in CSVs was somewhat more equitable than the (spontaneous) spill-over diffusion in the non-CSVs (reducing the Gini by 0.04).

Analysis of Climate Change Effects on Agriculture in Bhutan

The effects of climate change on agriculture are particularly noticeable due to the worldwide phenomenon of global warming. Similarly, Bhutan is also experiencing the repercussions of climate change on its agricultural sector and the livelihoods of its people. Although some researchers conducted research on climate change vulnerability on agriculture in Bhutan based on their research area and problem definition, climate change effects on paddy, maize, chilli, and cardamom in five districts (Dagana, Monger, Pemagatshel, Zhemgang, and Trongsa) have been least explored and limited. Therefore, this paper, conducted in five districts of Bhutan, analyses the trends of paddy, maize, chilli, and cardamom and the vulnerability of this variable under extreme weather. Apart from this, the effects of climate change were analyzed by comparing trends of temperature and precipitation (1901–2021). The study employed a non-probability sampling technique to conduct research and used ARIMA model to find the trends of temperature and precipitation. The results showed that there is a negative relationship as well as a positive relationship between climate change and agriculture production in the study area. Further, the study area is under threat of extreme weather, especially drought, flash flooding, windstorms, and hailstones. Additionally, results revealed that, in next decade, there is a threat of climate change, which results in a more rapid decline in paddy and maize production in all five districts. Climate adaptation policies such as climate smart agriculture (CSA) and climate smart villages (CSV) must be promoted in villages to reduce the long-term vulnerability of agriculture to climate change.

Constraints Faced by Paddy Farmers in Adoption of Climate Smart Agricultural Practices: A Comparative Study

The study was conducted in 2023 to identify the major constraints faced by paddy farmers in the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices in the eastern climactic zone of Haryana. The data was collected with a structured interview schedule from two groups of villages namely climate-smart and non-climate-smart villages randomly selected 120 respondents from four blocks of Karnal and Kaithal districts. The constraints were divided into three categories i.e., economic constraints, socio-personal constraints, and technological constraints. The analysis revealed that technical constraints such as lack of awareness about climate-smart agricultural practices, lack of training, and complexity of climate-smart practices were the major barriers to the adoption of climate smart agricultural practices among the farmers of non-climate smart villages whereas, economic constraints such as increased cost of paddy production, higher initial investments in inputs and lower paddy yields were the most serious constraints faced by farmers in climate smart villages. Furthermore, it was observed that, while there was not much difference in socio-personal and economic constraints faced by both groups of respondents, however, respondents from non-climate smart villages faced a significantly higher degree of technical constraints as compared to the respondents from climate smart villages.

The significance of stakeholder engagement towards building sustainable climate smart villages in Mwenezi District

Building sustainable climate smart villages is a strategy that enhances communities’ capacities to counter shocks and stressors. The study sought to assess the significance of stakeholder engagement towards creation of sustainable climate smart villages in Mwenezi District wards. A mixed method research design was adopted triangulating qualitative and quantitative approaches. The qualitative approach depended on key informant interviews, focus group discussions and field observations. Key informants for interviews were selected using purposive sampling technique. A 10% sampling frame was used to calculate questionnaire respondents from a total of 1307 and this translated to 130 people. Systematic random sampling was used to distribute questionnaires. Quantitative approach depended on closed ended questions and use of statistical packages such as SPSS version 25.0 for data analysis. The research findings revealed that building resilience and creation of sustainable climate smart villages requires a multi-stakeholder approach to share ideas and responsibilities. Many organisations are operating in Mwenezi District wards implementing more resilient interventions. The AGRITEX department led the crop production sector, Department of Veterinary services led the livestock production sector, and PLAN international led the sanitation and hygiene projects and ensuring strengthening of community safety nets.

Agricultural impacts of climate change in India and potential adaptations

Abstract The research and development efforts coupled with suitable policies over decades have resulted in India becoming self-reliant in food grain production. However, the rising incidence of extreme weather events due to climate change and climatic variability over the last few decades could impact the food security of the country. The impact of these events could result in increased frequency of dry spells and floods; multiple stresses in a given season; emergence of new pests/biovars; soil health deterioration; reduced animal and poultry productivity; changes in fish species diversity; and disrupted market services. Efforts at the regional/agro-ecology level to minimize the adverse impacts through adaptation strategies have shown positive results. These efforts included a demonstration of selected technologies, enhancing awareness about impacts to the stakeholders, and operationalization of agricultural contingency plans. New investments and research-extension-policy networks over the last decade by the government of India have shown impressive results with a possibility of developing ‘Climate smart village clusters’. To ensure resilience coupled with sustainable profitability, thrust should be laid to investing on infrastructure for advanced research, packaging of farming system/agro-ecology-specific adaptation strategies, state-of-the-art knowledge management systems, skill development programs and enabling policy framework.

Training impact analysis of farmers knowledge and adoption behavior on climate smart village

Training impact analysis of farmers knowledge and adoption behavior on climate smart village

Assessing differential gains that outstanding and average performing farmers attain from climate-smart cassava innovations in Nyando climate-smart villages, Kenya

In adoption of agricultural innovations, a few farmers attain outstanding outcomes above their peer majority. This reveals a positive deviance behavior in successful deployment of technologies and innovations. Assessing this behavior in climate-smart agriculture (CSA) can reveal the yield gap in triple wins of CSA (adaptation, farm productivity and mitigation). This study investigated differential gains in these CSA triple wins between outstanding (positive deviants) and average (typical) performing farmers who have adopted climate smart cassava innovations in Nyando Climate Smart Villages (CSV). In a household survey, a sample of 150 farmers were reached, which through snowballing approach, peers identified 30 to exhibit positive deviant behaviour. Presenting these in Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with stakeholders further isolated six farmers being those they consider positive deviants (PDs) in climate smart cassava innovations. Data were subjected to cross-tabulation to generate frequencies used to compute weighted index scores. This revealed increasing magnitude and was a preferred fair comparison of a sample of fewer positive deviants (n=6) with large number of typical (n=144) farmers. Results revealed substantial differences in the attained triple win gains from climate smart cassava innovations between typical and positive deviant farmers. The weighted index scores showed that positive deviant farmers had attained higher adaptability, production diversification, farm productivity and intensification, food security and were implementing more mitigation practices for climate change. This empirical evidence demonstrates potential gains from climate smart cassava innovations when deployed effectively. This is because innovative management practices distinguish positive deviant farmers from typical farmers. These typical farmers would benefit more by learning from positive deviant farmers about effective deployment of climate smart cassava innovations. The study recommends strengthening extension services linked to farmer platforms in order to grow capacity for more effective deployment of climate smart cassava innovations for realising the CSA triple wins. Key words: Adaptability, food security, productivity, production diversification, positive deviants, cassava innovation

Climate Based Smart Agriculture: Need for Food Security and Sustainability

A variety of climate-smart agriculture technologies, practices, and services have been introduced in climate-smart villages as adaptation strategies to cope with climate risks and ensure stability and sustainability in agricultural production. Farmers who utilize climate-smart agriculture adaptation strategies have been shown to achieve higher output, yield, and return compared to those who do not. There are promising opportunities to scale out these strategies and immense potential to enhance crop yields and farm incomes while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
 Strengthening agricultural extension services and agricultural finance by linking climate finance to traditional agricultural finance could play a significant role in scaling out climate-smart agriculture practices and technologies. This would make agriculture more sustainable and climate-resilient, thereby becoming a viable source of livelihood and food security for millions of farmers in the country. Zero budget natural farming is a climate-resilient farming system that can enhance food and nutritional security while allowing farmers to improve soil fertility and yields at lower costs, risks, and irrigation requirements. This system protects the ecosystem by improving soil organic matter, water retention, and biodiversity, while reducing air and water pollution as well as greenhouse gas emissions.

Gender empowerment and parity in East Africa: evidence from climate-smart agriculture in Ethiopia and Kenya

ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to understand the role of climate-smart villages (CSVs) in promoting gender empowerment and equality in East Africa. This paper uses data collected from 280 and 305 randomly selected farm household heads in Doyogena (Ethiopia) and Nyando (Kenya), respectively. To analyse the data, the gender empowerment index for climate resilient agriculture (GEI-CRA) and the gender parity index (GPI) were constructed based on guidelines from the literature. In both Doyogena and Nyando, households in CSVs scored higher GEI. Comparing men and women in the CSVs, women were found to be more empowered compared to men and comparing between the two sites, household heads in Doyogena were more empowered than those in Nyando. Regarding gender parity index (GPI), in both sites, majority of the women in the empowered households in CSVs were either at equal status with men or even at higher status than men. These findings shed light on the potential of CSVs in enhancing gender empowerment and promoting gender equality. The positive contribution of CSVs may guide policymakers to scale up these practices with a better-targeted approach that recognize and adequately address the implementation of CSA practices so that men and women can equally benefit.

Climate-smart agriculture: Greenhouse gas mitigation in climate-smart villages of Ghana

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an approach that helps guide actions to transform agri-food systems towards green and climate-resilient practices and it remains prominent in food systems transformation in the light of increasing climate change impacts. Unfortunately, the quantification of the greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation potential of CSA approaches is currently limited. Using the Cool Farm Tool (CFT), this paper quantifies the GHG mitigation of CSA based on farm-level experimental data. Individual interviews and focus group discussions were also conducted to identify farmers’ choices and willingness to adopt CSA practices. The study compared the GHG emission mitigation of CSA practices for two scenarios (baseline and mitigation). The study found that organic fertilizer input, residue incorporation, no-inorganic fertilizer and no-pesticide input reduced GHG emission intensity of sorghum (to 93.2 ± 25 kg CO2e GHG kg− 1 sorghum), rice (79.2 ± 22 kg CO2e GHG kg− 1 rice) and groundnut (69.7 ± 20 kg CO2e GHG kg− 1 groundnut) compared to the baseline. Lower GHG emission intensity was achieved with higher crop yield under CSA interventions. The study recommends that CSA promoters such as the Consultative Group for International Agriculture Research (CGIAR), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Bank focus on crop-specific CSA practices for higher GHG mitigation. CSA promoters such as the CGIAR, FAO and the World Bank should embrace participatory processes such as farmer schools to increase CSA uptake.

Does the climate-smart village extension model enhance farmer empowerment?

Climate smart villages (CSVs) are new and promising approaches to tackle the negative repercussions of climate change and to tackle the food insecurity that affects close to one billion people globally. CSVs are envisaged to result into empowerment of participating farmers; however, given the novelty of this concept in different geographical spheres, limited literature exists. This review paper therefore conducted a systematic analysis of some previous studies around this concept and assessed their contribution to understanding empowerment of farmers regarding intrinsic, instrumental, and collective agency. From the results, these studies assessed empowerment majorly in-line with the female gender; some focused on both. Results lacked focus on empowerment in the intrinsic, instrumental, or collective agency realms, though possibility of using proxy concepts can’t be dismissed. However, at the heart of any agricultural extension model, a clearly outlined gender-inclusive farmer empowerment pathway should be a fundamental cornerstone for sustainability.

Climate-Smart Villages in Southeast Asia: The Pivotal Role of Seed Systems in Rice-Based Landscapes

Given the aggravating nature of climate change impacts, rice farming will increasingly rely on improved resilience to climate variability and extremes. To this end, the climate-smart village (CSV) approach was developed to address specific challenges of smallholder farmers. Within Southeast Asia, the CSV approach has so far been applied in Myanmar, Lao PDR, Cambodia, as well as in Vietnam and the Philippines where national programs have taken it up and established multiple CSVs. Despite distinct climatic conditions, all these CSVs have rice-based landscapes as a common denominator. This article focuses on the improvement of rice seed systems as the core of introducing climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in these villages. The experience of a CSV in Lao PDR clearly shows community-based seed (CBS) systems as a viable CSV component. Moreover, the efficiency of CBS systems is enhanced when applied in combination with the following supporting climate-smart interventions: (1) training in improved crop and pest management through farmers’ field schools, (2) awareness raising through photo exhibits and seed fairs, (3) participatory variety selection, and (4) climate risk mapping as a means for targeted distribution of improved rice varieties. The study also explored direct market access for CSV products by advertising both the generic aspects of climate-smart adaptation strategies and the location-specific stories of smallholder farmers. To this end, the emerging online retail economy could offer viable avenues for highlighting specific aspects of food production in CSVs to different groups of consumers (e.g., the “buy local” preference in the domestic market and climate change concerns in the international market).

Exploring climate change trends in major river basins and its impact on the riverine ecology, fish catch and fisheries of the Peninsular region of India: Issues and a brief overview

Abstract Riverine fisheries will have a knock-on effect due to the changes in water flow and increased irrigation in the agriculture sector to cope with the climate change impact. The present study showed a very high perception existing in the fishing community about climate change observed in the last 10 years. About 95% of fishermen understand temperature and sea levels are changing, whereas 91% responded that rainfall is changing and salinity also is increasing and 86% think extreme rainfall is affecting productivity. Moreover, though the monsoon period is shorter than the non-monsoon period, about 62.3% of the total fish catch in River Cauvery takes place during the monsoon. The variations in climate can enormously impact the inland fisheries, especially the riverine resources, their productivity and sustainability. With this view, it was attempted to: (i) investigate the changing climate trends in the major river basins of the Peninsular region of India over the decades, (ii) key drivers and its implication on the fish catch, biodiversity, inland fisheries, (iii) analyse the perception of the fishermen and (iv) suggest appropriate strategies like the development of climate-smart villages and waterbodies for livelihood and sustainable utilization of the invaluable biological resources.

Institutional Innovations for Climate Smart Agriculture: Assessment of Climate-Smart Village Approach in Nepal

Institutions have a crucial role in communicating climate science into meaningful forms and to develop context specific adaptation options. Led by multiple institutions, Climate Smart Village (CSV) in Nepal is an organized approach to designing location specific package of interventions in response to climatic and other ongoing changes in the agricultural system. While addressing the impending risk of climate change and promoting food security objectives in smallholder settings, the CSV approach aims to increase the adoption of Climate Smart Agricultural (CSA) technologies at the local levels. One of the challenges, however, has been to sustain and scale the CSA technologies and practices. Based on the in-depth review of policy documents, field observations, and interviews with stakeholders involved in the implementation of pilot programs, this study evaluates the institutional framework of the CSV approach in the Gandaki region, Nepal. Our analysis proposes a revised conceptual model of innovation in the agricultural system that contributes to an increase in knowledge, attitude, and skills of multiple stakeholders for agricultural adaptation and the scaling of appropriate options. Our case demonstrates that while the scaling of the CSV approach is a concern, the institutional innovation around CSV has been instrumental in making farmers aware of CSA technologies. This has been done largely through collaboration among public, private, civil society organizations, and communities. This collaborative effort illustrates the possibilities for scaling the CSV approaches in the future and highlights their contribution to climate and development goals.

Soil Nutrient Contents in East African Climate-Smart Villages: Effects of Climate-Smart Agriculture Interventions

Short-term and plot-level trials mostly produce data on the advantages of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices on food security in a changing climate. Previous studies evaluated only one or a combination of a few CSA practices that improved soil nutrients, particularly in the landscapes of East Africa; hence, it is difficult to draw general conclusions. In this study, we evaluated the effect of CSA practices portfolio on soil macronutrient (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) and micronutrient (manganese and zinc) levels in climate-smart villages (CSVs) in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania over a six-year period across different land uses such as agroforestry, cropland, grassland, forest, and control (without CSA practices). A total of 432 soil samples were collected at depths of 0–15, 15–45, and 45–100 cm, and analyzed for macro- and micronutrients. CSA practices increased total nitrogen (TN), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) regardless of land use type or soil depth. TN, P, and K were mainly stored in surface soil (0–15 cm), accounting for 50.8–52.5%, 47.0–79.5%, and 34.2–65.5% respectively. Concentrations of Mn and Zn were 1.5–3.6 and 5.1–15.6 times greater under CSA than those under the control, respectively, at all soil depths. Results suggest that CSA practices implemented using the landscape approach contributed to improved soil fertility, which is critical in developing more sustainable and resilient production systems among smallholder farmers.

Measuring Soil Quality Indicators under Different Climate-Smart Land Uses across East African Climate-Smart Villages

The present study assessed soil physical-chemical characteristics as reliable soil health indicators in six climate-smart land use types; agroforestry, community forest, cropland with soil and water conservation (SWC), crop land without SWC, grassland and control across climate-smart villages (CSVs) in Lushoto (Tanzania), Hoima (Uganda), Wote and Nyando (Kenya). Soils were sampled at three depths; 0–15 cm, 15–45 cm and 45–100 cm and then analyzed for bulk density (BD), pH, exchangeable bases (Ca, Mg, K, Na), extractable Fe, Mn, Zn, exchangeable acidity (ExAc), Electrical conductivity (EC), total carbon (TC), total nitrogen (TN) and cation exchange capacity (CEC). Land use types and sampling depths significantly affected soil properties (p < 0.05), High bulk density (BD) was measured at 45–100 cm depth in grassland (1.47 g/cm3) and crop land (1.50 g/cm3) in Kenya and Tanzania, respectively. BD in Ugandan grasslands was statistically lower (p < 0.05) than BD in other land use types at all depths. Soil pH of surface soil (0–15 cm) ranged from 6.67 ± 0.67 (agroforestry) to 6.27 ± 0.85 (grassland). Ex. bases (Ca, Mg, K and Na) and extractable Fe, Mn, Zn, ExAc, EC, TC, TN and CEC were significantly affected by land uses (p ≤ 0.05). Soil properties were significantly correlated, a positive correlation between silt % (p < 0.01) and pH, sand and Ca (p < 0.05). EC and pH, exchangeable Ca, exchangeable bases, exchangeable K and C: N ratio was observed. There was a negative correlation (p < 0.05) between pH and clay. The study has shown that improving soil properties using land use systems leads to an increase in soil nutrients.

The mitigating role of climate smart villages to the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic in the Myanmar rural communities

Climate smart village approach is identified as an important strategy laid out in the Myanmar Climate Smart Agriculture Strategy (MCSAS, 2016) Four climate smart villages were established in 2017 to facilitate participatory action research to develop the CSV approach as well as to generate evidence of outcomes. The CSV approach is based on the principle of community-directed research process where community-members collaborate with an external researcher to investigate community challenges and their solutions. Like other countries in 2020, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Myanmar implemented wide-scale national and local restrictions on mobility that impacted trade and business resulting to an economic slowdown. Rural communities dominated by smallholder agriculture in Myanmar are not spared from the negative impacts of these restrictions. This paper seeks to assess the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic to the 4 climate smart villages in Myanmar by analyzing household survey data (N = 527) collected in 2020 during the height of economic disruptions and comparing these data to the household survey conducted during the pre-pandemic period of 2018. Our analysis indicated that overall, the effect of the pandemic to agriculture production in 2020 production season in the 4 CSVs has been minimal as evidenced by the continued agriculture production at the same levels as the pre-pandemic conditions in 2018. The effects to household food security and diet diversity has been varied. Sakta village in Chin state in the highlands have demonstrated that diversified production systems enable them to achieve food security in the pandemic year of 2020.

Conceptualizing and Validating a Framework of Climate Smart Village in Flood Affected Ecosystem of West Bengal

Climate change is the major issue affecting the survival of human kind in the present day scenario. Farmers are the most vulnerable communities to these changes. Many climate smart technologies were devised and tried to promote through traditional extension system. But their adoption rate is very poor doe to multiple socio-economic and technological factors. Therefore focus extension approach were thought of and concept of climate smart village was introduced to promote climate smart technologies. But the past efforts on establishing climate smart villages were revolved around only on technological dimension ignoring socio-economic dimension of climate change. Hence, the present study conceptualizes the climate smart village integrating technological as well as social factors. The concept has been experimented during 2016-2021 at field level in the village Singimari, Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal in convergence mode with other related stakeholders line Krishi vigyan Kendra (KVK), state agricultural department, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), NGOs and farming communities. The findings revealed that adoption level of climate smart technologies and practices has increased significantly after establishment of climate smart village. Therefore, more number of climate smart villages should be established specially in vulnerable ecosystem for better adaptation to climate change.

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.