What Drives Climate Change Adaptation Practices in Smallholder Farmers? Evidence from Potato Farmers in Indonesia

The potato is the third most consumed crop globally after rice and wheat, but climate change has often disrupted its production. Therefore, adaptation practices are needed to maintain potato productivity. This study investigates the determinants of on- and off-farm climate change adaptation practices among smallholder farmers in Indonesia, considering adaptation intensity, which has not discussed in previous literature. The cross-sectional data were collected from 302 smallholder potato farmers in East Java, Indonesia, analyzed by a multivariate probit model to estimate the determinants. An ordered probit model was subsequently employed to understand the intensity factors. The findings indicated that the significant factors that affect farmers’ choice of on-farm adaptations were the farmers’ education, their participation in farmers’ groups, agricultural-related infrastructure, and agriculture output prices. Meanwhile, the off-farm adaptations were significantly affected by the farmers’ education, employed family members, agriculture-related infrastructure, and livestock ownership. The ordered probit model also suggested that participation in farmers groups and agricultural-related infrastructure were the most significant factors that encouraged adaptation. Therefore, adaptation planning should consider these factors to optimally improve farmers’ adaptation capacity.

The Art of Letting Go: Transforming Participatory Research on Adaptation Practices Among Local Livestock-Keepers in East Africa in Times of Covid-19

Participatory action research (PAR) puts high emphasis on the interaction of the research participants. However, with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, the central role of researchers in participatory research processes had to be questioned and revisited. New modes of PAR developed dynamically under the new circumstances created by the pandemic. To better understand how Covid-19 changed the way PAR is applied, we analyzed PAR in agricultural research for development carried out in the Programme for Climate-Smart Livestock Systems (PCSL) implemented by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) at five research sites in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Uganda. To understand how PAR changed in a component on adaptation research in the PCSL we facilitated a reflexive study with livestock keepers and researchers to document their experiences of PAR during the Covid-19 pandemic. The analytical framework focuses on highlighting the core characteristics and the underlying ethos of PAR in this case study. The lessons learnt in the process of adapting to the realities of doing participatory research in the middle of a pandemic provide important arguments for further amalgamating the PAR philosophy into similar research designs. The onset of the pandemic has led to a further decentering of the researcher and a shift of the focus to the citizen, in this case the local livestock keeper, that made it more participatory in the stricter interpretation of the term. Letting go of controlling both narrative and implementation of the research will be challenging for researchers in many research fields. However, this shift of power and this transformation of research methodologies is inevitable if the research should remain relevant and impactful. Ultimately, the transition into a Covid-19 future and the awareness that similar pandemics could dramatically interrupt our lives any time, will have an impact on how projects are designed and funded. More long-term funding and less pressure on providing immediate results can build community trust and ownership for research at a local level.

A Review on Adaptation Practices of Affected People with Riverine Floods in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a riverine country. Every year flood devastated Bangladesh. Therefore, response and adaptation strategies of flood affected people are important for planning future mitigation action. Present study focuses to review on adaptation practices of affected people with riverine floods in Bangladesh to reduce vulnerability of awaited flood. Consequently, they adopt several adaptation techniques by their life long experience. The major adaptation practiced of the people are raise homesteads using ‘dig-elevate-dwell’ principle of settlement, cultivate flood tolerant paddy (e.g. bona aman), cultivate vegetables in floating bed, tube well have been placed on an elevated base or raised with an additional pipe, and cementing the base of tube well. People also use their indigenous knowledge to cure diseases during flood. Hence, holy basil, and basak (Adhatoda Vasica) are used to treat colds and fevers. On the contrary, durba grass, gando badal (Gaultheria Fragrantissima), garden mint, and Indian pennywort are used for diarrhea and dysentery. Basically, people’s indigenous adaptation techniques have helped them to reduce damages of property and lives as well. Therefore, various types of adaptation should incorporate at the local level plan and implement by the concerned authority.

Factors affecting multiple climate change adaptation practices of smallholder farmers in lower Eastern Kenya

The study investigated the socioeconomic and institutional factors influencing uptake of multiple climate change adaptation practices among smallholder farmers in lower Eastern Kenya. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 384 small-scale farmers. Percentage and regression were used in the analysis. Among the socio-economic factors, gender positively and significantly influenced adoption of conservation agriculture and water harvesting at 5%, respectively. Among the institutional factors, distance to markets positively or negatively influenced uptake of all the technologies at 1% and 5%, respectively. Due to complementarity in adoption of all the seven adaptation practices, age and distance to nearest markets should be considered during technology dissemination. The study, therefore, calls for agricultural policy reforms that aim at designing incentive programmes which adequately address most of the socioeconomic and institutional issues related to uptake of adaptation practices as well as encouraging off-farm diversification.

Practices and Strategies for Adaptation to Climate Variability in Family Farming. An Analysis of Cases of Rural Communities in the Andes Mountains of Colombia and Chile

Climate variability imposes greater challenges on family farming and especially on rural communities in vulnerable mountainous regions such as the Andes in Latin America. Changes in rainfall patterns and fluctuations in temperatures cause a greater frequency of extreme events, increased pests, and crop diseases, which even lead to food insecurity in communities that depend on self-production for survival. This is why strategies need to be developed to face this new scenario. Two cases of adaptation experiences to the effects of climate variability in rural communities in Chile (Araucanía Region) and Colombia (Cauca Department) were analyzed on this paper. For this, a mixed methodological approach was adopted that included the analysis of climate data, socioeconomic, and productive characterization of the communities, and a characterization of adaptation practices for both cases. The results show various ways of adapting mainly to changes in the availability and access of water for the development of agriculture and for domestic use. Likewise, it is shown that in order to be successful, the measures for facing climate variability must be part of coordinated strategies under a community-based adaptation approach and not developed in isolation.

Growing hope: Island agriculture and refusing catastrophe in climate change adaptation in Fiji

In both media and policy, climate change is broadly framed as the promise of catastrophe for small island states such as Fiji. This framing is often used to attract adaptation investment in islands, the targets and directives of which are frequently market-based and oriented toward economic-growth development models. In Fiji, this takes the form of land tenure policy and efforts to attract investment to support agricultural modernization. Such a pattern is the source of scholarly and activist critique that climate change adaptation is nothing more than a repackaging of neoliberal development. This paper seeks to situate such critique alongside parallel attention to climate change adaptation practices emerging from alternative, hopeful frames and aimed at less national development driven efforts. In doing so, it centers adaptation as a space of unsettled struggle and asks, in what ways do climate change adaptation practices in Fiji align and conflict with dominant framing of island vulnerability and climate catastrophe, and how might they suggest alternative adaptive interventions that renegotiate these frames? Specifically, this paper focuses on efforts to promote ‘traditional’ agriculture throughout Fiji as an endogenous and hopeful form of adaptation, and one consistently opposed to efforts at agricultural modernization as an adaptation strategy.

A Systematic Review on Adaptation Practices in Aquaculture towards Climate Change Impacts

The impact of climate change is one of the many challenges faced by aquaculture communities nowadays. Only a limited number of articles have attempted to systematically review available literature in this field, which has led to the current study, aiming to develop a systematic review related to the practice of adapting to climate change among aquaculture communities. This systematic review was guided by the PRISMA Statement (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) in its systematic searching strategy on Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, resulting in the selection of 20 related studies. All selected articles were assessed using the Mixed Method Appraisal Tool (MMAT). Employing thematic analysis, five main themes resulted, namely Governmental (five subthemes), Community (three subthemes), Facilities (five subthemes), Temperature (two subthemes) and Financial (three subthemes), along with 18 subthemes. Based on the pattern of previous studies, the review presented several recommendations for scholars, agencies, and communities to consider in future.