Adaptive strategies enhance smallholders’ livelihood resilience in Bihar, India

Abstract

This study empirically assesses if and to what extent adaptive strategies contribute to smallholders' livelihood resilience in Bihar, India. The sustainable rural livelihoods framework has been implemented to understand how household livelihood systems may interact with the outside context. This poses significant empirical and methodological challenges, since studies of the interconnections between livelihood resources, livelihood strategies and livelihood outcomes from a quantitative point of view are still limited. The results extend the theoretical understanding of the relationships identified by the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods framework, and also provide empirical evidence about how livelihood resources, livelihood strategies and livelihood outcomes (food security in particular) are strictly interconnected. The study highlights that while the adaptive strategies implementation is influenced by the livelihood resources of rural households, it significantly influences the food security status of the smallholders in Bihar. On the basis of the above, the current study emphasizes the importance of targeted interventions to improve specific forms of households' livelihood resources which are prominent determinants of adoption of strategies that leads to the maintenance of resilience by environmentally dependent households in the developing world.

Climate risks and adaptation strategies of farmers in East Africa and South Asia

“…In all countries we found a differential effect of gender in climate change adaptation, corroborating findings of other studies in EA 33 , 35 , 48 – 50 and SA 41 , 51 – 53 . Female-headed households (FHHs) in both regions are more likely to pursue reduced consumption, as an adaptation strategy to climate change risks, and generally do not seek alternative employment.…”

Smallholder Farmer Engagement in Citizen Science for Varietal Diversification Enhances Adaptive Capacity and Productivity in Bihar, India

“…Secondly, Bihar is one of the most climate-sensitive states in India. Rainfall fluctuates greatly from one season to another; it is also densely populated, with high levels of poverty and 90% of its rural dwellers are directly employed in agriculture (Tesfaye et al, 2017;Pagnani et al, 2021) with land holding sizes of <2.5 acres. 2 The implementation of this initiative in Bihar provides a source of exogenous change to the institutional context, which allows the social scientist a better perspective for an empirical identification of the link between the different domains of the SRL framework.…”

Considering Ecosystem Services in Food System Resilience

“…The literature on food systems resilience has generally concentrated on the responses of food systems to climate change [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]; natural hazards [ 11 , 12 ]; socioeconomic crises, e.g., due to the COVID-19 pandemic [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]; and implications for interventions to build resilience [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. There is a growing number of studies on food system resilience in rural and marginalized communities and neglected territories that focus on the role of natural resources [ 23 , 24 , 25 ].…”