Agricultural innovation and adaptation to climate change: empirical evidence from diverse agro-ecologies in South Asia

Abstract

While impacts of climate change on agricultural systems have been widely researched, there is still limited understanding of what agricultural practices evolves over time in response to both climatic and non-climatic drivers and how actors mobilize their resources, institutions and practices in South Asia.Through eight case studies and a survey of300 households in 15 locations in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, this paper generates empirical evidence on emerging agricultural interventions in contrasting socio-economic, geographical and agro-ecological contexts. The study shows that several farm practices emerge out in response to multiple drivers over time; some of them can be further adjusted to the challenge of climate change by planned adaptation programs. Most actors, however, have considered private risks in the short run. Although there has been some progress in streamlining climate change into strategic planning in different countries of South Asia, policy, research and extension systems lack adequate attention to wider resilience of the system. Based on this analysis, we recommend that adaptation policies should complement farmers' responses to climate change through informed research and extension systems and pro-poor government policies that improve adaptation and coordinate activities of different actors.

Does Household Capital Mediate the Uptake of Agricultural Land, Crop, and Livestock Adaptations? Evidence From the Indo-Gangetic Plains (India)

“…Crop, land-management, and livestock adaptations are key undertakings popular in the IGP region of India (Ojha et al, 2014;Khatri-Chhetri et al, 2016;Bhatta et al, 2017). In our sites, households adapt to a wide range of climatic and non-climatic stressors and opportunities.…”

“…There are some important limitations of our approach we wish to address. We are using the number of adaptation strategies engaged in as an indicator of flexibility, choice, and response diversity (Bhatta et al, 2017). We assume more adaptations or innovations is a positive characteristic, even though we understand that some individual interventions or particular combinations thereof may eventually not result in climatesmart strategies in certain contexts.…”

“…In this sense, adaptability or adaptive capacity refers to the capacity of a household to "prepare for stresses and changes in advance or adjust and respond to the effects caused by the stresses" (Engle, 2011, p. 647;Smit and Wandel, 2006;Agard et al, 2014). Some examples of agricultural adaptation strategies in the IGP include the adoption of land and water management strategies (e.g., improved drainage, irrigation, and altered planting dates), conservation agriculture practices, and climate-tolerant and diseases resistant varieties (Ojha et al, 2014;Bhatta and Aggarwal, 2015;Khatri-Chhetri et al, 2016;Bhatta et al, 2017;but cf. Bastakoti et al, 2017).…”

“…Bastakoti et al, 2017). Few studies have, however, extensively examined who is adapting and the reasons why certain households may not be able to invest in, or avail agricultural services and technologies in this breadbasket region (but see Ojha et al, 2014;Sugden et al, 2014;Bhatta et al, 2017).…”

Developing adaptive capacity in times of climate change in central rural Vietnam: exploring smallholders’ learning and governance

“…This leads to the more general question of why, although climate change adaptation concerns were pervasive and interventions were developed to address climate change impacts, the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers remains limited. The research findings suggest that in addition to investing in smallholder farmer-orientated learning it is necessary to also invest in policy capacity to increase the ability of governments to Agricultural adaptation to climate change emerges both at micro and macrolevels (Bhatta et al, 2017;Christoplos et al, 2017). The insights of chapters 3 & 5 reveal differences in the barriers perceived by farmers and government to increase adaptive capacity and create a generative social learning environment.…”