Climate change impacts and adaptation among smallholder farmers in Central America

Abstract

Background: Smallholder farmers are one of the most vulnerable groups to climate change, yet efforts to support farmer adaptation are hindered by the lack of information on how they are experiencing and responding to climate change. More information is needed on how different types of smallholder farmers vary in their perceptions and responses to climate change, and how to tailor adaptation programs to different smallholder farmer contexts. We surveyed 860 smallholder coffee and basic grain (maize/bean) farmers across six Central American landscapes to understand farmer perceptions of climate change and the impacts they are experiencing, how they are changing their agricultural systems in response to climate change, and their adaptation needs.Results: Almost all (95%) of the surveyed smallholder farmers have observed climate change, and most are already experiencing impacts of rising temperatures, unpredictable rainfall and extreme weather events on crop yields, pest and disease incidence, income generation and, in some cases, food security. For example, 87% of maize farmers and 66% of coffee farmers reported negative impacts of climate change on crop production, and 32% of all smallholder farmers reported food insecurity following extreme weather events. Of the farmers perceiving changes in climate, 46% indicated that they had changed their farming practices in response to climate change, with the most common adaptation measure being the planting of trees. There was significant heterogeneity among farmers in the severity of climate change impacts, their responses to these impacts, and their adaptation needs. This heterogeneity likely reflects the wide diversity of socioeconomic and biophysical contexts across smallholder farms and landscapes. Conclusions:Our study demonstrates that climate change is already having significant adverse impacts on smallholder coffee and basic grain farmers across the Central American region. There is an urgent need for governments, donors and practitioners to ramp up efforts to help smallholder farmers cope with existing climate impacts and build resiliency to future changes. Our results also highlight the importance of tailoring of climate adaptation policies and programs to the diverse socioeconomic conditions, biophysical contexts, and climatic stresses that smallholder farmers face.

Geographic Information and Communication Technologies for Supporting Smallholder Agriculture and Climate Resilience

“…Addressing these shortcomings is important for supporting smallholders to overcome global risks of extreme weather events, natural disasters, and failures of climate change mitigation and adaptation [98]. Our analysis has identified key recommendations that will serve as a valuable guide for the success of future AGI developments whereby knowledge gaps and implementation challenges should be addressed, particularly to align with the geographically varying needs of smallholder farmers (e.g., [99,100]. Use of AGI initiatives could greatly aid smallholders to move towards climate-smart agriculture [101] for sustainably increasing productivity [44], improving environmental livelihood security [102], and enhancing landscape resilience under a changing climate [103].…”

Multiscale trends and precipitation extremes in the Central American Midsummer Drought

“…Highly variable precipitation is among the many challenges faced by the millions of families who rely directly on smallholder farming in Central America (PRESANCA-FAO 2011, Van der Zee Arias et al 2012) and is linked to both food insecurity and migration (Lobell et al 2008, Nawrotzki et al 2016. Recently, smallholder farmers have reported changes in the distribution and intensity of rainfall across Central America, resulting in crop losses and reductions in yields for those already contending with pervasive social and economic inequalities (Eakin et al 2014, Pons et al 2016, Hellin et al 2017, de Sousa et al 2018, Harvey et al 2018, Rice 2018, Bellante 2019. Farmers in the western highlands of Guatemala and the Chiapas lowlands of Mexico have specifically reported that the Central American Midsummer Drought (MSD) (Magaña et al 1999) is becoming more prolonged, increasingly variable, and harder to predict (Hellin et al 2017, Bellante 2019.…”

RESPOSTAS MORFOLÓGICAS E FISIOLÓGICAS DE PLANTAS DE Coffea arabica L. EM CONDIÇÃO DE CAMPO EM MOCOCA

“…A maioria desses estudos concentrou-se nas principais commodities, como café, milho, arroz, batata, trigo, cana-de-açúcar e soja. Poucos estudos se concentraram na produção de frutas, que é uma importante fonte de renda dos agricultores familiares e pequenos produtores no mundo, e onde esses impactos podem ser particularmente graves devido à alta vulnerabilidade desses agricultores (Donatti et al, 2018;Holland et al al., 2017;Harvey et al, 2018) Os pequenos agricultores (ou agricultores familiares) desempenham um papel importante no sistema agrícola e na segurança alimentar mundial (FAO, 2014).…”