Farm-Level Adaptation to Climatic Variability and Change: Crop Diversification in the Canadian Prairies

Abstract

Among other foci, recent research on adaptation to climatic variability and change has sought to evaluate the merit of adaptation generally, as well as the suitability of particular adaptations. Additionally, there is a need to better understand the likely uptake of adaptations. For example, diversification is one adaptation that has been identified as a potential farm-level response to climatic variability and change, but its adoption by farmers for this reason is not well understood. This paper serves two purposes. The first is to document the adoption of crop diversification in Canadian prairie agriculture for the period 1994-2002, reflect upon its strengths and limitations for managing a variety of risks, including climatic ones, and gauge its likely adoption by producers in response to anticipated climate change. The second purpose is to draw on this case to refine our current understanding of climate change adaptation more generally. Based upon data from over 15 000 operations, it was determined that individual farms have become more specialized in their cropping patterns since 1994, and this trend is unlikely to change in the immediate future, notwithstanding anticipated climate change and the known risk-reducing benefits of crop diversification. More broadly, the analysis suggests that 'suitable' and even 'possible' climate change adaptations need to be more rigorously assessed in order to understand their wider strengths and limitations.

Rural Farmers’ Perception of Climate Change in Central Agricultural Zone of Delta State, Nigeria

“…Likewise, applying soil conservation practice as adaptation method to climate change is associated with lower expense and ease of farmers' access to the required inputs. Most of these adaptation measures indicated by farmers in central agricultural zone of Delta State, Nigeria are in consonance with the findings of Bradshaw et al (2004), Maddison (2006), Nhemachena and Hassan (2007), Hassan and Nhemachena (2008), Kurukulariya and Mendelsohn (2008), Deressa et al (2009) in their various studies. The farmers generally gave many reasons for the failure to adapt to climate change, namely lack of information, lack of money, inadequate labor supply, inadequate land and poor potential for irrigation (Table 6).…”

Traditional agriculture: a climate-smart approach for sustainable food production

“…Farmers with extensive knowledge about climate change and its impacts are better adjusted (Adger et al 2003;Kemausuor et al 2011;Akerlof et al 2013;Tripathi and Singh 2013;Menapace et al 2015;Tesfahunegn et al 2016;Li et al 2017). Shifting planting and harvesting dates, crop diversification, integrated crop-livestock farming, cropping drought-resistant varieties and high yielding water sensitive crops are some of the sustainable approaches to climate change adaptation (Bradshaw et al 2004;Moniruzzaman 2015). It has been observed that when compared to monoculture, polyculture systems exhibit a greater yield stability and less productivity decline during drought (Altieri and Nicholls 2008).…”

Scenarios of long-term farm structural change for application in climate change impact assessment

“…In many regions in the world one can observe effects of the changes in climatic conditions or climate variability on crop productivity, farmers' income and land use (Olesen and Bindi 2002;Bradshaw et al 2004;Berry et al 2006;Reidsma et al 2009;Bindi and Olesen 2011). Also for the future of agriculture in a temperate zone such as The Netherlands the potential importance of climate change cannot be ignored, especially regarding effects of weather extremes (Bresser 2005;van Dorland et al 2008;Peltonen-Sainio et al 2010;Schaap et al 2011).…”