Smallholder Farmer Adoption of Climate-Related Adaptation Strategies: The Importance of Vulnerability Context, Livelihood Assets, and Climate Perceptions

Shinbrot, Xoco A.; Jones, Kelly W.; Rivera-Castañeda, Andrómeda; López-Báez, Walter; Ojima, Dennis S.

doi:10.1007/s00267-019-01152-z

Cited by 50 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 55 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Socio-economic characteristics of farmers associate differently with participation. Consistent with previous research (Shinbrot, Jones, Rivera-Castañeda, López-Báez, & Ojima, 2019), educational level of the respondents was not a good predictor. Farming practice, farm size and economic considerations, including current income from farming, strongly influenced willingness to participate.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Factors that influence participation of Puerto Rican coffee farmers in conservation programs

Gladkikh

Collazo

Torres-Abreu

et al. 2020

Conservat Sci and Prac

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sustainable, conservation‐oriented agricultural practices like shade coffee and agroforestry can enhance conservation objectives in tropical landscapes. Adoption of these practices, however, is influenced by numerous factors. We conducted a survey of 89 coffee farmers in Puerto Rico to understand their farming practices, experience with existing incentives, and willingness to participate in conservation programs. Quantitative analysis showed that current farming practices, farm size, and annual income from farming were associated with willingness to participate in conservation programs. Qualitative results suggested that financial considerations, conflicting state and federal incentives, lack of information about conservation programs, distrust in government, and land use restrictions might hinder participation. Some farmers perceived that sun farming—a practice incompatible with sustainable conservation—was required to be eligible for state agricultural incentives. The way some farmers practiced shade farming differed from the way suggested for conservation purposes, particularly in the type of shade trees and their cover density. Farmers highlighted the need for financial incentives to encourage adoption of shade farming. They also expressed concerns that participation in conservation programs could limit their land management autonomy. We suggest that availability of financial incentives, reconciliation of institutional barriers, increased outreach, and involvement of farmers in design of conservation programs can increase adoption and retention of conservation practices.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Factors that influence participation of Puerto Rican coffee farmers in conservation programs

Gladkikh

Collazo

Torres-Abreu

et al. 2020

Conservat Sci and Prac

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It should not be confused with perceived self-capacity, which refers to people's beliefs around their own capabilities to undergo a change or carry out an action [9][10][11]. In the case of farmers, the adoption of new adaptation practices, technologies, and strategies, as well as the access to institutional resources and networks of support, are important for strengthening adaptive capacity [12][13][14][15][16]. Research in the Caribbean and Central America-areas exposed to Atlantic hurricanes-have shown that farms and farmers' characteristics, such as farm size, levels of education and income, and production styles, as well as their access to diverse markets, and sources of support, are important in reducing vulnerability to natural hazards [12,[17][18][19][20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While climate change adaptation requires external resources (extrinsic), individual determinants (intrinsic) also allow better understanding of adaptive capacity [5,6,14]. Studies have found that individuals' perceived capacity, perceived vulnerability, motivation to adapt, and other social and cognitive variables are key in understanding adaptation behaviors [9,13,25,26]. The ways farmers perceived their capacity to adopt new adaptation behaviors, and the risks they are exposed to have been shown to drive the adoption of new agricultural practices and pro-environmental behaviors [13,26,[28][29][30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Awareness of climate change's impacts and motivation to adapt are not enough to drive action: A look of Puerto Rican farmers after Hurricane Maria

Rodríguez-Cruz

Niles

2021

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding how perceptions around motivation, capacity, and climate change’s impacts relate to the adoption of adaptation practices in light of experiences with extreme weather events is important in assessing farmers’ adaptive capacity. However, very little of this work has occurred in islands, which may have different vulnerabilities and capacities for adaptation. Data of surveyed farmers throughout Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria (n = 405, 87% response rate) were used in a structural equation model to explore the extent to which their adoption of agricultural practices and management strategies was driven by perceptions of motivation, vulnerability, and capacity as a function of their psychological distance of climate change. Our results show that half of farmers did not adopt any practice or strategy, even though the majority perceived themselves capable and motivated to adapt to climate change, and understood their farms to be vulnerable to future extreme events. Furthermore, adoption was neither linked to these adaptation perceptions, nor to their psychological distance of climate change, which we found to be both near and far. Puerto Rican farmers’ showed a broad awareness of climate change’s impacts both locally and globally in different dimensions (temporal, spatial, and social), and climate distance was not linked to reported damages from Hurricane Maria or to previous extreme weather events. These results suggest that we may be reaching a tipping point for extreme events as a driver for climate belief and action, especially in places where there is a high level of climate change awareness and continued experience of compounded impacts. Further, high perceived capacity and motivation are not linked to actual adaptation behaviors, suggesting that broadening adaptation analyses beyond individual perceptions and capacities as drivers of climate adaptation may give us a better understanding of the determinants to strengthen farmers’ adaptive capacity.

show abstract

“…Farmers across the globe are at the forefront of climate change-related impacts, and are thus important actors in safeguarding our food systems [1,2] . Natural hazards, such as hurricanes and droughts, have made farming more difficult due to an increased frequency, and, in many cases, negatively affected farmers' livelihoods [3,4]. This is notably true of those who farm in the tropics, especially farmers in island states and territories, who are more vulnerable to the impacts of natural hazards given islands' unique characteristics, such as small territories and economies, dependence on imports, and disproportionate exposure to sea-level rise and extreme weather events [5][6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the case of farmers, the adoption of new adaptation technologies and practices, as well as the access to institutional resources and networks of support, are important for strengthening adaptive capacity [3,4,[20][21][22]. Research in the Caribbean and Central America-areas exposed to Atlantic hurricanes-have shown that farm and farmers' characteristics, as well as their access to diverse markets and sources of support are important in reducing vulnerability to natural hazards [3,[23][24][25][26].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Puerto Rican Farmers' Psychological Awareness of Climate Change, and Adaptation Perceptions after Hurricane Maria

Rodríguez-Cruz¹,

Niles²

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Strengthening farmers’ adaptive capacity is important for decreasing their vulnerability to natural hazards in this changing climate, and for safeguarding local food systems. One key step in strengthening adaptive capacity is understanding the relationship between farmers’ experience with natural hazards and their perceptions of climate change, and its role in farmers’ decision making around climate change adaptation. Here we explore Puerto Rican farmers’ psychological distance of climate change after experiencing category 4 Hurricane Maria, in order to intersect the roles of experience, perceptions, and motivation for farmers’ decision-making around climate change adaptation. Farmers throughout Puerto Rico were surveyed by Extension Services’ agents (n = 405, 87% response rate) in 2018, eight months after Hurricane Maria. A structural equation model was used to evaluate how reported experience with past events and direct damages by Hurricane Maria related to farmers’ psychological distance of climate change, and the association of these variables to farmers’ motivation to adapt to climate change. We found that farmers psychological distance of climate change is both near and far, since they show a broad awareness to climate change’s impacts both locally and globally in different dimensions (temporal, geographical, and social). Reported experience and direct damages by the hurricane were not linked to their psychological distance of climate change, and these did not relate to their motivation to adapt. These results suggest that using extreme events as a driver for climate belief and action may no longer be relevant, especially in a context where there is a high level of climate change belief and continued threat of extreme events. Thus, broadening analysis beyond individual perceptions as drivers of climate adaptation to how structural dynamics are linked to adaptive capacity could provide better understanding. This study is among the first to study the role of climate change experience and perceptions on farmers’ climate change adaption after an extreme weather event in an island-archipelago setting.

show abstract

Smallholder Farmer Adoption of Climate-Related Adaptation Strategies: The Importance of Vulnerability Context, Livelihood Assets, and Climate Perceptions

Cited by 50 publications

References 55 publications

Factors that influence participation of Puerto Rican coffee farmers in conservation programs

Factors that influence participation of Puerto Rican coffee farmers in conservation programs

Awareness of climate change's impacts and motivation to adapt are not enough to drive action: A look of Puerto Rican farmers after Hurricane Maria

Puerto Rican Farmers' Psychological Awareness of Climate Change, and Adaptation Perceptions after Hurricane Maria

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About