The Role and Perspective of Climate Smart Agriculture in Africa: A Scientific Review

Victor O. Abegunde and Ajuruchukwu Obi
Additional contact information
Victor O. Abegunde: Department of Agriculture, University of Zululand, KwaDlangezwa 3886, South Africa
Ajuruchukwu Obi: Department of Agricultural Economics & Extension, University of Fort Hare, Alice 5700, South Africa

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-15

Abstract: Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is gaining a wide acceptance as a laudable approach that can assist farmers to maximize the potential of the farming systems in Africa. A number of practices have been identified as CSA practices, and successful outcomes of CSA technologies are being reported. However, CSA uptake among African farmers remains low despite its proven potential. The aim of this paper is to analyse the state of CSA in Africa and identify the constraints to the uptake of the practices among smallholder farmers. This paper synthesizes a subset of literature between 2010 and 2020. The key findings are that the response to climate change and the pattern and extent of adoption of CSAs differs from one macro-area to another. Factors such as resource constraints, institutional instruments, climate and ecological settings, and farmers’ characteristics, such as farmers’ experience and access to extension services, are significant determinants of CSA adoption. Socioeconomic constraints, poor availability of data and mastery of CSA approach, inadequate labour, and the wide diversity of the farming systems in Africa are challenges militating CSA uptake in the system This paper argues that it is crucial to ensure that limited resources available are systematically harnessed to achieve the triple-win benefits of CSA. Furthermore, there is the need to identify and prioritize locally suitable CSA practices and provide an enabling environment needed for CSA uptake and sustenance in the African farming systems.

Keywords: Africa; challenges; climate change; climate-smart agriculture; factors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/2317/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/2317/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:4:p:2317-:d:752214

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().