How are education, capacity-building, and skills training programs enabling vulnerable populations to adopt climate-smart agricultural practices or other sustainable livelihood strategies?
Short answer
Key finding
This study directly responds to the sub-question by illuminating how programs in education, capacity building, and skills training are foundational in helping susceptible populations embrace climate-smart agriculture practices and strategies for sustainable livelihoods. A systematic review reveals that combined access to education and capacity-building with cooperative structures improves the ability of small holder farmers to be adaptive to changing climate conditions in terms of exchanging knowledge and securing resources. More specifically, agroecology, agroforestry, and cooperative models are recognized as being effective climate-smart practices that increase agricultural productivity, environmental sustainability, and economic outcomes. Moreover, this study underlines the fact that adaptation efforts are only viable when interventions become context-specific and culturally relevant for effective effectiveness. In this context, education and capacity-building programs are important so that vulnerable groups may be facilitated in developing such skills and acquiring such knowledge through which they will enhance their climate change resilience capabilitiesEducation, capacity-building, and skills training programs are essential in enabling vulnerable populations to adopt climate-smart agricultural practices and other sustainable livelihood strategies, thereby enhancing resilience and adaptive capacity.
Short summary
A systematic review of 94 studies indicates that adaptation to climate change in agriculture through agroecology, agroforestry, and cooperatives is beneficial for smallholder farmers. Access to education, capacity-building programs, and community cooperation have been the most significant factors for such positive outcomes. Such interventions boost adaptive capacity through soil improvement, diversified income generation, and the building of resilience in ecosystems. The review suggests that fair decision-making and relevance to local needs or cultural practices would make the adaptation strategies more practical.
Long answer
Long summary
What is this summary about?
This is the summary of various climate change adaptation effectiveness, especially through agriculture-agroecology and agroforestry in cooperative models, for example. How education and capacity-building go along with cooperation structures to promote small-scale farmers' responses to and capacities for climate action and thus resilience.
What evidence is this summary based on?
This summary is based on one systematic review:
Owen, G. (2020). What makes climate change adaptation effective? A systematic review of the literature. Global Environmental Change, 62, 102071.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378019312026
What are the main findings?
This summary addresses the sub-question about how education, capacity-building, and skills training programs help vulnerable populations adapt to climate-smart agricultural practices or other sustainable livelihood strategies. The systematic review sheds light on education, capacity-building programs, and cooperative structures supporting smallholder farmers to enhance their adaptive capacity to climate change. It highlights how these interventions not only increase agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability but also resilience through knowledge sharing and community cooperation. Such programs help the vulnerable groups to adopt sustainable practices that make them more capable of coping with climate challenges by being attuned to the local contexts and cultural practices.
This implies that agroecology, agroforestry, and cooperatives are very effective climate-smart agricultural practices that improve the resilience of smallholder farmers significantly. These approaches will be beneficial for climate change since they increase productivity in agriculture and promote environmental sustainability and improve the economic outcome for farmers.
Agroecology and agroforestry have their root base in the principles of ecology: maintain biodiversity, conserve resources, and develop a farm system with the help of nature rather than against it. For example, diversified cropping systems and crop rotation promote soil conservation practices that strengthen the soil rather than causing it to erode. Similar to this, agroforestry is integrating trees into agricultural landscapes that benefit in numerous ways, such as improved soil fertility, increased water retention, and increased biodiversity, while giving the farmer an added source of income through selling tree products, including timber, fruits, and nuts. These practices are critical in making farming systems more resilient to climate change by reducing their dependency on chemical inputs, improving resilience to extreme weather events, and increasing overall productivity in the long term.
The role of cooperatives is also pivotal in enabling farmers to adopt climate-smart practices. Cooperatives assist farmers in attaining collective action by providing farmers with access to resources, like seeds, tools, and financial services, which are beyond individual farmers' access. More fundamentally, cooperatives act as channels for education and training, thereby equipping the farmers with the new skills or ideas that one can share among peers. Therefore, by the pooling of knowledge and resources, farmers can effectively overcome challenges while improving their adaptive capacity to risks associated with climate change.
The review insists that only region-specific, region-sensitive strategies could be effective in meeting regional needs and respecting regional culture practices and local environment conditions. A one-size-fits-all approach does not suffice, for the challenges and opportunities brought by climate change vary significantly across different geographical and socio-economic contexts. A smallholder farmer in a coastal area will have a very different set of adaptation needs than a farmer in an arid region, for instance. Thus, strategies need to be designed with deep understanding of local context- the cultural practices, indigenous knowledge, and the environmental conditions. It also ensures that efforts at adaptation are relevant, feasible, and sustainable in the long term.
Finally, the study calls for the need to develop localized metrics for evaluating the success of adaptation practices. These metrics need to be created in consultation with local communities; they need to reflect their values, realities, and priorities. Standardized international metrics may inadequately encapsulate the varieties in local conditions and the dynamics under which such adaptations are to be implemented locally. Localized measurements offer a good account of adaptational practices regarding whether they deliver efficacy, include processes, as they are by nature community-centric and responsive enough to the demands and needs among a variety of different farming population communities.
Review summaries
What makes climate change adaptation effective? A systematic review of the literature
Review
Geography
Year
Citation
Number of included studies
Review type
Critical appraisal of included studies
Assessment review
1. Key finding
Overall
This review looks at the adaptation practice of climate change focusing on agroecology, agroforestry, and cooperative organizations.
2. Short summary
The review sheds light on the way that cooperative organizations will improve the social and economic results by aggregating resources and sharing knowledge to enhance their adaptive capacity. The importance of justice and equity for adaptation is the central point: diverse representation, fair benefits distribution, and empowerment during decision-making. It identifies gaps in adaptation practices particularly related to equity and the systemic factors that contribute to vulnerability.
3. Long summary
3.1 PICOS
Population: Smallholder farmers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the communities associated with cooperative organizations, agroecology, and agroforestry.
Intervention: This review concerns adaptation strategies on climate change, namely agroecology, agroforestry, and cooperative organizations. Practices associated with these include resource sharing, collective action, and sustainable farming techniques.
Outcome: The following outcomes were assessed: social; economic; and environmental benefits, as well as improvements in adaptive capacity, increased resource access, improved income diversity, and better soils.
Study design: A systematic review of 94 articles including qualitative and quantitative data.
3.2 Risk of bias Not assessed
3.3 Publication bias Not mentioned
3.4 Findings
This article reviews the effectiveness of various climate change adaptation practices, specifically focusing on agroecology, agroforestry techniques, and the development of cooperative organizations. Research shows that these practices often lead to positive outcomes across multiple indicator categories, including social, economic, and environmental factors. For example, in Uganda and Kenya, farmer cooperatives improved adaptive capacity by enhancing collective action, resource access, and knowledge sharing among members. These cooperatives helped farmers by pooling resources for seeds and fertilizers and providing labor-sharing during intensive seasons.
The review also explores the role of agroecological and agroforestry techniques, which have been effective in improving soil quality, reducing pest outbreaks, and diversifying income sources. A case study in the Philippines highlighted how rubber-based agroforestry systems led to increased latex yields and more resilient ecosystems.
In terms of justice and equity, the article identifies the importance of fair distribution of benefits, equitable decision-making, and inclusive representation in adaptation processes. While the review shows that many cases address equity, it points out the lack of comprehensive evidence in adaptation literature, with only about 12% of studies providing detailed information on justice or equity aspects. The article calls for greater attention to addressing power imbalances and ensuring that adaptation strategies are inclusive of all affected groups.
The article concludes that while adaptation efforts are underway, there are gaps in addressing root causes of vulnerabilities and ensuring that adaptation practices are just and equitable. It stresses that the effectiveness of these practices should be measured in context, considering local needs, cultures, and conditions. The review calls for flexible, context-specific metrics to assess adaptation effectiveness and to ensure that justice and equity are central to these processes.
3.5 Sensitivity analysis Not assessed
4. AMSTAR 2 assessment of the review
| 1. | Did the the review state clearly the components of PICOS (or appropriate equivalent)? | Yes | |
| 2. | Did the report of the review contain an explicit statement that the review methods were established prior to the conduct of the review and did the report justify any significant deviations from the protocol? (i.e. was there a protocol) | Yes | |
| 3. | Did the review authors use a comprehensive literature search strategy? | Yes | |
| 4. | Did the review authors perform study selection in duplicate? | Yes | |
| 5. | Did the review authors perform data extraction in duplicate? | Yes | |
| 6. | Did the review authors provide a list of excluded studies and justify the exclusions? | Yes | |
| 7. | Did the review authors describe the included studies in adequate detail? (Yes if table of included studies, partially if other descriptive overview) | Yes | |
| 8. | Did the review authors use a satisfactory technique for assessing the risk of bias (RoB) in individual studies that were included in the review? | No | |
| 9. | Did the review authors report on the sources of funding for the studies included in the review? | Yes | |
| 10. | If meta-analysis was performed did the review authors use appropriate methods for statistical combination of results? | No | |
| 11. | Did the review authors provide a satisfactory explanation for, and discussion of, any heterogeneity observed in the results of the review? | No | |
| 12. | If they performed quantitative synthesis did the review authors carry out an adequate investigation of publication bias (small study bias) and discuss its likely impact on the results of the review? | No | |
| 13. | Did the review authors report any potential sources of conflict of interest, including any funding they received for conducting the review? | Yes | |
| Overall (lowest rating on any critical item) | High |
5. Count of references to the following words
| Sex | 0 |
| Gender | 1 |
| Women | 1 |
| Intra-household | 0 |