In a recent study published by a global team of researchers, including Rajiv Ghimire and Meha Jain from the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability, the primary obstacles to the widespread adoption of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in South Asia have been identified. Despite the potential for CSA to enhance food security, its practices and technologies remain largely underutilized in the region. The study offers insights into these barriers and proposes strategies to address them.
"We hope that this study helps policymakers and practitioners in the region promote climate-smart agricultural technologies and practices", Ghimire said. "CSA practices will contribute to increased food productivity and food security for millions of smallholder farmers facing the brunt of climate change and other socioeconomic changes".
A collaboration of over 20 researchers from various parts of the globe worked together for over a year to synthesize their findings, aiming to comprehend the hurdles and potentials of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in South Asia. CSA techniques not only facilitate farmers in adapting to climate variations but also contribute to soil, water, and energy conservation. Furthermore, numerous practices and technologies within CSA have demonstrated their capacity to boost yields.
The study, which appeared in the January 2024 issue of Nature Climate Change, highlighted weak organizational capabilities, insufficient targeted incentives, and limited post-adoption monitoring as the primary obstacles to the adoption of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in South Asia.
The strategies proposed by the study to promote the adoption of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in South Asia encompass various approaches. These include disseminating information through peer networks among farmers, improving the managerial capabilities of custom hiring centers, implementing targeted subsidies and crop insurance schemes, investing in extension services, offering incentives to the private sector, ensuring equitable distribution of CSA information, and conducting assessments after adoption.
"These strategies we developed in the study are particularly suited for densely populated areas such as South Asia where arable agricultural areas are scarce", Ghimire said. "We should also understand that things might differ in different parts of the world. Even within South Asia, there are differences in policies, practices, incentive structure and overall sociocultural and biophysical characteristics. The four countries (India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh) we have focused on have different agricultural priorities and in some cases, there could be subnational-level initiatives".
