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An evidence-based systematic review on farmers’ adaptation strategies in India

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Abstract

Over the years, several studies have noted adaptation measures undertaken by farmers in India to mitigate potential crop loss, however, there is limited studies with reference to systematically review these papers. The mapping of these measures is imperative as it furnishes evidence for opted adaptation options and states. Further, it assists to design state-specific policies to achieve goals of sustainable and climate-smart agriculture, and maintain food security. This study aims to do it by limiting India as the boundary of analysis. Adopting a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses method, a total of 44 studies were identified. Our major findings are: (i) evidence is found for eighteen states, and these studies, either individually or in sum, represent negligible percentage of state’s total number of villages and households, and hence, findings may not stand for the whole state; (ii) a major focus so far has been given to farm management and technology; (iii) state-wise mapping indicates scanty of papers among options, and thus, we urge for studies with representative sample, either for state or nation, and also map several adaptation mechanisms rather than concentrating around farm-management and technology; and (iv) the widely studied options are water management (55%), crop-diversification (52%), crop choice (50%), diversification of livelihood and income (43%), altering agricultural practices/systems (36%), and changing crop-calendar and land holiday (34%). Such type of assessment supplies state-specific maps on studied adaptation mechanisms, and in doing so, it renders future direction in the field of adaptation research, and hence, we advocate to carry out systematic reviews for other vulnerable sectors to climate change in India and elsewhere.

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Notes

  1. An empirical analysis is based on 1700 published papers.

  2. In doing so, we could have missed important grey literature (reports of World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research institutes, Indian Council of Agricultural Research Institutes, etc.). Moreover, there is a high likelihood that these reports could have been resulted into a journal paper and would have been captured during our search. Whatsoever, we can’t completely overcome this bias.

  3. https://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/CMS/Default.aspx?alias=eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/er4&; accessed on May 24, 2019.

  4. The information was collected from ‘Google Scholar’ as on August 1, 2020.

  5. There was a bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 into Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. While a few of the recent studies have focused on Telangana, in order to avoid ambiguity, we have considered it as part of united Andhra Pradesh.

  6. This may not be the completed picture of total number of villages and households as a few studies have not reported these information, e.g., Kumar et al. (2011), Lele et al. (2018), Tripathi and Mishra (2017a, b). The findings of few studies are based on FGDs and stakeholder consultation, and these papers have not reported total number respondents included in the FGDs. Apart from household survey, two papers did plot experiment, e.g., Rao et al. (2017), and Robert et al. (2018).

  7. This study reviews 17 papers that include information from Africa, the America, Europe and Asia, and finds 104 adaptation practices adopted by the farmers, and then classified these options into five mutually exclusive categories (Below et al. 2010, p.5); hence, we have adopted the similar classification in this study given the dearth of similar kind of research in the context of India.

  8. It refers to changing practices at the farm- and crop-level.

  9. It includes diversifying income both on farm and beyond the farm such as migration (Below et al. 2010)

  10. Undertaking responses at the farm-level through agricultural income (individual and government supported) (Below et al. 2010)

  11. https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/methods-of-soil-conservation.php; accessed on May 29, 2019.

  12. http://www.iasri.res.in/ebook/TEFCPI_sampling/WEATHER%20FORECASTING%20AND%20AGROMET %20ADVISORY%20SERVICES%20IN%20INDIA.pdf; accessed on May 29, 2019.

  13. See https://pmfby.gov.in/pdf/New%20Schemes-english_.pdf; accessed on October 20, 2018

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Acknowledgements

This paper is based on a research grant received from the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, India (G-3/2017-18/ICSSR/RP). The usual disclaimers apply.

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  1. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati, Yerpedu, Andhra Pradesh, 517619, India

    Chandra Sekhar Bahinipati & Vijay Kumar

  2. Department of Management, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kochi, 682041, India

    P. K. Viswanathan

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  1. Chandra Sekhar Bahinipati
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Appendix

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Fig. 9
figure 9

Number of studied villages across Indian states

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Fig. 10
figure 10

Number of surveyed households across Indian states

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Fig. 11
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State-wise adaptation measures focused by studies

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Bahinipati, C.S., Kumar, V. & Viswanathan, P.K. An evidence-based systematic review on farmers’ adaptation strategies in India. Food Sec. 13, 399–418 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-020-01139-3

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