To analyze the global impact of CSV’s on climate resilience, food security, and adaptive capacity, my research process comprised of a systemic literature review. The first step was to develop a search string to be used to create a dataset of primary-data, peer-reviewed journal articles and scientific papers, collected from SCOPUS, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and CGSpace. Due to the relatively recent development of CSV’s, associated literature is both limited in scope and quantity. Furthermore, only literature with primary data, analysis, or findings was included in the dataset. To find all publications fitting this criterion, the search string that was created and applied to the four databases was: (Climate Smart Villages) OR (Climate Resilient Villages). The generic nature of this search string was necessary to encompass all existing literature on the subject, as the literature on CSV is not extensive. This search string was used across four databases: Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus, and CGSpace. Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus are all commonly used databases, while CGSpace is a database specific to CGIAR and CCAFS publications. In total 192 papers were downloaded across the 4 databases as they qualified for inclusion in the review if their title had any mention of CSV’s, CSA, or agriculture and climate change.
From the 192 papers collected across the four databases, 13 papers were identified as duplicates and removed from the dataset. Papers were then screened based on a review of their title and abstract. To qualify as relevant to the paper’s objectives, the title or abstract contained a discussion of Climate Smart Villages in any capacity. Additionally, papers containing a discussion of Climate Smart Agriculture instead of Climate Smart Villages qualified as relevant if their title or abstract included discussion relevant to the objectives of the paper, climate resilience, food security and crop production, and adaptive capacity.
This resulted in identifying and removing 105 papers not meeting the criteria of the initial screening. After removing papers from the first screening 73 papers remained. A second screening was then implemented to isolate papers using primary data in their methodology, results or discussion. The second screening resulted in 41 papers containing primary data, comprising case studies, literature reviews, and scientific papers with published survey and questionnaire results.
The diagram below shows the work flow of the review process.
The set of three figures below was generated from the 41 papers included in the review, breaking down the source, primary focus of research, and location of study, for each paper.
CCAFS publications were the leading source of papers in the dataset, with 34% of all included papers being funded and published by CCAFS. As a leading source of climate and agricultural research and funding, CCAFS is well represented in the dataset. The remaining papers in the dataset are divided relatively evenly among other sources. Scientific journals is the second leading source of publications, representing 19.5% of the dataset. Agricultural journals and climate journals are the third most prevalent source of publications with 14.6% of the dataset coming from each source. The least represented sources of publications within the dataset are university publications and research institutes, representing a combined 17% of publications. The relatively even distribution of papers across the six sources provides a balance in perspective, scope, and location of publications included in the review.
Asia is the most represented region for CSV research, with 41 % of papers published from either South Asia or Southeast Asia. Compared to the other CSV regions, Asia in the largest region in both land area and population, making it the leading region for published CSV research (Adesipo et al., 2020). Africa is the second highest region for published CSV research with 34% of the total dataset split evenly between East and West Africa. Africa is a high priority of CCAFS implementation and research as a large land mass susceptible to extreme climate impacts (Jagustović et al., 2019). Latin America has significantly fewer CSV publications compared to Asia and Africa, with 14% of total papers included in the dataset being Latin American based. Finally, global studies are included in dataset as the smallest representative study area in the dataset with 9% of papers meeting this criterion.
Climate resilience or adaptive capacity, and crop production or food security, are the most prominent areas of research, representing 44% of the papers included in the dataset. Both of these areas of studies are comprised of many different CSV strategies and primary goals for CCAFS implementation (CCAFS, 2021). This makes them the most represented research topics within the dataset, as determining the success of these efforts is important for scaling and policy creation. Implementation of CSV’s, CSV impact on farmer livelihoods, and scaling or policy creation, are the next biggest focuses of CSV research included in the dataset. These research topics combined account for 31% of the dataset. Evaluation and monitoring of CSVs, climate information services, gender equality, and resource conservation are the least researched topics within the dataset, comprising a combined 24% of study focus areas. While these topics are least common primary focus of research in this review they are included in several papers as a secondary focus for research.
Review Process
Review of publications included in the dataset was conducted by first reviewing each papers abstract. This was done during the initial screening process and then again when the dataset was finalized. Publications were then categorized based on the focus of research, location area, and source of publication, as mentioned above. Papers were then reviewed in their entirety starting with the most researched topic to the least researched topic. The range in which findings were published in the papers of the dataset eliminated the possibility of statistical analysis. Using qualitative methods of review, findings from each area of focus were collated and used to address the objectives of this paper, CSV impacts on climate resilience, food security, and adaptive capacity.