Papers included in the literature review indicate that Climate Smart Villages have a positive impact on increasing climate resilience, food security, and adaptive capacity. However, quantifying this overall impact is challenging as many of the studies evaluate two or fewer CSV adaptation strategies, in a single location or region, limiting the conclusions that can be drawn about CSV’s on a global scale. Furthermore, isolating the impact of a single CSV practice or strategy is challenging as most strategies are implemented with a number of complementary strategies. For this reason, the scope, focus, and style of reporting of the papers used in the literature review vary greatly. The findings from the analysis of these papers are presented in the following subsections, presenting conclusions from the literature on individual CSV strategies and goals.
Impact of CSV’s on Climate Resilience
Improving community’s climate resilience is the overarching goal of Climate Smart Village implementation (CCAFS, 2021). Climate resilience is achieved through a multitude of strategies, technologies, and resources. For agricultural communities this means increasing crop yields through adapting production systems to the impacts of climate change. However, improving climate resilience also means improving a community’s economic opportunities, infrastructure, and education, to create an increasingly sustainable community that can adjust to climate impacts (Bui, 2021). Determining the success of CSV’s in meeting these targets is challenging for several reasons. Firstly, quantifying the outcomes of CSV strategies can be challenging as many strategies take time to provide results after being implemented. Additionally, CSV’s vary from region to region as agricultural systems differ around the world. For example, climate resilient seed varieties are more developed for certain crops compared to others (Müller et al., 2020). Another challenge with evaluating CSV’s success in achieving climate resilience is that the impacts of climate change will continue to evolve in the future. Strategies that may not be considered a success in the immediate, may see improving results as climate impacts grow in severity (Bui, 2021).
Climate resilience is the most represented area of research within the dataset, comprising 44% of the 41 publications. However, due to the difficult nature of quantifying the overall impact of CSV’s on climate resilience, studies on climate resilience in CSV’s are broken down into sections based on individual strategies. The subsections below are divided into individual components of CSV’s aiming to increase climate resilience.
Resource Conservation
Resource conservation was the least common primary research focus within the dataset, with just 2 of the 41 studies, or 4.8%, of publications representing this study area. Both of these papers were based in Asia, and focused on water as the resource of interest. However, the papers varied in research method with 1 of the papers presenting quantitative analysis and the other paper presenting qualitative analysis. The small sample size paired with differences in research methods makes drawing conclusions on the impact of CSV’s on resource conservation challenging. However, in reviewing the 2 papers, common themes were identified and are detailed below.
Achieving climate resilience while increasing food production requires using fewer resources while achieving higher production outputs. More specifically, reducing the amount of water used in production systems is a crucial component of resource conservation required as the impacts of climate change grow in severity. Depletion of fresh water reserves is projected to be one of the most widespread and severe climactic impacts (Taylor & Bhasme, 2020). Specifically, in agriculture, over use of water is a well-documented challenge, making agriculture the top water use sector (Alam, & Sikka, 2019). CSV’s aim to implement strategies that provide communities with water smart systems to maximize water use and reduce run-off and waste water (Pham et al., 2017). Results from evaluation of CSV’s success in reducing water use compared to non-CSV’s indicates that improved water balance is dependent on the specific strategy (Alam, & Sikka, 2019). The variability in climates across CSV’s globally, makes evaluation of CSV’s impact on water use insignificant when compared across landscapes. However, evaluation of water use overtime for specific adaptations strategies within a single CSV, provide evidence that Climate Smart Villages are successful in achieving water conservation (Taylor & Bhasme, 2020).
Adaption strategies aimed at reducing water use include increased efficiency of irrigation systems, water retention of soils, diversification of crops grown, and improved production outputs (Taylor & Bhasme, 2020). These water conservation efforts are achieved through watershed development, which has led to more efficient water use in many CSV’s (Taylor & Bhasme, 2020). Watershed development is practice developed through CSV implemented by strategically placing infrastructure and water collection at locations of highest water runoff (Taylor & Bhasme, 2020). Water collection also involves capturing rain water from all buildings and storing it to be used for production (Taylor & Bhasme, 2020). Watershed development strategies have resulted in doubling the water supply of some CSV’s, depending on the average annual rainfall (Taylor & Bhasme, 2020). Increasing a community’s water supply through CSV water conservation strategies provides consistent water availability increasing production potential while also enabling farmers to switch to higher water intensive and higher value crops (Taylor & Bhasme, 2020).
In conjuncture with watershed development, land use planning has resulted in water conservation and efficiency in many CSV’s (Pham et al., 2017). Land use planning is critical for agricultural development as production demand increases. Identifying land with the highest production potential enables communities to expand production systems resulting in increased yields and water conservation. An important component of water conservation in CSV implementation is maximizing the outputs from water reserves generated by watershed development. This includes analysis of production zones with the highest water retaining soil as well as implementing practices to increase water retention in all CSV agricultural land (Alam, & Sikka, 2019). Simple tools available to farmers through CSV implementation, such as crop modeling and web-based decision support systems guide agricultural development and water use decision making (Alam, & Sikka, 2019). This includes providing farmers with information on the best times to irrigate crops, resulting in maximum efficiency. Water use tools also provide feedback on cropping varieties that reduce water inputs or maximum yields per unit water (Alam, & Sikka, 2019).
Economic Well Being
Farmer livelihood and economic well-being as a primary research focus represent 4 of the 41 publications, or 9.7% of the dataset. Of these 4 papers, 2 present quantitative analysis and 2 present qualitative analysis. This small sample size makes drawing global conclusions on CSV’s and economic well-being challenging. However, the 4 papers focused on this area of research, represent every CSV region within the review. This provides a more widespread analysis on the relationship between CSV’s and farmer livelihoods than several other of the primary research focuses represented in this review. Findings from analysis of these papers is presented in more detail below.
Increasing farmers economic opportunities and financial well-being is a major component of increasing a community’s climate resilience. Smallholder farmers globally, farm the most marginalized land while having the lowest access to resources and technologies. This puts smallholder farmers at a major disadvantage financially, leading to an inability to reinvest in production systems (Howland et al., 2018). Increasing financial opportunities for smallholders is necessary to provide farmers with the financial freedom to invest in and implement CSA practices and strategies, resulting in climate resilience. Research on socioeconomic factors in CSV’s indicates that farmer’s economic well-being is higher in CSV’s than farmers in comparable production systems not using adaptation strategies (Adesipo et al., 2020). Studies on the impact of CSV’s role in providing increased economic opportunities to farmers correlates with the number of adaptation strategies at the disposal of the farmer and the level development of these strategies within the CSV (Adesipo et al., 2020). This means that specific CSV strategies have a higher impact on farmer’s economic growth than others.
The development of clean energy systems in CSV’s is a strategy that produces high returns in improving a community’s economic well-being (Adesipo et al., 2020). Increased access to energy enables farmers to expand production systems and decrease time spent collecting materials needed to generate power. Solar in particular is an efficient, reliable, and low-cost form of energy that produces a high output for farmers to power homes and agricultural equipment (Adesipo et al., 2020). Access to energy infrastructure also allows farmers to power technologies that can improve harvesting outputs and efficiency of production (Adesipo et al., 2020). More specifically, technologies such as bio-sensors provide farmers with feedback on crops and soils that can guide decision making for increasing harvesting outputs (Adesipo et al., 2020).
Increased access to education is another cornerstone of CSV implementation that has been proven to increase farmer’s economic opportunities. Skill sharing and farmer-to-farmer scaling through workshops in CSV’s enables farmers to gain valuable skills to increase agricultural production and expands employable skills (Adesipo et al., 2020). In dry zones especially, education of water conservation farming practices along with water saving CSV strategies such as water collection, storage, and irrigation has led to an increase in farmer’s economic opportunities (IIRR, 2018). In the Htee Pu CSV in Myanmar, creation of infrastructure to collect water along with strategies to reduce soil degradation, have led to increased farming earnings as households were able to support an increase in livestock (IIRR, 2018).
Gender and Social Issues
Gender equality and social issues are the primary research focus in 3 of the 41 papers, representing 7.3% of the dataset. All 3 of the papers use quantitative methods of research in some capacity, providing statistical evidence on the impact of CSV’s on gender equality. However, the scope of the three studies varies greatly ranging from localized survey analysis to statistical comparisons of multiple CSV’s. Furthermore, quantifying gender equality is challenging, making this research focus a less prominent focus of CSV research. However, common findings from the analysis of the 3 papers are presented below.
Increasing gender equality is an important goal of global development and focus of the United Nations in the 21st century. As seen in Figure 10, there are major gender gaps globally in an agricultural context. The need for increased gender equality in an agricultural context is well documented around the world with studies indicating that improving women’s opportunities for education, health care, financial security, and political involvement, greatly increases nation’s economy, and general well-being (Hariharan et al., 2018). For this reason, improving gender equality in agricultural communities is a central goal of the implementation of all CCAFS strategies and practices. However, evaluating the results from these efforts is challenging as simply quantifying gender equality is difficult, leading to a limited number of studies and publications in this area. While publications may be limited and there is a need for future research in this area, studies reviewed in this systemic literature review indicate that Climate Smart Villages are effective in increasing gender equality at the household level (Ojango et al., 2018).
Climate Smart Villages increase gender equality at the household level when compared to non-CSV households across the same region and production system (Hariharan et al., 2018). In a published case study in India, CSV households had less gender inequality in political, economic, agricultural, and social categories. While the differences between CSV and non-CSV households were not found to be significant, improvement in the inclusion of women in decision making in these areas provides projections of increased gender equality as CSV practices and strategies are further developed in these communities (Hariharan et al., 2018). Furthermore, evidence from research on gender equality in CSV’s can only be measured along the timeframe of the study. In India, evidence of improved gender equality was measured from 2012 to 2015, resulting in moderate increases. However, lack of baseline gender data from the time of implementation of strategies in the studied CSV’s suggests that gender equality from the time of implementation to 2015 may be more statistically prominent than it was when measured from 2012 to 2015 (Hariharan et al., 2018). Lack of data on gender equality in CSV communities at the time of implementation is a challenge for gender research in CSV’s globally.
Climate Smart Village’s role in Increasing Food Security and Crop Production
Evaluating the success of Climate Smart Villages role in increasing crop production and food security is the second most common research focus throughout the dataset. 8 of the 41 papers, or 19.5% of the dataset focuses on crop production and food security as the primary area of research. Crop production outputs can be more easily quantified than other CSV strategies, making food security and cropping outputs a major component of CSV research. For this reason, all 8 of the papers in the dataset, on this topic, use quantitative research methods in some capacity. While crop production and food security is one of the most prominent research focuses in this review and CCAFS work overall, literature on the correlation between CSV and food security is still relatively limited. Furthermore, gaps in literature exist when analyzing different crops, and regions of CSV’s, making widespread evaluation of CSV’s relationship to food security, challenging. However, results from studies on CSV and food security show a correlation between implementation of CSV’s and increased outputs of crop production with regions studied (Ferrer et al., 2018).
Increasing food security requires increasing overall output of food production as well as a diversification of crops grown to support balanced and nutritious diets (Srinivasa et al., 2016). Another component of food security requires consistent access to food to avoid deficits and surpluses aligned with growing seasons (CCAFS, 2021). CSV’s are credited with being successful in increasing production outputs and diversity of crop varieties (Srinivasa et al., 2016). Climate adaptation strategies aimed at creating drought tolerant production systems is the most widespread CSV impact leading to increased food security (Bright et al., 2020). CSV’s increase farmers access to drought tolerant seed varieties, enabling farmers to produce higher yields in in years of drought, compared to non-CSV farmers (Srinivasa et al., 2016). Furthermore, climate information services in CSV’s help farmers adjust planting times, fertilizer and chemical application, and irrigation to adapt crops to climate impacts (Maheswari et al., 2019). Building of infrastructure, such as storage facilities and power grids, through implementation of CSV’s increases food security through preservation of food that is produced (Sanogo et al., 2017).
Increased production of livestock in CSV’s contributes to increased food security (Bright et al., 2020). Results from studies on CSV’s and food security show a correlation between increased crop production and increased livestock production (Bright et al., 2020). Increased crop production provides an increased source of feed for livestock. Furthermore, farmer’s access to crop varieties in CSV’s enables farmers to produce a selection of crops tailored to diets of specific livestock (Bright et al., 2020). Production of balanced diets for livestock reduces disease within the herd and allows for an increase the number of livestock that farmers are able to support (Bright et al., 2020). Increased production of livestock in CSV’s compared to non-CSV’s is one of the most successful impacts of CSV’s on food security because it provides communities with an important source of protein through meat and milk (Bui et al., 2021). In a study from Vietnam on CSV and food security, results found that less than 3% of CSV household included in the study experienced food insecurity over a one-year span (Bui et al., 2021). This study is compelling evidence that CSV’s have a positive impact on food security through increased quantity and quality of crop and livestock production.
Impact of CSV’s on Adaptive Capacity
The impact of Climate Smart Villages on increasing adaptive capacity at the household level is not clearly differentiated from climate resilience, making it a common area of CSV research in conjuncture with climate resilience. 10 of the 41 papers, or 24.3% of the dataset includes adaptive capacity and climate resilience as the primary research focus (Figure 8). Quantifying adaptive capacity is challenging, resulting in much of the reporting on this topic qualitative. However, 6 of the 10 papers on adaptive capacity use quantitative analysis in some capacity. Based on the literature, evidence exists supporting the correlation between Climate Smart Villages and increased adaptive capacity at the household level (Sanogo et al., 2017). It is important to note that increasing adaptive capacity does not directly translate to increased climate resilience, but rather provides households with the tools required to achieve increased climate resilience (Sanogo et al., 2017). The effectiveness of CSV’s in promoting adaptive capacity is achieved through the participatory approach that is implemented in the CSV process (Sanogo et al., 2017). The inclusion of farmers in the decision-making process of implementation of climate adaptation strategies, increases the likelihood of farmers to implement these strategies in their own production systems (Sanogo et al., 2017). Furthermore, the participatory approach of CSV’s increases the likelihood that adaptation strategies will be successful because a mix of eternal and external addresses challenges from multiple angles (Sanogo et al., 2017). CSV’s are also successful in increasing adaptive capacity by providing rural communities with information and resources needed to adapt to climate change that are otherwise not available in rural communities (Sanogo et al., 2017). Increased food security and climate resilience in CSV’s also plays an important role in increasing a community’s adaptive capacity (Maheswari et al., 2019). Increased food security and climate resilience correlates with increased adaptive capacity because farmers have increased freedom to invest time and finances into further climate adaptations (Maheswari et al., 2019).
Climate Information Services
Climate information services as a component of building adaptive capacity is the primary focus in 3 of the 10 papers on adaptive capacity. In these 3 papers, qualitative methods are used to communicate the role of climate information services in adaptive capacity. Promoting adaptive capacity requires providing farmers with tools to inform decision making for implementation of adaptation strategies. Climate information services are an important component of increasing adaptive capacity because they provide projections and insights for the best adaptation strategies for farmers in real time. The more climate information that farmers are able to access the more they are able to align production systems to meet climate impacts. For this reason, providing farmers with climate information services is a central goal of CSV’s to increase adaptive capacity. Studies on the relationship between implementation of climate adaptation strategies and access to climate information services, show a positive correlation (Bright et al., 2020).
Farmer’s perception of climate change and the projected impacts influences the adaptive strategies that farmers choose to implement (Bright et al., 2020). In a study of farmer’s perceptions of climate change and response behavior, CSV farmers were significantly more likely to implement adaptation efforts, than non-CSV farmers is comparable production systems (Bright et al., 2020). More specifically, farmers that were aware of projected rain patterns, were 20% more likely to diversify livestock breeds and crop varieties. Furthermore, these farmers were more likely to adjust livestock feeding patterns to provide consistent feed during dry spells (Bright et al., 2020). These climate-based adaptations resulted in higher production outputs and decreased disease in livestock (Bright et al., 2020).
Access to climate information services are shown to have an impact on farmer’s decision making on when to plant crops, which soils to plant in, and application of fertilizers and chemicals (Maheswari et al., 2019). The use of climate information technologies such as temperature sensors, soil moisture readings, and humidity sensors that provide real time climate data, increased the number of adaptation strategies that farmers implemented (Maheswari et al., 2019). Climate based adjustments to fertilizer and chemical inputs, irrigation, and planting times, significantly increased production outputs in farming seasons with erratic climate impacts (Maheswari et al., 2019). Improved access to climate information services and technologies also resulted in an increased likelihood for farmers to invest in future adaptation strategies for production systems (Maheswari et al., 2019). The results from studies on climate information services in CSV’s provide evidence that increased farmer access to climate information, increases adaptive capacity.
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