What ails climate-smart agriculture in South Asia? Limited state resources & incentives, unequal tech dissemination

Despite the promise of climate-smart agriculture (CSA), most sustainable farming practices and technologies have not been widely adopted across South Asia and are struggling to gain momentum despite their proven effectiveness, scientists from four South Asian countries – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal – and from Mexico, United States, Australia, and UAE have written in a new paper in Nature Climate Change journal. 

Although some practices and technologies like crop diversification and green manure have been used for a long time, others like zero tillage, alternative wetting and drying had low adoption in South Asia. 

By 2050, South Asia will be one of the largest food-deficit regions and thus requires a substantial increase in production to meet growing food demand. “As one potential solution to this impending crisis, CSA has been widely advocated for by governments, researchers and food and agriculture organisations. Studies suggest that CSA practices and technologies can increase crop yield while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the resilience of farming communities to climate shocks,” said the paper. 

The scientists listed four major reasons for low adoption of CSA practices among farmers. 

Weak organisational capacities

They pointed out that across South Asia, it was challenging to reach all farmers with new CSA practices and technologies because of the large proportion of the rural population that practices agriculture with limited integration with markets that promote CSA and limited government resources. Consequently, the number of field schools, demonstration plots and training programmes located in rural communities to increase CSA adoption is not sufficient. 

To add to this, government agricultural extension departments that are primarily responsible for CSA information dissemination and adoption in South Asia were often inadequately staffed with poorly trained people to disseminate information.  

“Thus, it is critical to develop far-reaching and effective networks in the region that can provide access to information about CSA practices and technologies to increase adoption at scale,” the paper, published on January 17, said. 

Inadequate targeted incentives

While on one hand, chemical fertilisers, pesticides and electricity- and diesel-based irrigation were largely subsidised across most of South Asia, the adoption of locally appropriate CSA practices and technologies had not been adequately incentivised. 

The scientists noted that even when CSA technologies have been subsidised, governments have also offered subsidies for conflicting practices, such as in the case of zero tillage and conventional tillage machinery subsidies in India.

“Scaling up CSA practices and technologies would require an institutional environment that increases the affordability of CSA strategies for smallholder farmers, which can be achieved through policy, market and government programmes that provide targeted subsidies and incentives for adoption,” it said.

Limited post-adoption follow-up 

The third barrier that the paper highlighted was less emphasis on post adoption follow up, with most work to increase access to CSA practices and technologies in South Asia focussing largely on adoption initiation. 

“Yet, post-adoption follow-up is particularly important in South Asia given the high heterogeneity in farm outcomes and the drivers of decision-making across diverse smallholder farmers.”

Monitoring and evaluating CSA adoption over time can identify whether farmers continue to use CSA practices and technologies, and if not, what the challenges are that farmers encounter. 

Inequities in information dissemination

CSA information and technology dissemination in South Asia was often marred by inequity. “For instance, farmers with more wealth and greater social networks are often prioritised for CSA demonstrations and provisioning, perpetuating existing societal inequities and marginalisation,” it said. 

Furthermore, even as women’s participation in farming was increasing across South Asia, particularly in Nepal, Bangladesh and eastern India, where rural male out-migration is dominant, gender inequality was still rampant in CSA dissemination, with little involvement of women in the process.