Adapting agricultural systems to changes in seasonal precipitation is critical for the agricultural sector in Sri Lanka. This paper presents evidence on the adoption drivers and the welfare impacts of agricultural strategies adopted by Sri Lankan rice farmers to adapt to low rainfall conditions. We estimate the causal impact of adopting different adaptive strategies across three different dimensions: (a) sensitivity to water stress, (b) household productivity, and (c) household livelihood conditions. The results highlight important trade-offs faced by farmers between [...]

This article assesses the interactions between participation in Malawi’s largest public works programme, the Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF), and three widely promoted climate smart agriculture (CSA) practices. Drawing on three waves of national panel household survey data, we find that participation in MASAF significantly increases the probability that farm households adopt the resource intensive CSA practices of building soil water conservation structures and applying organic fertilizers. Moreover, participation in MASAF contributes to a sustained adoption of these practices over [...]

In this article, we use spatially granular climate data merged with four waves of household survey data in Uganda to examine empirically the relationships among high temperatures, total value of crop production, and the adoption and adoption duration of two sustainable agricultural practices (organic fertilizer adoption and maize–legume intercropping). We do this using a fixed-effect model with instrumental variables to address potential endogeneity issues. Our findings indicate that the adoption of these practices has a positive effect on the total [...]

Abstract This article provides evidence on the relationships between food aid and the adoption of climate adaptive agricultural practices (CAPs) in the context of smallholder households in Ethiopia and Malawi. Using bivariate and mixed recursive models, and drawing on three waves of nationally representative panel survey data, we find that receiving food aid significantly increases the probability of adopting soil and water conservation structures in both countries and increasing livestock holdings in Ethiopia. We argue that food aid influences the adoption [...]

Crop diversification is a common agricultural policy objective. However, the determinants and impacts of crop diversification are heterogeneous and depend on a range of crop-specific characteristics. Index-based measurements of crop diversification, common in the agriculture economics literature, are unable to account for this heterogeneity. Using two national panel surveys from Malawi and Zambia, we develop a multinomial treatment effects model to examine the determinants of adopting seven discreet cropping systems and their impacts on maize productivity and crop income stability. [...]

Are the effects of sustainable agricultural practices heterogeneous across agroecologyand wealth in Malawi?Would a wealth-enhancing policy be associated withincreased effectiveness of these practices? Focusing on a nationally representativeset of Malawian agricultural households, the article answers the above questions byemploying plot-level panel data matched with a set of geo-referenced rainfall andtemperature records. The findings suggest a positive correlation between aggregateyield and the adoption of organic fertilizer. A similar result holds for legumeintercropping and for hybrid seeds, which are associated to reductions [...]

This paper examines how smallholders living in regions where a drought is forecasted adapt their farm practices in response to receiving seasonal forecast information. The article draws on a unique longitudinal dataset in Zambia, which collected information from farm households before and after a significant drought caused by the 2015/2016 El-Niño Southern Oscillation. It finds that farmers residing in areas forecasted to be drought-affected and receiving seasonal forecast information are significantly more likely to integrate drought tolerant crops into their [...]

This article investigates the empirical linkages between crop and livelihood diversification strategies,extreme weather events, and household welfare using a unique dataset that integrates harmonized,national representative household surveys and geo-referenced climatic information collected inMalawi, Niger and Zambia. In doing so, the paper addresses the potential endogeneity arising from theselection bias and the heterogeneity of the effect across the quantiles of the income distribution.Results show that exposure to extreme rainfall events is positively associated with either crop or liveli-hood diversification in all [...]

by Solomon Asfaw & Giuseppe Maggio This paper explores the gender-differentiated effects of weather shocks on households' welfare in Malawi using panel data aligned with climatic records. Results show that temperature shocks severely affect household welfare, reducing consumption, food consumption and daily caloric intake. [...]

Solomon Asfaw, Federica Di Battista and Leslie Lipper | In this article, we assess the determinants of adoption of agricultural technologies under climate risk and evaluate their impact on food security using data from Niger, together with a set of novel weather variation indicators.  [...]