The Role of Social Capital in Climate Change Adaptation: Small Farmers’ Perspective

Abstract

Climate change represents a major challenge for businesses and society. Small farmers in emerging economies are most vulnerable to extreme weather events and must adapt their strategies and operations. Adaptive decision-making depends on the risk perception and the availability of resources, which can be a major limitation for the context of small farmers. Our study investigates how farmers perceive climate change risks and decide on climate adaptation. We explore the small farmers` vulnerability, risk perception, and decision-making process with in-depth interviews with small farmers in different network contexts. Our data reveal that small farmers, isolated in terms of communication and support regarding climate adaptation, used social exchanges to learn and adapt. However, as the social network was the primary source of information, knowledge, and experience sharing, the quality of network relationships made a difference. Thus, the importance of social capital to enable climate adaptation.