Transformation in Practice: A Review of Empirical Cases of Transformational Adaptation in Agriculture Under Climate Change

Abstract

Incremental adaptation may be inadequate to deal with rapid shifts and tipping points for food production under climate change. The concepts of transformative and transformational adaptation have emerged in recent years to address the need for major, non-marginal transitions in sectors, such as agriculture in response to climate change. However, there is less empirical evidence of transformation in practice. Here we use a simple semi-quantitative definition to identify recorded cases of transformational adaptation in response to climate change. A structured search of academic literature found 23 empirical case studies that meet our criteria for transformation of agriculture under climate change: a response to climate risks along with a redistribution of at least a third in the primary factors of production (land, labor, capital) or the outputs and outcomes of production over a time period of 25 years or less. The case studies offer experience-based lessons on managing transformative processes in agriculture at all four stages of the adaptation cycle: understanding goals and objectives, developing a vision and pathway, implementing adaptation actions, and monitoring, evaluating and learning. In general, the case-study processes of transformation have diverged from well-managed, inclusive approaches based on foresight and continual learning. Our review provides little early evidence that transformative adaptation processes in response to climate change have generated more resilient agricultural systems or improvements in governance. Governments and development partners could improve the effectiveness of outcomes through providing more comprehensive and long-term approaches to adaptation planning alongside financial and technical assistance, within a framework that rewards farms as multi-functional systems.

Multifunctional Land Uses in Africa

“…Scientists have raised concerns over the promotion of single adaptation responses -such as crop insurance or new crop varieties -that increase the vulnerability to climate risks by disincentivizing practices that would lead to more positive outcomes over longer time scales. Vermeulen et al (2018) reviewed case studies that met their criteria for transformational adaptation to climate change, including eight African agricultural systems. Among the successful transformational changes in Niger, was, not just giving farmers technical assistance, but also control over assets.…”

“…Adaptation processes need to be implicitly included within the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which is Africa's framework for agricultural transformation reinforced by the 2014 Malabo Declaration, the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa 2024, commitments to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change such as the global stocktake, Nationally Determined Contributions through the Green Climate Fund, and loans and grants from development banks. Technical and financial assistance for identifying adaptation options may include compensation for transformative changes, information, and knowledge systems that give farmers tools to forecast possible futures, and for monitoring systems that give early warning of agricultural systems being on the wrong track, away from long-term sustainability (Niang et al 2014;Vermeulen et al 2018). The importance of these issues needs to be highlighted in the curriculum for future leaders.…”

National Land Use Policy against the Misuse of the Agricultural Land—Causes and Effects. Evidence from Poland

“…At the same time, it is noteworthy that the land is not used evenly, as the world is witnessing both deforestation for crops [17] and land abandonment [18]. The need for efficient and sustainable use of agricultural land resources seems all the more urgent given the future diminishing of these resources as a result of progressing climate change [19,20]. This means conducting a cautious policy of using natural resources following the concept of sustainable development, i.e., "Development which meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" [21].…”

Towards a heuristic for assessing adaptation knowledge: impacts, implications, decisions and actions

“…To gain insight into the impacts of climate change for agriculture and inform adaptation planning, a considerable body of research has been developed in recent years (Crane et al 2017, Panda 2018, Vermeulen et al 2018, Wiréhn 2018. Studies range from biophysical models to predict changing outcomes for production and yield, to in-depth, bottom-up qualitative explorations of stakeholders' perceptions of climate risks, capacities for adaptation, and more recently, integrated assessments which seek to combine scenarios of future change, with stakeholders' experience and insights (Challinor et al 2014, Herrero et al 2014, Cradock-Henry 2017, Ausseil et al 2019.…”

“…SR methodologies have been promoted in the literature as a way to efficiently and effectively review and summarise the growing body of adaptation knowledge (Berrang-Ford et al 2015). Originating in the health sciences, SR is now increasingly being used for climate change adaptation to systematise knowledge at multiple scales-from local, regional, national -diverse jurisdictions, and contexts (Ford et al 2011, Flood et al 2018, Pearce et al 2018, Vermeulen et al 2018. While such reviews are welcome, there remain significant challenges to systematising and assessing the results of various studies and operationalising findings to enable effective adaptation.…”