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Agriculture must transform as climate change progresses. The international community has promoted climate-smart agriculture (CSA) as a set of solutions. Previous analyses of opportunities for scaling up CSA have not looked closely at building political and social support for policies, practices and programs. The purpose of this paper is to fill that gap in the case study country of Senegal.

The study applies the conceptual definitions, operationalizations and assessment targets from the political will and public will (PPW) approach to social change. Semi-structured interviews and documents constitute the sources of data and information.

The analysis identifies opportunities to generate political will for supplying an enabling environment for the widespread adoption of CSA. On the public will side, the analysis identifies opportunities to generate and channel demand for CSA.

Researchers investigated some definitional components more completely than others due to resource and access constraints. Further, the context specificity of the components limits generalizability of certain findings.

Social structures may need to change for successful adoption of certain CSA innovations, but improved agricultural outcomes are likely to result.

This examination of crucial elements for scaling up CSA efforts constitutes the most extensive application of the PPW approach to date, thus providing an example of this generalizable method.

This paper aims to examine impediments to the adoption of sustainable water-efficient technological innovation in agriculture. Farming is the largest water consumer and food production expansion in response to global population growth, combined with increasing droughts from climate change, threatens water and food insecurity for many countries. Yet, climate smart agriculture (CSA) innovation adoption has been slow, and in this regard, governments and the agricultural sector are not fulfilling their social responsibility and sustainability obligations.

Barriers to water-efficient drip irrigation (DI) adoption in Australia were investigated via 46 depth interviews with agricultural stakeholders and a survey of 148 farmers.

While DI water efficiency is recognised, this is not the key determinant of farmers’ irrigation method selection. Complex interrelationships between internal and external barriers impede DI adoption are identified. These include costs, satisfaction with alternative irrigation methods, farmer characteristics that determine the suitability of the innovation and the extent it is incremental or radical, plus various multidimensional risks. Government support of alternative, less water-efficient irrigation methods is also a critical barrier.

A conceptual framework for understanding barriers to sustainability oriented innovation adoption is presented. Its insights should be applicable to researchers and practitioners concerned with understanding and improving the adoption of socially responsible and sustainable innovation in a wide range of contexts. Recommendations for overcoming such adoption barriers are discussed in relation to the research focus of water-efficient agriculture and encouraging uptake of DI.

The purpose of this study is to examine trade credit from agrochemical vendors as an alternative source of finance for cabbage producers in the Bono East Region of Ghana. The determinants of trade credit supply and impact on cabbage producer’s profitability are investigated.

The study sample size is 260. The perception index, probit regression, negative binomial regression and the propensity score matching (PSM) was employed to assess the perception of trade credit, factors influencing trade credit supply and the impact of trade credit supply on the cabbage producer’s profitability and agrochemical vendor’s welfare respectively.

The perception index analysis revealed that the agrochemical vendors, in general, had a positive perception of trade credit. Different groups of factors influence trade credit supply. Further along, the number of times trade credit was used by the cabbage producers was influenced by several factors. On the PSM result, trade credit use had a significant positive impact on the cabbage producer’s profitability. In detail, all the matching estimations revealed that profitability increased above Gh¢ 4,000.00 (US$ 692.04). Likewise, the robustness check result (Inverse Probability Weighted Regression Adjustment (IPWRA)), was no different from the matching estimations. Generally, the result indicates that the impact of trade credit supply on the agrochemical vendor's welfare using total household expenditure, total savings and income as proxy variables for welfare were positive.

Trade credit has encountered less attention in the agricultural finance discourse; however, this study makes an imperative contribution on the same. Specifically, the study reveals the determinants of trade credit supply from agrochemical vendors and a positive impact of trade credit use on the cabbage producer’s profitability, a result which has not been investigated in the trade credit literature.

Reducing income gap and enhancing welfare of people can be achieved through improved performance regarding socio-economic indicators, which can support sustainable development. People living in villages tend to migrate to the cities with the hope of enhancing their income. People living in cities and income gap among the people in the cities are expected to increase further. Enhanced living conditions in villages can reduce the need for this migration and increase welfare of the people in the villages. This chapter aims to examine drivers for sustainable smart villages and ways for enhancing and supporting their effectiveness in socio-economic development, in enhancing welfare and living conditions of people living in villages, and in reducing income gap between urban and rural people. This chapter investigates potential and roles of sustainable and smart villages in enhancing welfare and living conditions of people living in villages. Furthermore, this chapter emphasises the villages’ roles in sustainable development as well as importance of transformation of villages into the sustainable and smart ones and establishment of sustainable and smart villages so that convergence, social inclusion and socio-economic indicators can be supported. This chapter explains drivers for transformation of the villages into the sustainable and smart ones as well as establishment of new sustainable and smart villages. This chapter provides recommendations for sustainable and smart villages effective in contributing to sustainable and socio-economic development. This chapter can be useful to urban planners, construction industry stakeholders, policy makers and researchers.

The contemporary production, distribution, and consumption of food is today interconnected at the global level in the form of a global food chain, constituted by the relations between all the producers, distributors, and consumers of food in the World. A chain where the international trade law constitutes a conditioning element, which through the legal adoption of neoliberal ideals facilitates the strengthening of the agribusiness sector.

The present article aims to assess the environmental impact of the global food chain and engaging in the discussion of the adoption of more sustainable methodologies in the agriculture sector. By mobilizing the experience of participation in Civil Society Network for Food and Nutrition Security in the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (REDSAN-CCPL), we will critically expose the causal link of the activities of transnational corporations of the agribusiness sector with its environmental and public health impacts, particularly with cases in Global South countries (countries of the Community of Countries of Portuguese Language, CCPL).

At the end, and, following closely the current discussion at the United Nations level for the creation of a Declaration of the Rights of Peasants, and the creation, in 2017, of a legal regime for family farming under the CCPL, we will present a defense for the legal recognition of family farming at the international level, as a legal and political strategy to preclude the negative environmental impacts of the agribusiness sector.

This paper aims to report on a case in which encouraging climate-smart agriculture in the form of better irrigation techniques in India can contribute to both climate change mitigation and adaptation goals by improving resource-use efficiency. It provides grounded institutional analysis on how these transformations can occur.

The authors based their research on three complementary approaches: institutional, sociological and technical. The institutional approach analyzed actors and interests in the water-energy nexus in India via over 25 semi-structured key informant interviews. The sociological approach surveyed over 50 farmers and equipment suppliers for insight into technology adoption. The technical component analyzed water and energy consumption data to calculate potential benefits from transitioning to more efficient techniques.

Because policymakers have a preference for voluntary policy instruments over coercive reforms, distortions in policy and market arenas can provide opportunities for embedded actors to leverage technology and craft policy bargains which facilitate Pareto superior reforms and, thereby, avoid stalemates in addressing climate change. Enlarging the solution space to include more actors and interests can facilitate such bargains more than traditional bilateral exchanges.

The analysis provides insights into crafting successful climate action policies in an inhospitable institutional terrain.

Studies about climate change politics generally focus on stalemates and portray the private sector as resistant and a barrier to climate action. This paper analyzes a contrary phenomenon, showing how reforms can be packaged in Pareto superior formats to overcome policy stalemates and generate technology-based climate and environmental co-benefits in even unpromising terrain such as technologically laggard and economically constrained populations.

This paper aims to produce a framework for climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in the Yangambi landscape, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This would enable the authors to identify agricultural practices, assess vulnerability to climate change, identify options for improving agricultural systems from a climate change mitigation and adaptation perspective and finally provide climate-smart agricultural options.

The study used household survey methods of data collection. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire survey by interviewing 250 farm households, subdivided using three axes of the Yangambi landscape. Fisher’s exact test was used to determine relationships between two or more variables.

Results of the survey revealed that the vast majority (98%) of respondents perceived changes in temperature, rainfall and weather patterns. Reduction of crop yields and the emergence of new weed species and new crop pests are the main impacts on agricultural activities. Although 87.6% of respondents have no means of adaptation and resilience, some of them use crops rotation, fallow practice, fertilizers and bio-pesticides. A framework for CSA is proposed for the Yangambi landscape.

Policies and strategies to promote CSA in the study area should take into account local farmers' perceptions of climate change and consider first the adequacy of CSA practices for the specific conditions of the target area before its promotion. This study is thus useful for many REDD+ initiatives that are currently being promoted in DRC and particularly in the Tshopo Province.

This study is one of the first studies to focus on CSA in the Yangambi landscape, DRC. It assists the use of agriculture as a response to reducing deforestation while at the same time lowering agriculture’s carbon footprint and promoting a resilient and more productive farming system.

New agricultural technologies are continuously generated and promoted for adoption by farmers with the expectation that they bring about higher benefits than older technologies. Yet, depending on the perceived benefits, the user of the technology may choose to stop using it. This paper aims to analyze what drives farmers to dis-adopt climate smart sorghum varieties in Tanzania.

The study uses cross-sectional farm household level data collected in Tanzania from a sample of 767 households. The determinants of dis-adoption are explored using a bivariate probit with sample selection model.

The authors find that while farmers switch between different sorghum varieties, most farmers actually quit sorghum production. Older farmers and those facing biotic stresses such attacks by birds are more likely to dis-adopt sorghum.

These findings suggest that there is scope for improving and sustaining the adoption of sorghum varieties in Tanzania once extension services are strengthened. The findings also point to a well-founded theory on the role of markets in enhancing the overall sustainability of food systems.

The study findings have broader implications for understanding the sustainability of improved technology adoption

Dis-adoption is also positively associated with the lack of access to markets underscoring the role of markets in enhancing the overall sustainability of technology adoption and food systems.

The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the barriers associated with the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in agricultural supply chains.

The study initially identified thirteen barriers by conducting a literature review and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. Subsequently, these barriers were validated and modeled using an integrated Fuzzy Delphi-ISM approach. Finally, MICMAC analysis was employed to categorize the barriers into distinct clusters.

The results provide considerable insights into the hierarchical structure and complex interrelationships between the barriers as well the driving and dependence power of barriers. Lack of information about technologies and lack of compatibility with traditional methods emerged as the two main barriers which directly and indirectly influence the other ones.

The robust hybrid Fuzzy Delphi and ISM techniques used in this study can serve as a useful model and benchmark for similar studies probing the barriers to Industry 4.0 adoption. From a theoretical standpoint, this study expands the scope of institutional theory in explaining Industry 4.0 adoption barriers.

The study is timely for the post-COVID-19 recovery and growth of the agricultural sector. The findings are helpful for policymakers and agriculture supply chain stakeholders in devising new strategies and policy interventions to prioritize and address Industry 4.0 adoption barriers.

It is the first comprehensive, multi-country and multi-method empirical study to comprehensively identify and model barriers to Industry 4.0 adoption in agricultural supply chains in emerging economies.

Post-harvest losses are becoming a huge issue worldwide and are predominantly severe in developing countries. Seeking ways to control post-harvest losses is important because losses decrease farm income by more than 15% for approximately 480 million small-scale farmers.

The study engaged Wave 4 (2018/2019) of the Living Standards Measurement Studies–Integrated Survey on Agriculture, to examine the impact of soil technology such as fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides and certified crops on post-harvest losses in Nigeria. The study engaged descriptive statistics, logit regression and propensity score matching (PSM) to analyse the data.

The study found that approximately 38% of the household harvest was lost along the value chain. In addition, the results showed that among the indicators of soil technology, crop certification has a significant impact on the reduction of post-harvest losses. The implication is that from the nearest neighbour and kernel-based matching, the use of certified crops by households contributed to 1.62 and 1.36% reduction in post-harvest losses, respectively. In contrast, pesticide, herbicide and fertiliser use had no significant impact on post-harvest losses.

One of the limitations is that this study applied the PSM, the model did not account for endogeneity. Therefore, in examining this concept, further studies should consider applying other impact model such as the difference-in-difference to account for endogeneity.

While previous studies have examined how ICT adoption, storage mechanisms and value chain among others help to minimise post-harvest losses, the aspect of how soil technology can reduce post-harvest losses has been a subject of exclusion in the extant literature. This study empirically examines the impact of soil technology adoption on post-harvest losses in Nigeria.