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By examining a case study in Tyrol, Austria, the paper aims to demonstrate the role of farm diversification and the influence of the peasants’ habitus on social-ecological resilience.

Drawing on a field study conducted in two remote villages of the Ötztal valley, Austrian Alps, this study provides insights into the interplay of tourism and farming and its impact on farm resilience. Qualitative narrative interviews, the so-called farm biographies, served to investigate these issues. Interpretations of data are based on qualitative content analysis.

The results highlight that farming and tourism are highly enmeshed in the case study area and that the additional income creates room for manoeuvre for the farms to activate their adaptive capability. At the same time, peasant values guide the farming activities. The farms in this study demonstrate a strong farm resilience that is enabled by farm diversification and rooted in their peasant habitus. This positively affects the social-ecological resilience.

In contrast to other studies, which have mainly applied the concepts of social or community resilience to investigate the resilience and vulnerability of rural areas, this study highlights the resilience of farms in mountain areas.

There is an increasing need for greater awareness and understanding of the risks climate change poses to farming communities so as to inform appropriate adaptive responses. The purpose of this study is to investigate farmers’ climate change impacts, awareness, risk perception and current adaptation strategies adopted to deal with the impacts of climate change on their livelihood.

This research was undertaken with 67 farmers in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. This study used a combination of focus group discussion and quantitative survey to obtain data. Surveyed farmers were invited to an initial workshop and asked to take photos of climate change impacts on their land and the adaptation strategies being adopted. The photos were analysed and discussed with the farmers in a second workshop. Then, in a third workshop, farmers and other stakeholders came together to rank the most important consequences of climate change and shared knowledge on adaptation strategies. The survey and photovoice data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The results of this study showed that a majority of the farmers were knowledgeable of climate change, mostly got climate information through media. Floods and high temperatures were perceived as the most occurring climate change-related disaster risks. Majority of the farmers perceived climate change as high risk and have taken up multiple adaptation strategies in response to it, including changing planting times, mulching their land and digging irrigation pits. Farmers’ responses indicated that they want to do more but are restricted by financial resources.

This study outcomes provide evidence for a need to consider stakeholders’ participation in planning climate change responses to effectively address the challenges posed by climate change, particularly in coastal agricultural communities. Government and relevant agencies as recommended need to support farmers to undertake needed adaptive strategies to adapt with future flooding, high temperature and drought, providing them with necessary facilities to enhance their adaptive capacities.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this was one of the first studies to use photovoice to investigate climate change awareness, impacts and adaptations strategies with majority female farmers in west Africa. This study highlights the importance of participatory approaches to capture grassroots climate adaptation approaches.

In Ghana, legal and illegal artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) activities have attracted the attention of the general populace and academia with varied opinions. This study examined how adopting the coping strategies for ASM operations affected the welfare of farm households.

Primary data were solicited from respondents using a semi-structured questionnaire. This paper used the endogenous treatment effect model to quantitatively estimate whether or not farmers who adopt coping strategies for activities of ASM have improved or deteriorated welfare.

The results revealed that households adopted coping strategies such as diversification, social networking, land reclamation, borrowing, dependence on the market for food and resettlement in other communities. The endogenous treatment effect model results show that households that adopted land reclamation and social networking had improved welfare regarding consumption expenditure and food security compared to non-adopters. Conversely, diversification was associated with lower consumption expenditures and high food insecurity among adopters.

This paper recommends that farm households in mining communities form cooperatives and farmer-based organizations to ensure improved access to joint resources for enhanced capacity to cope with ASM-induced shocks. There is a need for government and civil society organizations to encourage and support land reclamation measures.

This paper covers a broader perspective and deploys more than one welfare proxy, which has not been considered before in previous studies.

There is a recent growing interest to find a lasting intervention to rural poverty (RP) in developing countries based on farmer entrepreneurship and innovation. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to examine the relation between entrepreneurship and RP alleviation in two resource-constrained provinces of China. This paper assesses the influence of three capabilities of farm entrepreneurs – educational, economic and socio-cultural – on farmer entrepreneurship growth and how these, in turn, impact alleviation of RP.

Household survey data comprising 363 respondents were taken from four deprived communities in two provinces of China. The paper employed structural equation modeling (SEM), using AMOS 21.0 alongside SPSS 20.0 to test the relations between the constructs.

The results show that a statistically significant and positive relation exists between entrepreneurship and RP alleviation in China. The findings of the study further reveal that qualitative growth of entrepreneurship has a stronger positive influence on RP alleviation than on quantitative growth, and socio-cultural capabilities of respondents significantly and positively affect entrepreneurial growth of farmers, rather than education and economic capabilities.

The use of data from four communities in two provinces tends to limit the ability to generalize the findings of the study. Furthermore, the survey did not collect information on non-farm entrepreneurs, making it impossible to compare the findings from farm entrepreneurs with non-farm entrepreneurs.

The findings have practical implications for policy makers in rural China toward addressing targeted RP. This paper, therefore, suggests that entrepreneurship should be pursued vigorously among farmers in rural areas of China to help solve poverty. The paper also presents a useful lesson for various stakeholders in poverty alleviation programs in other developing countries.

This paper contributes to the academic literature on the entrepreneurship–RP alleviation nexus by combining the theory of capability and SEM in the analysis of an emerging economy such as China.

The nature of the collaborations that exists among the organizations in the climate change and agriculture sectors can influence the tailoring of climate forecasts into information useable for adapting agricultural practices to the risks posed by climate change. Also, the extent to which farmers are integrated into this organizational collaboration network can influence their access to climate information. This paper aims to examine how organizational collaborations in the process of climate information generation and dissemination acts as either barriers or enablers of farmers’ access to and use of climate information in Ghana.

This study used key informant interview and questionnaire survey to interview the organizations in the climate change and agriculture sectors. Using network analysis as an analytical framework, the authors estimated the networks’ core-periphery, density, reciprocity and degree centrality.

The authors observed that communication of climate information to farmers is mostly influenced by the collaborations between governmental organizations and nongovernmental organizations. Nevertheless, information flow and exchange through organizational collaboration network is having limited effect on improving farmers’ knowledge about climate risks, impacts and available risk response options. This is mostly because the feedback flow of information from farmers to national level organizations has not been effective in addressing localized climate/agro challenges.

This paper provides a critical overview of key issues in influencing the relevancy and usefulness of climate information in the Ghanaian agriculture sector. Insights gained and recommendations made are essential for deploying effective climate services in Ghana and can be relevant for many African countries because of similar socioeconomic contexts.

This paper aims to assess how cocoa supply chain companies disclose sustainable development goals (SDGs) information in their sustainability reports. This assessment highlights strategic aspects of sustainable supply chain management and reveals leveraging sustainability points in the cocoa industry.

The two-step qualitative approach relies on text-mining company reports and subsequent content analysis that identifies the topics disclosed and relates them to SDG targets.

This study distinguishes 18 SDG targets connected to cocoa traders and 30 SDG targets to chocolate manufacturers. The following topics represent the main nexuses of connections: decent labour promotion and gender equity (social), empowering local communities and supply chain monitoring (economic) and agroforestry and climate action (environmental).

By highlighting the interconnections between the SDGs targeted by companies in the cocoa supply chain, this paper sheds light on the strategic SDGs for this industry and their relationships, which can help to improve sustainability disclosure and transparency. One interesting input for companies is the improvement of climate crisis prevention, focusing on non-renewable sources minimisation, carbon footprint and clear indicators of ecologic materiality.

This study contributes to policymakers to enhance governance and accountability of global supply chains that are submitted to different regulation regimes.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous study has framed the cocoa industry from a broader SDG perspective. The interconnections identified reveal the key goals of the cocoa supply chain and point to strategic sustainability choices for companies in an important global industry.

This practice piece aims to review an occupational therapy led pilot programme – social farming as an intervention option in an adult community mental health setting in Ireland. It will also reflect on the practical implications of delivering the natural surroundings based programme through the COVID-19 pandemic and plans for the future development of such programmes in adult mental health services.

The Occupational Circumstances Assessment Interview Rating Scale (OCAIRS) was used to measure occupational participation (Forsyth, 2005). This was administered with participants’ pre and post their participation in the 10-week programme. An internal questionnaire was developed to further capture both the participant and farmer experiences of the social farming programme.

Whilst improvements were noted in a number of OCAIRS domains, it was difficult to identify small changes over a short period of time. The main domains of change were habits, roles, interests and personal causation. The success of the social farming placements was also reflected in the internal questionnaire. The pilot programme has resulted in the further development of the social farming programme and securing of funding for placements for five years.

It would be beneficial to consider other standardised assessments that assess quality of life and occupation for future placements. It is also beneficial to consider practical implications in delivering a social farming programme, particularly to those with barriers to transport. It is hoped this paper will contribute to the growing knowledge of social farming as a meaningful therapeutic intervention in mental health occupational therapy practice.

Soil quality is in decline in many parts of the world, in part due to the intensification of agricultural practices. Whilst economic instruments and regulations can help incentivise uptake of more sustainable soil management practices, they rarely motivate long-term behavior change when used alone. There has been increasing attention towards the complex social factors that affect uptake of sustainable soil management practices. To understand why some communities try these practices whilst others do not, we undertook a narrative review to understand how social capital influences adoption in developed nations. We found that the four components of social capital – trust, norms, connectedness and power – can all influence the decision of farmers to change their soil management. Specifically, information flows more effectively across trusted, diverse networks where social norms exist to encourage innovation. Uptake is more limited in homogenous, close-knit farming communities that do not have many links with non-farmers and where there is a strong social norm to adhere to the status quo. Power can enhance or inhibit uptake depending on its characteristics. Future research, policy and practice should consider whether a lack of social capital could hinder uptake of new practices and, if so, which aspects of social capital could be developed to increase adoption of sustainable soil management practices. Enabling diverse, collaborative groups (including farmers, advisers and government officials) to work constructively together could help build social capital, where they can co-define, -develop and -enact measures to sustainably manage soils.

Farmers all over the country have been exposed to various adaptation strategies to climate change. The adaptation options however focus too closely on technical skills and technologies and fail to address critical social factors such as culture, beliefs and values that influence the adoption and effective implementation of new adaptation technologies, skills and capacity. This paper aims to assess the socioeconomic factors influencing farmers’ specific adaptive strategies to climate change in Pwalugu and Balungu communities in the Talensi district of the Upper East Region of Ghana. This study used purposive sampling technique to select the study communities, whereas simple random sampling technique was used to select a total of 100 respondents from the selected communities. Questionnaires, key informant interviews and focus group discussions were used in collecting data from respondents. This study used detailed statistical test to analyze the data, and the results are presented in the form of figures and tables. This study highlights the legal and institutional context which must be adopted for effective response to climate change impacts in rural communities in Northern Ghana. It also recommends that government and relevant stakeholders should collaborate with financial institutions to ensure that funds are readily available to farmers to enable them to effectively adapt to climate change as well as provide training/workshop programs to farmers to enhance their capacity in planning and implementing effective strategies to climate change.

This study used the integrated methodological approach where quantitative methods were combined with appropriate qualitative methods. According to Sandelowski (2000), this method ensures reliability (the extents to which results are consistent over time) and validity (the means of which measurements are accurate) of the research. A combination of participatory methods, including key informant interviews, household questionnaire surveys and focus-group discussions were used, allowing local people the opportunity to participate by sharing their experiences and knowledge to outline possible solutions to the problem at hand. Multiple methods (Yeasmin and Rahman, 2012) are good at reducing the inadequacies of a single method. Cross-sectional study was used in designing the research. Variables were measured or determined at the same period in a given population. This method allowed the assessment of practices, attitudes, knowledge and beliefs of a population in relation to a particular event or phenomenon (Olsen and George, 2014).

The findings of this study revealed farming as the major occupation in the two communities with males being dominant. Diverse livelihood activities such as fishing, animal/poultry rearing, firewood/charcoal production, hunting and driving were other activities respondents engaged to earn a living. In terms of institutional arrangements, avoidance of bush burning and tree felling were the norms influencing decision-making in the two communities. Fear of being punished, animals feeding on some of the grasses, trees inducing rainfall as well as benefits respondents get from trees were the reasons these norms were adhered to in the study area. Access to land, gender dynamics and finance were identified as the socioeconomic factors in the study area. High demands by landowners, last minute change of mind by landowners, limited fertile lands, lack of money to acquire lands, behavior of tenants, number of acres required and lands far from water bodies were the challenges associated with acquiring land in the communities. Access to finance influenced respondents’ ability to acquire fertile lands, lands closer to water bodies and any number of acres of their choice. Gender however impeded women adaptation strategies to climate change. Women were not allowed to own land and other property in the form of animals simply because they are seen as migrants and they do not know the history of the land.

This is a master’s thesis project. This paper shows the socioeconomic factors, which are influencing farmers’ specific adaptation to climate change in the Talensi district of Ghana.