Smallholder Resilience
Enhancing resilience of smallholder agriculture to climate variabilities
Researchers
Prahlad Lamichhane Brett Bryan Kelly Miller Michalis Hadjikakou
Photographs of smallholder practices in the Far Western Province of Nepal
Summary
Smallholder agriculture continues to be a major source of livelihood in many countries in South, South East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In regions smallholder dominance, impacts of climate change on crop yield would mean heightened food insecurity along with effects on multiple other dimensions, including environmental sustainability, health and wellbeing. The United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) explicitly states that investment in smallholder practice is a meaningful way to ensure zero hunger in developing countries. Governments aim to increase the crop yields substantially to achieve SGDs. Despite, neither the impacts of climate variabilities on the major crops are evident, nor are the pathways to sustain the agriculture in socio-ecologically heterogeneous regions as in Nepal. So the PhD project aims to put forward the science-based policy recommendations to sustain the smallholder agriculture in Far-western Province of Nepal with its tri-fold objectives: a) quantify the resilience of smallholder agriculture to climate variabilities, b) assess smallholder farmers’ adaptation motivations and actions towards enhancing climate resilience, and c) identify resilient pathways for ensuring sustainability of smallholder agriculture. Research informs sustainable agricultural policy development in smallholder crop production systems in the face of changing climate.