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Farm households’ adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices: empirical evidence from Seychelles

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Abstract

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) can improve the resilience of farming systems in the face of climate-related shocks, providing a win–win for food security and environmental protection. Despite such promising benefits, its level of adoption, as well as the drivers of adoption, are still not well understood due to insufficient scholarship in this domain. This study assesses the determinants of the adoption of five CSA practices among 247 randomly selected farmers across five agricultural zones in Seychelles. A multivariate probit model was used to evaluate the determinants of adoption, allowing for the examination of synergies and trade-offs between the CSA practices. These practices include crop and livestock diversity, agroforestry, irrigation, and shade houses. Though the adoption rate varied, all farmers have adopted at least one of five CSA practices. The level of adoption of shade houses was low at 18.2%, while crop diversity recorded a high of 92.7%. Some practices, such as agroforestry and livestock diversity, irrigation, and crop diversity, and the use of shade houses and irrigation, complemented each other. Trade-offs were observed between irrigation and livestock diversity. The number of years of schooling, household size, and resources such as land tenure, farm size, use of hired labor, livestock, and nature of farmland, and farm location were crucial drivers of the adoption of CSA practices among the surveyed farmers. Agricultural strategies should recognize the complementarity of CSA practices to enhance its intensity of adoption in Seychelles. We recommend re-evaluating the current CSA technologies and identifying new technologies to ensure optimal production in an island state with a limited land area.

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Acknowledgements

The UNDP Small Grants Program supported this work through the project "exploring innovative opportunities for promoting synergies between climate change adaptation and mitigation in Seychelles [SEY/SGP/OP6/Y5/CORE/YCC/2019/25], under the Youth and Climate Change portfolio awarded to the University of Seychelles. We want to thank the following extension officers in the five agricultural zones in Seychelles that participated in the data collection. They include Jennifer Lesperance, Joseph Victor, Elianna Staniella Radegonde, Elvina Barreau, Francios Simara, Alain Melanie, Bryan Vel, Bryan Albert, Colin Payet, Jim Lesperance, Shon Oreddy, Marc Francois, Kevin Humphrey. Also, a big thank you to the final-year students in the Environmental Science department who participated in the data collection. Finally, a special thanks to all the farmers in the North, West 1, South, West 2, and Inner Islands agricultural zones in Seychelles who took the time to participate in the survey.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. James Michel Blue Economy Research Institute, University of Seychelles, Anse Royale, Seychelles

    Daniel Etongo & Uvicka Bristol

  2. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Seychelles, Anse Royale, Seychelles

    Daniel Etongo, Larrisha Serret & Uvicka Bristol

  3. International Water Research Institute, Mohammed VI University Polytechnic, Lot 660, Hay Moulay Rachid, 43150, Ben Guerir, Morocco

    Terence Epule Epule

  4. Unité de Recherche et Développement en Agroalimentaire (URDAAT), Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT), 79 Rue Côté, Notre-Dame-du-Nord, Québec, J0Z 3B0, Canada

    Terence Epule Epule

  5. Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment (MACCE), Victoria, Seychelles

    Keven Nancy & Sandra Sinon

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Etongo, D., Serret, L., Epule, T.E. et al. Farm households’ adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices: empirical evidence from Seychelles. GeoJournal 88, 5847–5862 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-023-10945-z

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