Climate resilient agricultural practices for enhancing food security in vulnerable communities

Abstract:

Smallholder farmers in climate-vulnerable regions cannot afford to wait for policy solutions—they need field-ready practices now. This research assessed the adoption and impact of eight climate-resilient agricultural practices among 240 smallholder households in three districts of Karnataka, India, during 2022–24. A mixed-methods approach combining structured surveys, focus group discussions, and on-farm trials was used. Practices were grouped into soil-based, water-based, and crop-based categories, plus an integrated package combining all three. The integrated package produced the highest food security index score (5.4 on a 7-point scale) compared with the control (3.2). Adoption rates ranged from 21.4% (agroforestry) to 62.4% (mulching). Drought-tolerant varieties and rainwater harvesting yielded the greatest individual improvements in grain output (23.6% and 21.8%, respectively). Stepwise regression showed that the integrated package explained 74.1% of variation in household food security scores. These results confirm that bundled interventions outperform isolated practices for building food system resilience in rain-dependent farming communities.