Climate-smart agricultural practices for promoting sustainable agrifood production: Yield impacts and implications for food security

Climate change is increasing the vulnerability of agriculture to climate risks and hindering sustainable agrifood production. This study explored whether and to what extent adopting climate-smart agricultural practices (CAPs) can contribute to food security by improving crop yields. We focussed on five CAPs—minimum tillage, improved rice varieties, farmyard manure, water-saving technology, and biopesticides. Recognising that the adoption of CAPs is potentially endogenous, we employed a conditional mixed process model that simultaneously estimates an ordered probit regression and a linear regression; the former investigates the factors that influence farmers’ decisions to intensify the adoption of CAPs, and the latter shows how intensifying the adoption is associated with crop yield. We analysed data collected from a survey of rice farmers that we conducted in five Chinese provinces (Jiangsu, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, and Sichuan) in January and February of 2022. The results show that intensifying the adoption of CAPs improved rice yield by 94 kg/mu (equivalent to 1,410 kg/ha). We also found that educated farmers, those who experienced a drought during the most recent growing season, and individuals who perceived the rainfall to have changed during the five years preceding the survey were more likely to intensify the adoption of CAPs.