Re-Defining Sahelian ‘Adaptive Agriculture’ when Implemented Locally: Beyond Techno-fix Solutions

Climate-related adaptation practices are often conscious policy decisions initiated from outside a community by governments, development agencies, or other actors. Whereas expectations that such adaptation strategies would positively interact with local priorities to support action, adaptive actions at one scale might also constrain actions at other scales depending on the context. Yet, limited empirical evidence exists on the tensions, or, in the best case, synergies between adaptation practices that cross spatial scales, policy arenas, and jurisdictional boundaries. Drawing on a longitudinal study conducted in agropastoral communities in Burkina Faso, I examined how higher scale agricultural adaptation actions initiated by government and international organizations were re-defined when implemented locally. The findings illuminate a discrepancy between the aims of (a) higher scale adaptation practices and (b) the strategies pursued by local agropastoralists. While higher scale initiatives, promoted since the great droughts hit the region in the 1970s and 1980s, remained technical in nature and aimed to boost agricultural food production, local strategies were primarily pursued to secure off-farm income and animal fodder. Efforts to advance adaptation across scales will necessitate better attention to local contexts such as off-farm activities as integrated and viable ways of agropastoralists’ ‘agricultural’ adaptation repertoire, and institutions, organizations, and local networks should move forward with collaborative processes, including local stakeholders from the outset, to develop broader adaptation plans than technological-only.