Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change: Are Climate-Smart Practices Important in Burkina Faso?

In Burkina Faso, smallholder farmers rely heavily on rain-fed agriculture, which is affected by climate change. The adoption of climate-smart practices is essential to strengthen the resilience of agricultural systems to climate change and improve household food security and, consequently, global food security. Despite the great potential of these practices to combat the effects of climate change on agriculture, their adoption by farmers remains low or limited. The reasons for this low adoption are varied, suggesting that the factors are largely contextual. This research analyzes the determinants of the adoption of climate-smart practices among farmers in Burkina Faso in the context of innovation diffusion. To do this, a multivariate probit regression model was used on survey data from 48,159 plots owned by farmers in the country. The results show that age, gender, access to credit, access to extension services, property rights, livestock ownership, and education are the main determinants of the adoption of climate-smart practices in Burkina Faso. Large-scale awareness-raising, training, and promotion, while promoting access to credit and land ownership documents, are necessary for better adoption of climate-smart practices.