The impact on climate change perception and adaptation of smallholder concepts: Evidence from a sugarcane community, China

Asia and Africa have large groups of smallholder farmers. They are the main body of the adaptation to climate change in regional agriculture. Because of small management scale and weak accumulating capacity, smallholder farmers generally lack the ability to resist natural disasters and adapt to climate change. Understanding what factors impact on smallholders' perception of and adaptation to climate change are critical to appropriate adaptation strategies to reduce damage. This study analyzed how individual, environmental factors and barriers affected the perception of and adaptation to climate change on Chinese sugarcane smallholders in the higher level of productivity and the traditional smallholder environment. We systematically collected data on smallholders' characteristics and climate change adaptation through questionnaires and household surveys from 750 sugarcane smallholders in five national key support counties in Guangxi, China. The results showed that the level of Chinese sugarcane smallholders' perception and adaptation was relatively poor. Only 69.9% of the sugarcane smallholders perceived climate change, and 42.0% of them had consciously adopted adaptation measures. The developments of productivity and agricultural technology in China could not improve the smallholders' climate change perception and adaptation. The Heckman two-stage model results showed that the groups of sugarcane smallholders with poor terrain, non-Yao households, younger ages, smaller household sizes, higher household education levels and no migrant workers were better able to perceive climate change. Young-aged sugarcane smallholders with rich planting experiences were more likely to adopt adaptive measures. Inter-villager communication was the main channel for sugarcane smallholders to perceive and adapt to climate change, and the positive correlation coefficients reached 0.247 and 0.225, respectively. Trapped in Chinese traditional smallholder concept, sugarcane smallholders in Guangxi lacked the willingness to actively adapt to climate change. Even if productivity and agricultural technologies were developed, information, technical and financial barriers of smallholder adaptation to climate change had remained. Therefore, it is believed that the local government and well-adapted sugarcane smallholders should play the main role and improve participation degree, to stimulate the enthusiasm of sugarcane smallholders in China to adapt to climate change. The results of this study have references for other regions where smallholders are widely distributed in Asia and Africa.

Automated summary

Asia and Africa have large groups of smallholder farmers who are vital for adapting to climate change in regional agriculture. However, due to their small scale and limited resources, these farmers often struggle to resist natural disasters and adapt to climate change. This study focused on Chinese sugarcane smallholders and found that their perception and adaptation to climate change were relatively poor. Factors such as topography, household characteristics, and inter-villager communication had significant impacts on their ability to perceive and adapt to climate change. The study emphasizes the importance of government support and the involvement of well-adapted smallholders in promoting climate change adaptation among smallholder farmers.