Equity and Inclusion in Climate-Smart Food Systems: Drivers of Adoption of CSA, CIS, and Crop Protection Innovations

Climate-smart food systems aim to enhance productivity, build resilience, and reduce emissions, with a key emphasis on climate-smart agriculture (CSA) and climate information services (CIS), including sustainable innovations like biopesticides and integrated pest management (IPM). However, adoption and ongoing use among smallholders remain inconsistent and often limited. While biophysical conditions and farm resources play a role, persistent uptake gaps are mainly explained by socio-demographic and socio-economic factors that affect farmers’ ability to access, evaluate, and continuously use these technologies. Gender norms, intra-household decision-making, age, health, education, trust in information sources, and digital divides influence both the receipt and response to CIS and advisory services, as well as the successful implementation of climate-smart and sustainable crop protection practices. Recent studies highlight the importance of behavioral factors—such as perceived risks and benefits, self-efficacy, subjective norms, and trust—and institutional enablers like public programs, extension design, and delivery models. Yet, much current research focuses on single interventions and one-time adoption, often overlooking how diverse farmers combine (or “bundle”) CSA, CIS, and input innovations, how government and market policies condition adoption, and whether use persists, adapts, or declines over time, especially under changing climate risks. There is a clear need to better understand the intersection of behavioral, societal, and institutional drivers to design more inclusive programs and policies for climate-resilient food systems. This Research Topic aims to: Identify socio-demographic and socio-economic drivers of CSA, CIS, and sustainable crop-protection adoption and sustained use in smallholder systems. Explain how and why bundled adoption (CSA, CIS/advisory, bio-inputs, finance, insurance, or market linkages) differs across population groups and contexts. Assess patterns of sustained use, dis-adoption, and adaptation in response to climate shocks or learning effects. Measure equity-relevant outcomes and trade-offs across productivity, resilience, and mitigation, highlighting where synergies or tensions emerge. Test behaviorally grounded adoption drivers—risk perception, self-efficacy, subjective norms, trust—integrated with resource and institutional factors. Provide actionable recommendations for inclusive targeting, extension, digital and non-digital delivery, and program or policy design. Advance harmonized, rigorous evidence through comparable indicators and robust mixed-method or causal analytic approaches. We seek articles investigating how adoption and sustained use of CSA, CIS, and crop protection strategies are shaped by factors including gender, youth, education, digital access, health/disability, land rights, and migration. Attention to social inclusion, institutional quality, public–private service delivery, regulatory frameworks, and market incentives is encouraged. We welcome empirical, methodological, and review contributions that address trade-offs across productivity, adaptation, and mitigation; foreground equity in outcomes; and provide robust, scalable insights for transforming smallholder food systems. The goal is to close adoption gaps, support resilient rural livelihoods, and advance the triple climate-smart mandate: productivity, adaptation, and mitigation. Topic editors: Mamoni Banerjee, Oluyede Clifford Ajayi Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79118/equity-and-inclusion-in-climate-smart-food-systems-drivers-of-adoption-of-csa-cis-and-crop-protection-innovations