Revitalizing indigenous practices employed by farmers to reduce agriculture’s vulnerability to climate change: a systematic review

The purpose of this literature review is to rejuvenate the traditional climate change adaptation strategies employed by smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study adopts a systematic approach, analyzing 77 relevant articles published in English between 2000 and 2022. The findings highlight the detrimental impact of climate change on African agriculture, which serves as the backbone of the continent’s population. In response to the effects of climate change, smallholder farmers and agro-pastoral communities have devised and put into practice various indigenous adaptive strategies. These strategies include livelihood diversification, integrating livestock with crop production, incorporating agroforestry into farming systems, diversifying cropping patterns, adjusting planting schedules based on traditional weather forecasting, and conserving soil moisture through techniques like mulching and physical structures. These indigenous strategies have proven to be effective, affordable, sustainable, and easily adaptable, significantly bolstering communities’ resilience to climate change-related disruptions. Nevertheless, the sustainable adoption of indigenous knowledge-based climate change adaptation strategies developed by smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa faces several challenges. These include insufficient documentation, limited support from younger and educated individuals, and inadequate integration with modern science. These obstacles hinder the widespread implementation and effectiveness of these valuable indigenous practices in addressing climate change impacts.