Ecological and financial strategies provide complementary benefits for smallholder climate resilience: insights from a simulation model

Researchers and development organizations regularly grapple with competing ecological and financial strategies for building climate resilience in smallholder agricultural systems, but rarely are such approaches considered in tandem. Using a social-ecological simulation model, we explored how differe...

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Autores principales:	Tim G. Williams, Gunnar Dressler, Anne Elise Stratton, Birgit Müller
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Resilience Alliance 2021
Materias:	complementarity legume cover cropping microinsurance resilience simulation modeling smallholder agriculture social-ecological systems Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Ecology QH540-549.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/07b033438da843258fe62cef6dfec700
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:07b033438da843258fe62cef6dfec7002021-11-15T16:40:17ZEcological and financial strategies provide complementary benefits for smallholder climate resilience: insights from a simulation model1708-308710.5751/ES-12207-260214https://doaj.org/article/07b033438da843258fe62cef6dfec7002021-06-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol26/iss2/art14/https://doaj.org/toc/1708-3087Researchers and development organizations regularly grapple with competing ecological and financial strategies for building climate resilience in smallholder agricultural systems, but rarely are such approaches considered in tandem. Using a social-ecological simulation model, we explored how different combinations of legume cover cropping, an ecological insurance, and index-based crop insurance, a financial insurance, affect the climate resilience of mixed crop-livestock smallholder farmers over time. The model simulates interactions between soil nutrient dynamics, crop yields, and household wealth, which is carried solely in the form of livestock. We assume legume cover cropping provides biological nitrogen fixation, thereby increasing soil fertility and productivity over time, whereas microinsurance gives payouts in drought years that provide ex-post coping benefits. Our model results indicate that the benefits of cover cropping to mean household income strongly complement the shock-absorbing benefits of microinsurance. Specifically, we found: (1) insurance always provides larger benefits during and in the wake of a drought, while cover cropping progressively reduces poverty in the medium- to long-term; (2) the use of crop insurance solely as an ex-post coping strategy may not reduce the incidence of poverty; and (3) legume cover cropping offers larger relative benefits in more degraded environments and for poor farmers. These results underscore the complementary roles that ecological and financial strategies could play in building resilience in smallholder agricultural systems. The stylized model constitutes an important social-ecological foundation for future empirical research to inform agricultural innovation and sustainable development priorities.Tim G. WilliamsGunnar DresslerAnne Elise StrattonBirgit MüllerResilience Alliancearticlecomplementaritylegume cover croppingmicroinsuranceresiliencesimulation modelingsmallholder agriculturesocial-ecological systemsBiology (General)QH301-705.5EcologyQH540-549.5ENEcology and Society, Vol 26, Iss 2, p 14 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	complementarity legume cover cropping microinsurance resilience simulation modeling smallholder agriculture social-ecological systems Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Ecology QH540-549.5
spellingShingle	complementarity legume cover cropping microinsurance resilience simulation modeling smallholder agriculture social-ecological systems Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Ecology QH540-549.5 Tim G. Williams Gunnar Dressler Anne Elise Stratton Birgit Müller Ecological and financial strategies provide complementary benefits for smallholder climate resilience: insights from a simulation model
description	Researchers and development organizations regularly grapple with competing ecological and financial strategies for building climate resilience in smallholder agricultural systems, but rarely are such approaches considered in tandem. Using a social-ecological simulation model, we explored how different combinations of legume cover cropping, an ecological insurance, and index-based crop insurance, a financial insurance, affect the climate resilience of mixed crop-livestock smallholder farmers over time. The model simulates interactions between soil nutrient dynamics, crop yields, and household wealth, which is carried solely in the form of livestock. We assume legume cover cropping provides biological nitrogen fixation, thereby increasing soil fertility and productivity over time, whereas microinsurance gives payouts in drought years that provide ex-post coping benefits. Our model results indicate that the benefits of cover cropping to mean household income strongly complement the shock-absorbing benefits of microinsurance. Specifically, we found: (1) insurance always provides larger benefits during and in the wake of a drought, while cover cropping progressively reduces poverty in the medium- to long-term; (2) the use of crop insurance solely as an ex-post coping strategy may not reduce the incidence of poverty; and (3) legume cover cropping offers larger relative benefits in more degraded environments and for poor farmers. These results underscore the complementary roles that ecological and financial strategies could play in building resilience in smallholder agricultural systems. The stylized model constitutes an important social-ecological foundation for future empirical research to inform agricultural innovation and sustainable development priorities.
format	article
author	Tim G. Williams Gunnar Dressler Anne Elise Stratton Birgit Müller
author_facet	Tim G. Williams Gunnar Dressler Anne Elise Stratton Birgit Müller
author_sort	Tim G. Williams
title	Ecological and financial strategies provide complementary benefits for smallholder climate resilience: insights from a simulation model
title_short	Ecological and financial strategies provide complementary benefits for smallholder climate resilience: insights from a simulation model
title_full	Ecological and financial strategies provide complementary benefits for smallholder climate resilience: insights from a simulation model
title_fullStr	Ecological and financial strategies provide complementary benefits for smallholder climate resilience: insights from a simulation model
title_full_unstemmed	Ecological and financial strategies provide complementary benefits for smallholder climate resilience: insights from a simulation model
title_sort	ecological and financial strategies provide complementary benefits for smallholder climate resilience: insights from a simulation model
publisher	Resilience Alliance
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/07b033438da843258fe62cef6dfec700
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Ecological and financial strategies provide complementary benefits for smallholder climate resilience: insights from a simulation model

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