Systematic Review of Impacts of Diverse Policies on Adoption of Climate-Smart Agriculture Technologies for Climate Change Adaptation in Africa
Abstract
Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) has become an important strategy for improving agricultural productivity, strengthening climate resilience, and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases across African countries. This article provides a systematic review of 32 peer-reviewed studies published between 2020 and 2026, conducted using major academic databases and institutional publications. This review synthesises evidence of the effects of various global, regional, and national-level policies on the intensity of adoption and uptake of climate-smart agriculture technologies (CSATs) for climate change adaptation, especially among smallholders in Africa. Reviewed databases included Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, and grey literature from CGIAR–AICCRA, FAO, and the World Bank. The systematic literature search involved the use of Boolean operators, phrase searching, and truncation based on predefined selection criteria. The review found that policy implementation, increased access to extension services, weather information, financial incentives from stakeholders, and secure land ownership for both genders are the key drivers of adoption of CSA. The review also showed that integrated CSA technologies, particularly drought-tolerant crop varieties used in conjunction with conservation agriculture practices, efficiently increased agricultural productivity and strengthened farmers’ resilience to climate shocks. This review further highlights significant gaps and weaknesses in existing adaptation frameworks on gender-blindness or disparity, with disproportionate impact on women's credit access and land rights, and strong top-down approaches that routinely exclude indigenous knowledge systems. The review recommends multi-stakeholder coordination platforms, decentralised public-private risk-mitigation financing, gender-inclusion, and community-led resilience hubs to integrate CSATs within economic development priorities of the African continent.