Climate-Smart Agriculture and Agroforestry as Optimal Adaptation Strategies for Sustainable Agriculture Across Agro-Climatic Regions

Abstract

We conducted a comparative evaluation of ten climate change adaptation strategies across five diverse agro-climatic regions to identify optimal practices for sustainable agriculture. The study employed a mixed-methods design integrating field observations, farmer surveys, and environmental monitoring across 300 farms, with statistical analyses including ANOVA, principal component analysis, and multiple regression. Our central hypothesis was that certain measures would outperform others in simultaneously enhancing productivity, environmental resilience, and economic viability. Climate-smart agriculture and agroforestry emerged as the most effective strategies. Climate-smart agriculture achieved a crop yield of 6.2 t ha⁻¹, a water use efficiency of 2.81 kg m⁻³, and a resilience score of 92, while agroforestry delivered 6.0 t ha⁻¹, the highest soil organic carbon content at 2.15%, and a remarkable greenhouse gas reduction of 42%. Drip irrigation attained the highest water use efficiency at 3.12 kg m⁻³. Rainfed agricultural systems experienced the greatest yield improvement, increasing by 53% from 3.4 to 5.2 t ha⁻¹ with adaptation. Moreover, agroforestry provided the highest net income at 3190 USD ha⁻¹ and a benefit-cost ratio of 3.26, whereas climate-smart agriculture showed the highest benefit-cost ratio of 3.27. Primary barriers to adoption were high initial investment (mean 4.56 on a 1–5 scale) and limited technical knowledge (mean 4.33). Projection modeling indicated that climate resilience could increase from 74 in 2025 to 94 by 2035, with average crop yields rising from 4.8 to 6.7 t ha⁻¹. The principal contribution of this research is the systematic identification of climate-smart agriculture and agroforestry as optimal strategies for simultaneously improving productivity, environmental sustainability, and economic returns.