Farmers’ Economic Risks and Adaptation Strategies in Response To Climate Change: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Climate change exposes farm households to interconnected production, market, financial, institutional, and livelihood risks. This systematic literature review synthesizes international evidence on the economic risks experienced by farmers, the adaptation strategies they employ, the determinants and barriers shaping adoption, and the economic effectiveness of those strategies. Searches covering 2015–2025, supplemented by seminal studies, were conducted through multidisciplinary scholarly discovery and publisher records using combinations of climate, farmer, risk, income, vulnerability, adaptation, and resilience terms. Following duplicate removal, title–abstract screening, full-text eligibility assessment, and methodological quality appraisal, 21 peer-reviewed journal articles were included in the synthesis. The evidence shows that climate shocks reduce yields, destabilize income, raise input and liquidity requirements, and accelerate asset depletion, with the largest burdens concentrated among rain-fed, resource-constrained, female-managed, and weakly connected farms. Farmers respond through agronomic adjustment, water management, diversification, climate information, finance, insurance, collective action, and livelihood reallocation. Education, assets, extension, credit, social capital, risk perception, and secure resource rights consistently support adoption, whereas liquidity constraints, information failures, weak infrastructure, insecure tenure, and fragmented institutions impede it. Adaptation generally improves productivity, food security, or income stability, but effects are heterogeneous and estimates are vulnerable to self-selection, short time horizons, inconsistent measures, and limited treatment of interacting strategies. The review proposes an integrated pathway linking climatic exposure, economic risk, livelihood capitals, adaptation portfolios, and resilience outcomes. Policies should move from promoting isolated technologies toward context-specific portfolios combining information, finance, infrastructure, institutions, and safeguards against maladaptation.