Sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) remain the panacea to addressing challenges relating to climate change, low rainfall, and low agricultural productivity in many rural parts of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). These practices include but are not limited to crop rotation, intercropping, cover cropping, and conservation tillage. The aforementioned practices have been scientifically proven to enhance crop productivity while safeguarding environmental resources. This review assesses the trends, effectiveness, and challenges associated with the adoption and utilization of SAPs among smallholder farmers in the SSA region, analyzing the literature and reports from 2000 to 2024 sourced from databases such as Google Scholar and Scopus. The inclusion criteria focused on key concepts such as SAPs, adoption, and challenges. Findings indicate that crop rotation, intercropping, improved seed varieties, manure, and mulching are among the most adopted practices. In reality, practices such as conservation tillage, agroforestry, and water harvesting systems remain the least adopted practices in many rural parts of SSA. The review further reveals that challenges relating to land tenure insecurity, lack of knowledge, training, and limited access to financial institutions all have a direct or indirect influence on farmers’ choice of adoption. Overcoming the aforementioned challenges through policy interventions and capacity building is vital for improved crop productivity and rural livelihoods.

Purpose: The need to tackle the problem of inadequacy of advisory services on Climate Smart Agricultural Initiatives (CSAI) rendered by extension agents led this study to determine the competency need of extension agents on CSAI using the Borich needs assessment model. Methodology: Data on importance and competence of tasks associated with CSAI were collected from two-hundred and seventy-seven (277) extension agents and analysed using means, ranks, discrepancy score (DS), weighted discrepancy score (WDS) and mean weighted discrepancy score (MWDS). Findings: The results revealed that although the extension agents rated a lot of the CSAI as important, they were only competent on just few of these initiatives. Furthermore, prominent areas of training needs on CSAI were identified which provided direction on areas of curriculum emphasis for in-service training on CSAI. Practical Implication: The recognition of the major areas of competency needs of extension agents on CSAI has far-reaching implications for curriculum innovation in developing trainings that will enhance their knowledge and capacity in the dissemination of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. Theoretical Implication: The study fills the lacuna of scarcity of empirical research studies documenting issues relating to the competence of extension agents on CSAI with particular focus on highlighting the areas of priority training needs especially in the region. Originality/Value: This paper is one of only a few to have pointed out areas of priority competency needs of extension agents on CSAI. This has several implications for educating and training extension agents on climate change issues.

Adaptation strategies are considered to be an effective measure to build resilience to the effects of climate change. The agro-weather tools for adaptation to climate smart agriculture were implemented as a pilot project in Embu and Ada’a Districts of Kenya and Ethiopia respectively. Random sampling technique was used to select 360 and 171 farmers from the population of project’s beneficiaries in Kenya and Ethiopia and data collection was carried out with the use of a questionnaire. The overall results show that farming experience and impact of agro-weather information were significant determinants of the use of all the tools. Ownership/access, extension contact, frequency of extension contact and extension agency were significant determinants of the use of short message service (SMS), newsletter, and radio while group membership was a significant determinant of the use of SMS, newsletter, and interactive voice response. The significance of these variables stresses their need in the planning and policy formulation for the use of agro-weather tools for information dissemination.

The importance of agricultural cooperatives and other community-based organizations in facilitating sustainable agricultural development in South Africa cannot be downplayed. The aim of the study was to analyse smallholder farmers’ perception of the effectiveness of agricultural cooperatives in rendering support services to their enterprise in Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to elicit data from a sample of 120 smallholder farmers drawn from 150 farmers—members who were currently active members of agricultural cooperatives. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data that were analysed using descriptive statistics. Multiple linear regression was used to determine the socio-economic and institutional factors influencing the member farmers’ perception of cooperative effectiveness. The findings revealed that although agricultural cooperatives in the area rendered some level of support services to their members, the majority of the respondents perceived their cooperative as ineffective in rendering some key support services to them that could potentially improve their livelihoods. The results of inferential analysis indicate that factors such as farm size, level of education, household size, farming experience, major crop grown/animal reared, number of cooperative members, support services received index, and satisfaction of leadership processes were significant socioeconomic and institutional factors that influence respondent’s perception. The study recommended increased government public recognition and support for agricultural cooperatives development, increased resource base through more access to grant and donations, and improved linkages between cooperatives and extension agencies as a means of improving the effectiveness of agricultural cooperatives in the area.

Sustainable farming practices (SFPs) are often touted as vehicles for improving crop productivity and the livelihoods of many rural households. However, SFP’s adoption rates remain persistently low, especially among smallholder farmers in many rural parts of developing countries. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the adoption of SFPs amongst smallholder crop farmers in Mbombela, South Africa. A simple random sampling procedure was employed to collect data from 294 farmers who were solely specializing in crop production. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire, and the analysis was performed with descriptive statistics. A multivariate probit model was adopted to determine the socio-economic determinants of adopting SFPs. The findings of this study confirm that SFPs are essential for addressing the abiotic and biophysical challenges that impede crop productivity, as farmers view these practices as highly beneficial in their farming activities. Also, the results reveal that crop rotation was the most adopted practice, whereas intercropping and conservation tillage were the least adopted practices in the surveyed area. Furthermore, the study showed that “gender, years of education, off-farm income, annual income, marital status, and satisfaction with extension services” were significant socio-economic attributes that do indeed influence the adoption of SFPs by smallholder crop farmers in the surveyed area. These findings underscore the need for the Ministry of Agriculture and rural development stakeholders to address issues relating to economic incentives, improve farmers’ perception of SFPs, provide financial literacy and support programs, and intensify efforts to promote underutilized practices.