Climate‐Smart Agriculture and Sustainable Livelihood: A Meta‐Analysis

ABSTRACT

Livelihood assets, both renewable and nonrenewable, enhance adaptive capacity and facilitate climate‐smart agriculture (CSA). The CSA approach includes implementing farmers' technical knowledge and investing in different resources and technologies for the improvement of the farming system. This meta‐analysis examined the impact of livelihood capital on key elements of the CSA approach by synthesizing the findings of 63 original articles published between 1980 and 2025. The findings showed that improving natural capital causes an increase of about 4%, 7%, 26%, 22%, and 9% in implementing farmers' technical knowledge, investing in genetic modification of products, progressing land use management, changing crop season, and efficient pest management, respectively. The improvements provide an important pathway for mitigating land degradation processes, as better management of soil, vegetation, and farming practices can reduce land degradation risks and enhance the resilience of agricultural landscapes. The meta‐regression results indicated that the progression of land use management can be affected by climatic, political, and economic shocks at 9%, 11%, and 9%, respectively. Among the spatiotemporal effects of improving livelihood assets, the greatest positive impacts were linked to implementing the farmers' technical knowledge in the African countries for the spatial effect. To improve farmers' resource‐based knowledge and reduce land degradation risks, policymakers should adopt a multilateral approach that simultaneously promotes natural, social, and human capital. This study makes a significant contribution to the current global livelihood capital literature by discovering the significant role of natural capital in promoting land use management. Accordingly, natural capitals are increasingly appreciated as a necessary element in achieving overall sustainable livelihoods by managing land use due to climate change.