Climate-Smart Agriculture as a Pathway to Resilient Rural Livelihoods: Evidence From Kenema and Kailahun Districts, Sierra Leone

Increasing rainfall variability, extended dry periods and reduced soil fertility are all contributing to the vulnerability of smallholder farmers in Sierra Leone's eastern agricultural belt to household food insecurity and income instability. While climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is often touted as a solution to these challenges, there is limited empirical evidence on the relationship between CSA adoption and resilient rural livelihoods (RLR) and the pathway by which this relationship is realized for smallholder economies in West Africa. This study investigates the mediating role of climate adaptive capacity (CAC) between CSA adoption and RLR and the moderating role of institutional support between CSA adoption and RLR for 400 farming households in Kenema and Kailahun Districts, Sierra Leone. Data was analyzed using a cross sectional survey design and structured questionnaire, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, Pearson correlation, hierarchical multiple regression, and bootstrapped mediation analysis in SPSS. The results indicate that CSA adoption is a significant predictor of both CAC and RLR, and CAC is a significant predictor of RLR, and that the relationship between CSA adoption and RLR is partially mediated by CAC, accounting for about 15% of the total effect. Institutional support did not significantly moderate the CSA-RLR relationship. The resilience of the farmers was significantly higher in Kenema than in Kailahun and there was no difference between the level of CSA adoption by gender and education. The results contribute to the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and adaptive capacity theory by providing an empirically supported pathway of adoption, capacity and resilience in a fragile, post-conflict agrarian economy and provide practical guidance for the design of extension and rural development policies in Sierra Leone and other similar Sub-Saharan African settings.