Trust among farmers is key to scaling climate-smart innovations
The study analyzed data from 514 smallholder farmers involved in Climate-Smart Sustainable Territories in Guatemala and Honduras and found that trust among farmers is a key factor in increasing the likelihood of knowledge exchange regarding climate-smart agricultural practices. The research also found that mutual support is particularly important in communities with low levels of trust, as it helps maintain an active flow of knowledge among farmers.
- Climate Action
- Climate-Smart Agriculture
- Guatemala
- smallholder farmers
Trust among farmers is key to scaling climate-smart innovations
The study analyzed data from 514 smallholder farmers involved in Climate-Smart Sustainable Territories in Guatemala and Honduras and found that trust among farmers is a key factor in increasing the likelihood of knowledge exchange regarding climate-smart agricultural practices. The research also found that mutual support is particularly important in communities with low levels of trust, as it helps maintain an active flow of knowledge among farmers.
A recent study published in Agricultural Systems provides new evidence on the role of social relationships in knowledge sharing among farmers and proposes a new way of understanding how the responsible scaling of climate-smart agricultural innovations begins.
As the climate becomes increasingly variable and extreme events more frequent, accelerating the use of innovations that can strengthen agricultural resilience has become a priority for agrifood systems. Science has made progress in developing solutions with the potential to help farmers address these challenges. However, ensuring that knowledge about these innovations reaches more farmers and is understood, adapted, and scaled remains one of the major challenges in research for development.
Addressing this challenge requires understanding not only which innovations work, but also how knowledge about them begins to circulate among farmers. The study Trust, support, and knowledge sharing: The role of social capital in responsible scaling of climate-smart agriculture, published in Agricultural Systems, provides new evidence that this process depends not only on the technical characteristics of an innovation, but also on relationships of trust, mutual support, and knowledge sharing among farmers.
To examine this question, researchers from the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, the University of Copenhagen, and the Gates Foundation analyzed data from 514 smallholder farmers participating in Climate-Smart Villages—known in Spanish as Territorios Sostenibles Adaptados al Clima (TeSAC)—in Guatemala and Honduras. The aim was to understand how different dimensions of social capital influence knowledge sharing about climate-smart agriculture and what this process means for the responsible scaling of innovations.
Beyond sharing information, one of the study's main contributions is a new way of examining how agricultural innovations begin to spread. The findings suggest that innovations do not begin to diffuse solely because of their technical characteristics. They also depend on social relationships that enable knowledge to circulate among farmers, allowing new practices to be understood, discussed, and adapted to different contexts.