Crop diversification and climate resilience in farming and rural livelihood systems: Advances, challenges, and pathways for sustainable development

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Abstract

Crop diversification can contribute to climate resilience, but improvements in soil health, biodiversity, yield, income, or diet do not demonstrate the capacity to absorb, recover from, or adapt to climatic shocks. This structured narrative review critically synthesized a corpus of 81 references spanning 2008–2026, combining foundational literature with evidence. The review focused on farm-and household-level systems and distinguished three evidence categories: direct resilience evidence, indirect evidence based on intermediate outcomes or proxies, and conceptual or mechanistic inference. Diversification generally improved ecological functions, stabilized aggregate production, broadened income and food portfolios, and could strengthen social learning. Direct evidence was narrower and concerned performance during defined adverse conditions; general yield variability and consumption smoothing under unspecified risk remain proxies. Outcomes varied with agroecological conditions, market access, farm size, labor availability, gender relations, and diversification design; competition, added labor, weak demand, and insecure access to resources could offset benefits. A refined theory of change therefore positioned enabling institutions and adaptive feedback as necessary links between diversification and resilience. Policy implications were graded by evidentiary support, and priorities were identified for longitudinal, causal, multidimensional, and gender-responsive research. Sources were compared narratively by study design, diversification practice, measured outcomes, and exposure to climatic disturbance; heterogeneous evidence precluded a pooled effect estimate.

Keywords

crop diversification / climate resilience / agroecological resilience / rural livelihoods / food and nutrition security / gender and social inclusion / evidence classification

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