Smallholder Adaptation to Drought
Small-scale farmers in the Global South are among the most vulnerable to climate change. Our research aims to gain a better understanding of how farmers in Sri Lanka, in particular, are adjusting their practices to deal with climate change effects. Since 2010, researchers from Vanderbilt University’s Institute for Energy and Environment (VIEE) have partnered with the National Building Research Organization (NBRO) in Sri Lanka to examine the connections between agricultural adaptation and climate change in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. To learn more about the larger project (Agricultural Decision Making and Adaptation to Precipitation Trends in Sri Lanka or ADAPT-SL), please visit the main project website
here. You can check out the forecastVeg
tool made by Dr. Burchfield and Dr. Nay
here
Publications
- Tozier-de-la-Poterie, A., Burchfield, E., Carrico, A. (2018). The implications of group norms for adaptation in collectively-managed agricultural systems: evidence from Sri Lankan Paddy farmers. Ecology and Society. 23(3):21. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10175-230321
- Burchfield, E., Williams, N., Carrico, A. (2018). Rescaling drought mitigation in rural Sri Lanka. Regional Environmental Change. 18(8): 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-018-1374-y
- Burchfield, E., Tozier-de-la-Poterie, A. (2018). Determinants of crop diversification in rice-dominated Sri Lankan agricultural systems. Journal of Rural Studies. 61, 206-215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2018.05.010
- Nay, J., Burchfield, E., Gilligan, J. (2018). A machine-learning approach to forecasting remotely sensed vegetation health, International Journal of Remote Sensing. 39(6), 1800-1816. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2017.1410296
- Burchfield, E., Gilligan, J. (2016). Agricultural adaptation to drought in the Sri Lankan dry zone. Applied Geography. 77, 92-100. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2016.10.003)[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2016.10.003]
- Burchfield, E., Gilligan, J. (2016). Dynamics of individual and collective agricultural adaptation to water scarcity. Winter Simulation Conference 2016 Proceedings. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2807452