Agroecology as a pathway for scaling climate-smart agriculture and strengthening food system resilience in Benin

Abstract

Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is widely promoted to address food insecurity, climate variability, and environmental degradation in sub-Saharan Africa. However, evidence on scalable and context-specific pathways for CSA adoption in smallholder systems remains limited, particularly regarding agroecological transitions. This study assesses agroecology as a pathway for scaling CSA and strengthening food system resilience in three communes of Benin (Dassa-Zoumè, Bohicon and Parakou), examining contributions to the three CSA pillars of adaptation, mitigation and productivity. A mixed-methods design combined a structured household survey (n = 210), semi-structured interviews with key informants (n = 32), and secondary agricultural and climate data (2010-2024). A composite resilience index was constructed using principal component analysis (PCA) to compare agroecological and conventional systems. Results show that agroecological farms achieve a 23% higher soil fertility index, a 31% higher resilience capacity, and a 17% reduction in yield variability under climate stress, relative to conventional systems. Crop diversification is 28% higher among agroecological producers, while dependence on synthetic inputs declines by up to 40%, improving system stability and adaptive capacity. Despite these benefits, scaling remains constrained by limited access to climate information services (reported by 35% of respondents), weak extension coverage (30%), and low access to climate finance (20%). The study concludes that agroecology provides a robust, evidence-based pathway for scaling CSA in Benin, and that strengthening digital climate services, extension systems and inclusive climate finance is critical to accelerate resilient and sustainable agricultural transformation in West Africa.