Climate-smart agricultural practices are becoming central in sustaining agriculture in the face of unprecedented climate change in developing countries. Climate variability and change is becoming a significant source of risk to smallholder farmers in Africa. Climate-related threats have already contributed to the reduction in productivity and food insecurity in developing countries. As a result, promoting Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) to sustain livelihoods under a changing environment is becoming an apparent agenda both at policy and academic level. Research has shown that the adoption of CSA practices is low across Africa despite showing promising outcomes to combat climate change through a reduction in CO2 and improving agricultural productivity at a relatively lesser cost. Many factors have been identified as stumbling blocks for the low-level adoption rate of CSA. Possible alternative solutions to address the limiting factors in the adoption of CSA should first start from making the ground conduce for innovation diffusion. CSA interventions need some fertile ground to mainstream and diffuse. However, the economy of developing countries like Ethiopia is dependent on smallholding agriculture, yet this sector is highly vulnerable to climate shocks and uncertainties, making farmers less resilient due to limited adaptive capacity and high sensitivity. As a result, smallholder farmers remain risk-averse towards new technologies and resistant to innovations.

The agriculture sector is the backbone of Ethiopia's economy and livelihoods. Heavy reliance on rain-fed agricultural systems has made the sector vulnerable to variability in rainfall and temperature. It is projected that climate change may decrease national gross domestic product (GDP) by 8–10 percent by 2050, but adaptation action in agriculture could cut climate shock-related losses by half. As part of this effort, CSA practices have been identified as promising technologies that would improve productivity while sustaining the environment and abating climate change. However, CSA related interventions have faced a list of stumbling blocks limiting their effectiveness.

Agricultural Risk Management

Smallholder farmers in developing countries are characterized by their risk-averse behavior. Uncertainties in weather and climate change on one end — low level of adaptive capacity, high sensitivity to unforeseen events — and low level of education on the other end have contributed to their risk-averse behavior. People who have been identified as risk-averse are found to be reluctant to CSA-related technology adoption. To address the problem, different risk diversification mechanisms have been recommended. Agricultural index-based insurance and access to credit are possible mechanisms that would potentially improve the rate of CSA adoptions through shifting risk preferences of farmers. Because of the high cost of assessing losses, traditional insurance based on paying indemnities for actual losses incurred is usually not viable; agricultural index-based insurance is believed to be an alternative risk management mechanism to smallholder farmers. Despite its potential to improve CSA adoption rates, the available data and research show that it is becoming impossible to make index insurance materialized without subsidy and government support. Besides, the lack of organized data to calculate the detailed index has hindered the pace of CSA related technology adoption. Moreover, there is a shortage of alternative financial access to farmers in Ethiopia. Access to credit has also been identified as one of the contributing factors to improve the pace of technology adoption.

Conservation Agriculture

Conservation agriculture is a set of soil management practices that minimize the disruption of the soil's structure, composition, and natural biodiversity, thereby maintaining climate change effects. Conservation agriculture (CA) is part of CSA practices aimed at improving productivity by reducing fertilizer use and CO2 emissions. The practicability of CA, however, lies in the underlying requirements. CA requires the use of previous crop residues to maintain soil cover. In a subsistence traditional agricultural community, where crop residues are either used for animal feed or household energy sources, it is impossible to keep crop residue to achieve CA sustainably. It also requires minimum soil disturbance by practicing minimum tillage. However, CA has the disadvantages of increased dependence on herbicides and slow soil warming on poorly drained soils. Regular crop rotations to help combat the various biotic constraints are other characteristics of CA. Under a smallholding farming system, crop rotation would be far from reality (1.2ha per household in Ethiopia), and it is difficult for farmers to practice crop rotation. In most cases, they prefer to allocate a sizable portion of their farmland to their stable crops like teff.

The Public Good Nature of Climate Change Mitigation Efforts

Efforts to tackle climate change impacts through CSA practices involve some household-level costs. So far, the fragmented livelihood and resource scarcity made interventions challenging without government subsidy. In most cases, CSA includes innovations embracing a range of activities including soil management, crop management, water management, livestock management, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, and energy. For instance, the benefits of CSA practices related to water management, soil management, forestry, and energy are not confined at the household level. They have public goods nature. As a result, people want to free-ride and fail to contribute to working towards the common good.

The land tenure system in developing countries also has limited farmers' interest to invest in their farmland in a long term perspective. Land tenure system has been improved through land certification in Ethiopia; however, there is scant evidence showing the impact of land certification on farmers' attitudes to investing in their farmland in a long term perspective.

Unfair Market Mechanisms and Input Prices

The ultimate objective of CSA is to improve agricultural productivity and improve climate responsiveness. Farmers are, however, facing market-related challenges to the marketable surpluses. Imperfections and full of unfair competition characterize the market mechanism. The value chain for agricultural products is in favor of intermediaries and wholesale traders; as a result, farmers get little or negligible from profits generated from agricultural surplus. A study to understand the impact of teff export ban policy in Ethiopia has shown that much of the revenue generated from a lift in export ban policy go to traders and store owners. Farmers are also facing skyrocketing input prices. Costs related to weed management, adoption of high yield varieties, and applications of improved irrigation technologies are becoming unbearable by smallholder farmers. The disparity of the expenses incurred and revenue generated leave farmers with less incentive to adopt CSA innovations.

The Key Towards Sustaining CSA Interventions

We have been observing agricultural technology-related adoption problems in developing countries throughout the modern history of agriculture. Sometimes, interventions are motivated because they have been effective in some parts of the world. At times innovations are simply a one time show and remain in vain and lack sustainability. We accordingly argue that to mainstream CSA practices and achieve the desired objective of increasing crop productivity and improve climate change responsiveness, we primarily need to address the stumbling blocks of CSA efforts. In Table 1, we propose possible groundworks before CSA interventions.

CSA practices adoption-related challenges	Possible ground works before CSA interventions
Risk management related Risk assessment related to rainfall, temperature, and productivity is challenging making premiums high and unaffordable to small scale farmers	The digitalization of agriculture and the use of mobile phones have been identified as promising solutions. Efforts should also be made to make ICT accessible to farmers. Maximize the use and application weather index insurance system.
Commons characteristics Climate mitigation efforts have commons characteristics, while farmers bear the costs related to climate-smart agriculture. Traditional and unchecked grazing lands and livestock feed systems	Training, awareness creation, information sharing, and scenario-based farmers training. Developing local cooperative institutions with some enforcement mechanisms. Introducing payment for ecosystem services.
Market-related Unfair agricultural product market  The high cost of inputs	The value chain system is not fair and favors intermediaries and whole sellers. The government should work towards institutionalizing the market system Invest in some homegrown less costly climate-smart technologies, and expand precise fertilizer application. Training on organic fertilizer development and use, and expand onsite pilot fields for practical experiences sharing.
Crop residue and rotation Lack of crop residue remaining due to alternative demands Unable to practice crop rotation	Introduce alternative livestock feed systems. Work towards alternative energy mechanisms. Introduce alternative stable crop varieties that can be produced with a small fraction of land. Introduce alternative dietary choices.

Table 1. Challenges and possible groundwork to sustain CSA

Conclusion

In Ethiopia, different pro-poor strategies, both as a response to climate change and to improve agricultural productivity, have been introduced. Sustainability has remained a hallmark of limitations in the government bureaucracy. Efforts are either onetime propaganda or driven by without a clear outcome. We believe that it is impossible to mainstream CSA without first addressing the limiting factors. CSA practices in Ethiopia, have a promising result. However, it has faced a list of stumbling blocks that should be resolved beforehand. Therefore, to ripe the all-rounded benefits of CSA practices, effort should be made first to create a working ground for an ease diffusion of the innovations.