The Role of Digital and Climate-Smart Agriculture in Climate Change Mitigation: A Systematic Mapping Protocol for South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa
Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) has emerged as a critical global policy focus due to its potential to address the interconnected challenges of climate change adaptation, mitigation, and food security. By integrating innovative practices and technologies, CSA aims to enhance agricultural productivity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building resilience to climate impacts. The recent development of digital agriculture technologies, including precision agriculture and data analytics, has further enabled the implementation of CSA approaches. These advancements offer promising opportunities to optimize resource use, improve decision-making, and support smallholder farmers in vulnerable regions. However, there remains a significant knowledge gap regarding how digital agriculture can effectively contribute to mitigation goals without compromising food security or adaptation outcomes at the farm level.
This systematic mapping protocol provides a framework for compiling and synthesizing evidence on the role of digital climate-smart agriculture in mitigating climate change, with a specific focus on South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. These regions are particularly relevant due to their high vulnerability to climate change, dependence on smallholder farming, and the potential for digital technologies to transform agricultural practices. The protocol aims to identify the evolution, drivers, barriers, and on-farm impacts of digital CSA, offering insights into its potential benefits and limitations.
To achieve these objectives, the study employs a systematic mapping methodology that integrates two complementary search strategies. The first involves a systematic bibliographic search, which will identify relevant studies through predefined criteria. The second strategy, a citation chase approach, will trace references and citations from selected studies to ensure comprehensive coverage of the evidence base. Both strategies are designed to capture diverse sources of information, including peer-reviewed articles, grey literature, and case studies.
The inclusion criteria for the systematic map are based on the Population, Intervention, and Outcome (PIO) framework. The population of interest comprises smallholder farmers in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, who represent a significant proportion of the global agricultural workforce and are disproportionately affected by climate change. The intervention focuses on digital CSA technologies and practices, including precision farming, remote sensing, mobile-based advisory services, and data-driven decision support systems. The outcomes of interest include changes in greenhouse gas emissions, resource efficiency, crop productivity, and resilience to climate variability.
The systematic map will provide a comprehensive synthesis of the available evidence, highlighting knowledge gaps and areas of concentrated research. Results will be presented through narrative synthesis, an evidence atlas, and other visualization tools to facilitate understanding and inform decision-making. The evidence atlas will serve as a key output, offering a spatial representation of research activity and findings across the targeted regions. This approach will enable stakeholders, including policymakers, researchers, and practitioners, to identify priority areas for intervention and further research.
By addressing the interplay between digital agriculture and CSA, this protocol seeks to advance understanding of how innovative technologies can support climate change mitigation while ensuring food security and on-farm adaptation. The findings will contribute to the development of targeted strategies that maximize the benefits of digital CSA while minimizing potential risks, thereby supporting sustainable agricultural development in some of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions.
