Effective incentives for CSA adoption

There is a large and growing literature on the potential use of policy instruments for stimulating the adoption of CSA practices. The objective of this work was to review and understand how an array of potential policy instruments can serve as mechanisms for enhancing adoption and upscaling the array of potential CSA practices. The effectiveness of certain policy instruments are ascertained by means of a matrix design, capturing CSA practices (rows) and policy instruments (columns). Six key CSA practices were identified, namely water management, crop tolerance to stress, agroforestry & intercropping, soil & nutrient management, crop rotation & mixed systems, and pest & disease management. Also six key policy instruments were identified, namely market prices, taxes & subsidies, land rights, rural finance, training & information, and certification
& labelling. Available studies have a narrow focus on the functional properties of policy instruments, disregarding indirect effects through income enhancement and food security. Also most studies look at an isolated combination of a specific policy instrument and CSA practice, thereby ignoring substitution, complementary or conditional effects between policy measures and CSA practices. We advocate for more integrated approaches that also consider the indirect effects of policy instruments on CSA adoption an upscaling.