Implementing Climate Resilient Soil Management Systems to Mitigate Drought and Flood Impacts in Agriculture

Abstract

Increasing climate variability, particularly recurrent droughts and floods, poses significant threats to soil health and agricultural productivity, especially in climate-sensitive regions. Climate-resilient soil management practices have emerged as important strategies for enhancing soil stability, water retention, and agricultural resilience under extreme environmental conditions. This study investigates the effects of drought and flooding on soil systems and agricultural productivity, while evaluating the effectiveness and adoption of climate-resilient soil management practices within an integrated analytical framework. The study focuses on climate-sensitive agricultural regions in Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Tanzania between 2010 and 2024 using open-access datasets obtained from NASA, FAOSTAT, World Bank climate databases, and LSMS-ISA surveys. A combination of fixed effects panel regression, Difference-in-Differences estimation, binary logistic regression, and Structural Equation Modeling was employed to examine environmental, behavioral, and institutional interactions influencing agricultural resilience. The results show that drought and flooding significantly reduce crop yield, with estimated effects of -0.401 and -0.284 respectively, while soil moisture exerts a strong positive influence (0.537), highlighting its critical role in mediating climate impacts. The adoption of soil management practices increases crop productivity by 34.2%, confirming their causal effectiveness. However, adoption is strongly influenced by institutional factors, as access to extension services increases the likelihood of adoption by over 146%, outperforming both farmer knowledge and policy support. Furthermore, system-level analysis reveals that both soil resilience (0.514) and adoption (0.486) significantly contribute to yield outcomes, demonstrating the interdependence of environmental, behavioral, and institutional systems. These findings suggest that enhancing agricultural resilience requires coordinated strategies that strengthen extension services, improve farmer capacity, and align policy incentives with effective implementation mechanisms.