Climat-Smart Agricultur in Lebanon
Lebanon’s agriculture faces a convergence of climate shocks, economic collapse, and weak institutions. This project examines how behavioral factors shape farmers’ decisions on climate-smart agriculture in fragile settings.
Factsheet
- Schools involved School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences
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Institute(s)
HAFL Institut Hugo P. Cecchini
Agriculture - Research unit(s) International Agriculture and Rural Development
- Funding organisation Others
- Duration (planned) 01.02.2026 - 31.01.2027
- Head of project Prof. Dr. Zenebe Uraguchi
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Project staff
Prof. Dr. Zenebe Uraguchi
Célia Bühler - Partner Leading House Mena
- Keywords Sustainable production systems;Climate change mitigation and adaptation;Innovation and co-creation of knowledge;Agricultural extension;Capacity building;Society, policy and rural development
Situation
Lebanon’s agricultural sector faces a convergence of climate volatility, economic collapse, and institutional fragility. Smallholder farmers—central to national food security—struggle with rising temperatures, declining rainfall, and soaring input costs. Although climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices such as drip irrigation and drought-tolerant crops are proven, adoption remains low. This 12-month project examines how farmers in fragile settings make decisions under stress. It is the first in Lebanon to systematically analyze six behavioral factors—present bias, loss aversion, optimism bias, social norms, bounded rationality, and mental accounting—and how they interact with structural barriers to shape CSA uptake. Led by BFH-HAFL and ESDU-AUB, the project uses surveys, behavioral experiments, participatory mapping, and stakeholder interviews in Bekaa and Akkar. It moves beyond diagnosis to design and test behaviorally informed interventions. Outputs include a bilingual CSA adoption toolkit, behavioral risk maps, a policy brief, and a peer-reviewed article. By integrating behavioral science into CSA programming, the project delivers practical, scalable solutions for resilient agriculture in Lebanon and the wider MENA region.
Course of action
The project has four core steps: (1) Identify socio-economic, institutional, and environmental drivers of CSA adoption. (2) Analyze how six behavioral constructs—present bias, loss aversion, social norms, bounded rationality, optimism bias, and mental accounting—shape farmer decisions under economic and climate stress. (3) Map where environmental vulnerabilities (e.g., drought, land degradation) intersect with behavioral barriers. (4) Design tailored interventions such as peer learning, behavioral nudges, trust-building measures, and context-sensitive financial tools. The project follows a translational pathway: behavioral insights inform experimental design (e.g., vignette-based tests), which guide field-level interventions and feed into practical CSA toolkits for NGOs and extension agents. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study combines a survey of 150 smallholder farmers in Bekaa and Akkar with behavioral experiments and participatory mapping. Surveys document CSA practices, socio-economic conditions, and service access. Participatory mapping links adoption decisions to environmental stressors. Qualitative interviews include key informants (cooperatives, extension staff, municipalities, NGOs) to assess institutional barriers, and a subsample of farmers to explore peer effects, risk perception, and trust dynamics.
