Factors that influence the use of climate information services for agriculture: A systematic review

The use of climate information services (CIS) is widely considered as a key adaptation strategy for the agriculture sector in dealing with the challenges posed by climate variability and climate change. Although there are several examples of CIS programs with varying degrees of success in promoting the use of CIS in the agriculture sector, barriers to its successful use by agricultural decision makers still exist. Through a systematic review structure, this paper synthesizes the wealth of recent literature on climate information services to identify the common factors that influence the use of CIS by farmers and agriculture practitioners. The synthesis identified 22 factors, which were discussed under three (3) thematic areas, socio-cultural and demographic issues; programming mechanism; and institutional support and resource allocation for communities. Participation and engagement were the most readily identified in the literature synthesis and was found to be a key enabler to the use of CIS for agriculture decision making. Other distinguishing factors were related to trust in and credibility of CIS and CIS providers; and multi-modal communication channels; timely delivery of CIS. Key barriers to the use of CIS included gender inequality; lack of resources and poor infrastructure; and lack of trust in CIS and CIS providers. The factors identified in this review can be used by climate information providers as a guide to ensure the successful utilization of CIS information products and programs by farmers and other agriculture practitioners.