Uneven resilience and everyday adaptation: making Rwanda's green revolution ‘climate smart’

Abstract

Regimes of agricultural modernization and climate change adaptation have converged in Rwanda under the banner of ‘climate smart agriculture’. Findings from a study with four agrarian communities show how external agendas of climate smartness can undermine locally rooted strategies for navigating social and environmental uncertainties. Through a focus on two crops (maize and sweet potato), this paper illustrates how climate resilience can be viewed as an uneven and incomplete process situated in peasants’ struggles for viability, autonomy, and wellbeing. I suggest that attention to everyday adaptations can help researchers and practitioners think beyond the technical adjustments that currently dominate institutionalized responses to climate change.