Does exposure to climate risk drivers knowledge acquisition and adoption of risk-mitigating technologies? Evidence from a meta-analysis of goat farming in India

Our understanding of knowledge and adoption of climate risk-mitigating technologies in livestock/agriculture farming remains minimal. Existing research recognises socio-cultural, farming and innovation attributes as drivers of adoption, while overlooking the role of climate-induced hazards. To address the research gap, researchers conducted a random-effects meta-analysis of published literature. Pooling the results of studies showed that farmers in high- and low -hazardous states had similar knowledge and extent of adoption of risk-mitigating technologies except vaccination. The extent of vaccine adoption had a significant difference of 29 percentage points (p < 0.001), and hazard classification explained 82% of the between-study variance. This study also found women farmers had lower knowledge (28–37%) and adoption (35%) compared to pooled averages of 49% and 42%, respectively, reflecting gender disparities. This suggests that adoption of technologies addressing explicit threats in goat rearing is shaped by hazard level, leaving less perceptible or indirect technologies requiring policy support.