Framework for implementation of climate-smart agriculture for common bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L. ) systems in Africa

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) has become a key strategy to tackle climate change, food insecurity, and agricultural sustainability in Africa. Its application to common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) systems remains under-conceptualized, and its approaches focus on immediate gains in yield and technology adoption, providing little consideration for biological and ecological processes that enable long-term resilience. In this review, the assumptions, evidence base, and methodological limitations of CSA in common bean production systems in Africa are critically discussed. An unstructured literature review was conducted from 2010 to 2025, and research focused on drought response, symbiotic nitrogen fixation, soil management, and climate-smart legume systems was synthesized. This review revealed that common bean is not just a target of CSA interventions but also a key ecological actor whose adaptation relies on physiological plasticity, plant–microbe interactions, and symbiotic nitrogen fixation. There is also evidence that the resilience benefits of CSA practices tend to be site-specific and are rarely assessed in the context of multiple climate stressors. Thus, this study suggests an ‘adaptive legume-centered’ climate-smart agriculture (ALC-CSA) framework that incorporates plant plasticity, Interaction-centered management, and conditional symbiosis, offering a biologically informed and analytical approach to understand and enhance the climate resilience of common bean systems in Africa.