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Paper short abstract

This study provides a critical assessment of the role of digital tools and artificial intelligence in smallholder farmers’ adaptation efforts under climate change uncertainty.

Paper long abstract

Climate change is intensifying uncertainty for smallholder and commercial farmers alike, disrupting rainfall patterns, increasing the frequency of extreme weather events, and undermining traditional agricultural knowledge systems that once guided planting, harvesting, and risk management decisions. In many developing regions, farmers face climate uncertainty alongside structural constraints such as limited access to extension services, markets, finance, and timely climate information, raising urgent questions about how digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI) can support adaptive capacity and resilience. Therefore, this paper presents a systematic review of existing empirical literature assessing how digital tools and AI-enabled applications—including mobile-based climate advisories and early warning systems—support farmers’ decision-making under climate uncertainty. The objectives are to: examine how digital and AI-driven tools influence smallholder farmers’ climate-related decisions and adaptive practices, and identify the conditions under which these technologies enhance or constrain equitable adaptation outcomes. The review follows a systematic protocol, drawing on peer-reviewed journal articles across agriculture, development studies, climate science, and information systems. Preliminary findings suggest that digital and AI tools can improve short-term climate responsiveness—such as timing of planting and input use—but often fail to address deeper structural vulnerabilities without complementary institutional support. Evidence also indicates uneven access and benefits, with gender, literacy, connectivity, and affordability shaping who gains from digital climate solutions. The study is important because it moves beyond technological optimism to critically assess digitalisation as a development strategy, informing more inclusive, context-sensitive, and justice-oriented approaches to climate-smart agriculture in an era of accelerating climate-induced economic and non-economic loss and damage.