Adoption and impact of drought-tolerant rice varieties, flood-tolerant rice varieties, RiceAdvice app, mechanization, and climate information services on farmers’ rice yield and householddiet diversity

Frequent and unpredictable weather events continue to adversely affect agricultural livelihoods, requiring the need for climate action. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) and climate information services (CIS) have emerged as key climate adaptation strategies to help farmers curb the impact of climate threats on their livelihoods. Mali is one of the countries benefiting from the AICCRA project that aims to improve climate resilience and livelihoods of rice farmers. Between 2021 and 2025, the AICCRA Mali cluster has exposed farmers to different CSA and CIS technologies. Specifically, through the AICCRA Mali project, 427,155 rice farmers received climate information services (i.e., 253039 males and 174116 females), 6124 received drought-tolerant rice varieties (i.e., 4611 females and 1513 males), 41596 used the RiceAdvice app (i.e., 23607 males and 17989 females), and 17165 received mechanization services such as complementary irrigation, rice husker, threshing, harvesting, tractor, and tiller (i.e., 9784 males and 7381 females). The aim of this report is to assess the drivers of adoption of those CSA and CIS innovations, and their impacts on rice yield and household dietary diversity. Data were collected in the Segou, Sikasso, and Koulikoro regions using a randomized controlled experimental design (RCT). The RCT experiment was set up in 2021, and farmers in the treatment communes have been continuously exposed to different CSA and CIS technologies. Although heterogeneous for some interventions, the results underscore the importance of female household heads, younger household heads, households with larger farm size, households whose rice fields are closer to the markets, households that own a TV, households that have access to electricity, households vulnerable to weather shocks in recent years (flood, drought, and irregular rainfall patterns), households that received advise from extension agents, households that received material or cash support, households that received subsidies from governments, and households that have access to credit services as key drivers that positively influence the adoption of CSA technologies. Similarly, households with larger farm sizes, households whose rice fields are closer to the markets, households cultivating rice mainly for commercial purposes, households with access to the internet, and households who experienced a weather shock were also major drivers for the adoption of CIS technologies. The adopters of flood-tolerant rice varieties, drought-tolerant rice varieties, RiceAdvice, mechanization services, and climate information services reported on average a higher yield of 1881 kg/ha, 1597 kg/ha, 1687 kg/ha, 1707 kg/ha, 1148 kg/ha, respectively, compared to non-adopters. Meanwhile, the adopters of flood-tolerant rice varieties, drought-tolerant rice varieties, RiceAdvice, mechanization services, and climate information services consumed on average one additional food group compared to non-adopters. Overall, we conclude that the results show a robust impact for the adoption of flood-tolerant rice varieties, drought-tolerant rice varieties, RiceAdvice recommendations, mechanizations and CIS technologies on rice yield and household dietary diversity, suggesting that policies and interventions that aim to improve vulnerable farming households livelihood outcomes should promote the widespread adoption of CSA and CIS technologies.