Scoping Review of Climate Change Impacts on Smallholder Maize Producers in LMICs

Presenting a scoping review analyzing 38 peer-reviewed empirical articles published between 2008 and 2025 on climate change impacts and adaptation among smallholder maize producers in low- and middle-income countries. The analysis, conducted following PRISMA guidelines, identified three main outcome variables: adaptation strategies, perception, and climate awareness.

Use Cases

• Analyze the geographic distribution of studies, noting the concentration in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Zimbabwe versus other countries.
• Examine the prevalence of different research designs, such as cross-sectional, exploratory, and longitudinal, across the 38 articles.
• Investigate the application of theoretical frameworks, including random utility maximization and vulnerability theory, in the reviewed literature.
• Study the frequency of outcome variables like adaptation strategies, perception, and climate awareness across the analyzed articles.

Strengths

• Systematic review of 38 peer-reviewed empirical articles following PRISMA guidelines.
• Clear temporal coverage of literature published between 2008 and 2025.
• Identifies specific outcome variables and their frequencies (e.g., 70.3% adaptation strategies).
• Documents geographic distribution of studies, highlighting research bias.

Limitations

• Small scope, analyzing only 38 articles from a specific search strategy.
• Geographic bias with studies heavily concentrated in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Zimbabwe.
• Limited to quantitative or mixed-method studies, excluding qualitative-only research.

Provenance

Source

Systematic search in Scopus, Web of Science, and AGRICOLA databases.

Collection Method

Scoping review following PRISMA guidelines, with analysis using descriptive statistics in Excel.

Time Range

Articles published between 2008 and 2025.

Freshness

Includes literature up to 2025, with dataset last updated in 2026.

Geography

Focus on low- and middle-income countries, with specific concentration in Sub-Saharan African nations.