Document Type : Original Article
Author
Department of Rangeland and Watershed manegemet, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Jiroft, Jirof, Iran
10.22034/iwm.2025.2068029.1245
Abstract
Extended Abstract
Introduction: Climate change stands as one of the most critical environmental challenges of the 21st century, with profound implications for natural resources and the agricultural sector. It disrupts established climate patterns, directly threatening water sustainability, soil fertility, and the ecological cycles that underpin agricultural production. Globally, rising temperatures, shifting precipitation regimes, prolonged droughts, and the increased frequency of extreme weather events like floods and heatwaves jeopardize agricultural yields. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global temperatures have already increased by approximately 1.1°C since pre-industrial times and could exceed 4°C by the century's end if current trends continue. Such changes are projected to reduce yields of staple crops such as wheat, rice, and maize by 10 to 25 percent in some regions by 2050, with disproportionate impacts on developing nations reliant on subsistence farming. Iran, with its predominantly arid and semi-arid climate, is highly vulnerable. The country faces reduced precipitation, rising temperatures, recurrent droughts, and the depletion of surface and groundwater resources. These climatic stressors endanger agricultural productivity, rural livelihoods, and national food security, presenting multidimensional environmental, economic, and social challenges. This study employs a systematic bibliometric analysis to map and evaluate the international scientific literature on Iranian farmers' adaptation to climate change, addressing key quantitative, qualitative, conceptual, and geographic research questions.
Materials and methods: This research utilizes a systematic bibliometric analysis to map and evaluate the international scientific literature concerning Iranian farmers' adaptation to climate change. The focus on internationally indexed sources ensures methodological rigor and global scientific representation. A two-stage systematic search was conducted to identify relevant publications. First, a general search combining terms for adaptation, climate change, and Iran yielded 384 documents, including research articles, reviews, conference proceedings, and books. Second, a refined search incorporating agriculture and farmer-specific terms narrowed the corpus to 140 publications. The bibliographic data from these publications were imported into VOSviewer software for quantitative analysis. Techniques such as co-authorship and keyword co-occurrence analysis were applied to uncover collaboration networks, identify prolific authors and countries, and trace thematic trends and conceptual evolution. This quantitative bibliometric approach provides a data-driven overview of the research landscape, revealing knowledge gaps, methodological tendencies, and priority topics within this critical domain.
Results and Discussion: The findings indicate that scientific production on Iranian farmers' climate adaptation has followed a steadily increasing trend, with international collaborations enhancing both methodological quality and policy relevance. Thematically, most studies have focused on individual and socio-economic factors, vulnerability assessments, and behavioral models, although a significant portion (25%) lacked a clear theoretical framework. Geographically, research has been concentrated in agriculturally intensive and climate-vulnerable provinces such as Khuzestan, Fars, and Azerbaijan. The analysis identified a wide range of adaptive behaviors among farmers, including adjustments to planting dates, the adoption of drought-resistant seeds, improved water management practices (e.g., drip irrigation, rainwater harvesting), the use of innovative technologies like precision agriculture, engagement with economic mechanisms such as crop insurance, participation in educational interventions via extension services, and responses influenced by psychosocial factors like risk perception and self-efficacy.
Conclusion: This bibliometric analysis provides a comprehensive, data-driven overview of international research on Iranian farmers' adaptation to climate change, illuminating publication trends, key contributors, collaborative networks, dominant themes, and geographic focus areas. The findings highlight the multifaceted nature of adaptation, underscoring the necessity of integrating social, economic, and environmental factors while also pointing to a need for more robust theoretical frameworks to guide future empirical work. The study reveals significant regional research disparities, advocating for targeted investigations in understudied provinces. Furthermore, the results emphasize the critical role of international cooperation in elevating research quality and policy relevance. These insights can inform strategic planning for climate adaptation policies tailored to Iran's diverse agro-ecological contexts, ultimately supporting resilient agricultural development in the face of ongoing climatic shifts.
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