Climate impacts and agricultural resilience: The role of adaptive technology accumulation in mitigating land productivity

This study examines how the accumulation and joint use of adaptive technologies strengthen agricultural resilience to climate change. Using farm survey data matched with long term weather records from China’s two major grain producing regions, we distinguish portfolios of land and water management practices and quantify their effects on crop yields under extreme climate shocks. Technological accumulation substantially mitigates yield losses: a one unit increase in accumulated land management technologies reduces output losses by up to 43.16% under extreme high temperature and 90.38% under extreme low temperature shocks, while accumulated water management technologies offset about 28.90% of the losses from extreme heat. The combined adoption of land and water management technologies further reduces output losses from extreme high temperatures by roughly 43.00%, indicating strong complementarities between technology families. These results highlight the importance of policies and extension strategies that promote diversified portfolios and sustained accumulation of adaptive technologies to stabilize land productivity and support climate resilient agricultural development.