The climate change adaptation field has evolved considerably in recent years. Important contributions have been made, with scholars developing methods for assessing vulnerability in different countries and communities, documenting broad strategies for adaptation and identifying opportunities for and barriers to adaptation as well as ways to enhance adaptive capacity. Issues of sustainability are, however, not readily argued and embraced. Predominantly, our analysis exposes that current adaptation discourse, particularly in Africa, offers a narrow conceptualisation of sustainability. The paper argues for a clear framework of sustainability in adaptation discourse which encompasses awareness to contextual aspects in responding to climate variability and change as well as resilience aspects. The paper also calls for an expansion of the knowledge base around the concept of ‘climate-smart agriculture’ towards effectively incorporating sustainability aspects in climate change adaptation discourse.

近年来，气候变化适应领域已经发生了很大的变化。做出了重要的贡献，学者们开发了评估不同国家和社区中的脆弱性的方法，记录了广泛的适应战略并确定了适应的机会和障碍以及增强适应能力的方法。但是，关于可持续性的问题并不容易争论和接受。主要地，我们的分析揭示了当前的适应性话语，特别是在非洲，提供了关于可持续性的狭义概念。本文主张在适应性话语中建立一个清晰的可持续性框架，其中包括在应对气候变化和变化以及适应力方面对背景方面的认识。