Researchers and development organizations regularly grapple with competing ecological and financial strategies for building climate resilience in smallholder agricultural systems, but rarely are such approaches considered in tandem. Using a social-ecological simulation model, we explored how different combinations of legume cover cropping, an ecological insurance, and index-based crop insurance, a financial insurance, affect the climate resilience of mixed crop-livestock smallholder farmers over time. The model simulates interactions between soil nutrient dynamics, crop yields, and household wealth, which is carried solely in the form of livestock. We assume legume cover cropping provides biological nitrogen fixation, thereby increasing soil fertility and productivity over time, whereas microinsurance gives payouts in drought years that provide ex-post coping benefits. Our model results indicate that the benefits of cover cropping to mean household income strongly complement the shock-absorbing benefits of microinsurance. Specifically, we found: (1) insurance always provides larger benefits during and in the wake of a drought, while cover cropping progressively reduces poverty in the medium- to long-term; (2) the use of crop insurance solely as an ex-post coping strategy may not reduce the incidence of poverty; and (3) legume cover cropping offers larger relative benefits in more degraded environments and for poor farmers. These results underscore the complementary roles that ecological and financial strategies could play in building resilience in smallholder agricultural systems. The stylized model constitutes an important social-ecological foundation for future empirical research to inform agricultural innovation and sustainable development priorities.

中文翻译：

---

生态和金融策略为小农的气候适应力提供了互补的好处：来自模拟模型的见解

研究人员和开发组织定期应对竞争性的生态和金融战略，以在小农农业系统中建立气候适应力，但很少将这些方法一并考虑。使用社会生态模拟模型，我们探讨了豆科植物覆盖作物（一种生态保险）和基于指数的作物保险（一种金融保险）的不同组合如何随着时间的推移影响混合型农作物-小农户的气候适应能力。该模型模拟了土壤养分动态，作物产量和家庭财富之间的相互作用，这些相互作用仅以牲畜的形式进行。我们假设豆类作物的覆盖提供了生物固氮作用，从而随着时间的推移提高了土壤肥力和生产力，而小额保险则在干旱年份提供赔付，从而带来事后应对的好处。我们的模型结果表明，套期保值对平均家庭收入的好处有力地补充了小额保险的减震利益。具体来说，我们发现：（1）在干旱期间和干旱期间，保险总是能提供更大的利益，而中长期种植保险可以逐步减少贫困；（2）仅将作物保险用作事后应对策略可能不会减少贫困发生率；（3）在更加退化的环境中以及对贫困农民来说，豆科植物的遮盖作物提供了更大的相对利益。这些结果强调了生态和财政战略在建立小农农业系统抗灾力中可发挥的补充作用。