Navigating change in Greek viticulture: adaptation strategies and factors shaping farmers’ adaptive capacity

Abstract

Climate change poses critical challenges to agricultural systems globally, with viticulture, due to its sensitivity, being particularly affected. This study seeks to understand how the vine-farmers’ adaptive capacity shapes the strategies they adopt in response to climate-imposed challenges, with a regional focus on the long-recognized viticultural region of Nemea, Greece. The research uses a mixed-methods approach, including a survey (n=49), field observations, and in-depth interviews with vine-farmers and other individuals involved in the sector. Through these research tools, this inquiry recognizes key climate stressors, such as rising temperatures, droughts, unfavorable patterns of precipitation, and examines the wide spectrum of adaptation practices followed, ranging from incremental strategies like canopy management changes and addition of irrigation, to more transformational strategies such as changes on plant material and crops or even occupational diversification. The research reaches the conclusion that while most vine-farmers perceive and react to climate change, the adaptation strategies they adopt interact with their unequal levels of adaptive capacity. Financial constraints, limited human capital, social barriers, and uneven access to natural resources formed the mosaic of factors that influenced the vine-farmers’ adaptive capacity, and thus, the adoption of adaptation strategies. Among the changes implemented, some aligned with sustainability principles of viticulture. This alignment, though, was largely driven by cost-saving intentions rather than normative positioning towards these principles. The study contributes to climate adaptation literature offering region-specific information on how adaptation strategies are implemented in contexts where actors face limitations. Furthermore, the use of adaptive capacity as an analytical lens contributes to its application in a less-explored Southern European context. Finally, this work highlights the need for context-specific and bottom-up policies and knowledge production that empower vinefarmers economically, institutionally, and through access to trusted information.