Waiting For Help: Farmer-Extension Misalignments Within a Climate Resilience Development Program in Central Aceh

Abstract: This study explores how farmers and extension workers in Central Aceh interpret climate  resilience within a SCOPI–BPP agricultural program, and how these differing interpretations may shape trust, collaboration, and the uptake of adaptation practices. Farmers tend to value short-term assistance and responsive crisis aid over long-term development due to the disastrous  impacts of increasing climate shocks in recent years. Extension workers, by contrast, are limited  in their ability to provide aid through the limited funds of their development agency and  prioritize the long-term goals of climate resilience through training. The study develops a lens  based on relational equality (power dynamics of trust and collaboration) for interpreting  interactions between both groups, offering a hypotheses that requires further testing. Using a  sequential explanatory mixed-methods design (forty surveys conducted across three villages  immediately after a four-month heatwave, elaborated by fourteen farmer interviews and seven extension officer interviews) the analysis suggested a possibility of fracturing due to long-term  misalignment. While long-term development is more impactful with established farmer  communities and is unanimously seen as a benefit, entrant communities are prioritized for short term aid when available as an incentive for further partnership. Extension workers tend to  emphasize “willingness to collaborate” as a heuristic for allocating attention for aid, making  established communities that are dependent on the development agency to shift their  dependencies onto peer networks and informal adaptive structures. As climate shocks increase in  frequency and severity, it is hypothesized that further misalignment may lead to a fracturing of  collaboration, although follow-up research is required.