From vulnerability to viability: integrating global evidence and Fijian insights for sugarcane resilience in SIDS

The Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are epicenters of a global climate crisis where agricultural systems, particularly the historically vital sugarcane sector, face existential threats. The academic and policy responses to this crisis, however, have been defined by a critical flaw: a deep-seated fragmentation that addresses biophysical, socioeconomic, and institutional challenges in isolation. This paradigm has demonstrably failed to build meaningful resilience. This study challenges this fragmented approach by proposing a new conceptual model: the integrated resilience framework. We posit that sustainable resilience is not an additive outcome of piecemeal interventions but an emergent property of the synergistic interplay between three core pillars: biophysical capacity, socioeconomic empowerment, and institutional agility. Grounded in a critical synthesis of global literature and empirical evidence from Fiji, this study first deconstructs the climate threat as an interconnected cascade, where biophysical shocks trigger systemic socioeconomic decay. It then moves to a critique of the current adaptation landscape, arguing that its persistent failures stem from a fundamental inability to address this systemic complexity. The proposed framework offers a direct theoretical and practical alternative, conceptualizing resilience as a holistic system underpinned by catalytic enablers such as predictive analytics and targeted finance. In doing so, this study provides a theoretically robust and actionable model to guide the necessary paradigm shift from managing vulnerability to actively architecting long-term viability in the world’s most climate-exposed agricultural systems.