Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) seeks to improve agricultural productivity and incomes, strengthen resilience to climate change and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions where possible. Yet, technically suitable practices are not automatically adopted by smallholders. Adoption depends on labour, land, liquidity, information, credit, extension and the farmers? ability to absorb risk. The household resources shape the capacity to adopt, whereas the expected profitability, discount rates, crop choices and uncertainty shape the incentive to adopt. Low-cost and flexible practices often fit resource-constrained households better, while capital-intensive technologies may require suitable finance and markets. CSA should therefore be viewed as an investment decision under uncertainty rather than simply a behavioural choice.