IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/ajosrd/197987.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Climate Change and Variability: Farmers’ Perception, Experience and Adaptation Strategies in Makueni County, Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Kitinya, Kirina T.
  • Onwonga, Richard N.
  • Onyango, Cecilia
  • Mbuvi, Joseph P.
  • Kironchi, Geoffrey

Abstract

A better understanding of climate change and variability (CCV) from the farmer’s perspective is a key to prioritizing measures to address and prepare for its consequences. A survey involving 150 farmers was thus conducted in Makueni County, Kenya to document farmers’; perception, experience and adaptation strategies to CCV. About 86% of farmers perceived CCV as a major challenge with 53% indicating that significant changes in climate would manifest in 10-20 years. Significant changes in rainfall amounts and distribution had occurred over the years and were rated by 60% of farmers as the frequently experienced aspect of CCV. About 33% of farmers had heard of but not used decision support tools (DST) to inform their agricultural activities. Workshops and seminars were reported by 67% of farmers as principal sources of information on CCV. Additionally, 50% of farmers relied on traditional knowledge for weather prediction. Only 20% of farmers had alternative strategies; agroforestry and growing drought tolerant crops particularly sorghum and cowpea, to minimize effects of CCV. Another 67% of farmers prioritized; terracing, ridging and water harvesting as adaptation strategies to minimize negative effects of CCV. The farmers were thus aware of CCV and through experience, backed with traditional technical knowledge, had gained prerequisite skills for addressing its negative effects. Nevertheless farmers’ agricultural practices could be improved by use of forecasted weather data and application of DST. Consequently enhancing farmers’ preparedness to tackle challenges posed by CCV.

Suggested Citation

  • Kitinya, Kirina T. & Onwonga, Richard N. & Onyango, Cecilia & Mbuvi, Joseph P. & Kironchi, Geoffrey, 2012. "Climate Change and Variability: Farmers’ Perception, Experience and Adaptation Strategies in Makueni County, Kenya," Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, Asian Economic and Social Society (AESS), vol. 2(03), pages 1-11, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ajosrd:197987
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.197987
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/197987/files/12-112-AJARD-411-421.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.197987?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jinxia Wang & Robert Mendelsohn & Ariel Dinar & Jikun Huang & Scott Rozelle & Lijuan Zhang, 2009. "The impact of climate change on China's agriculture," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(3), pages 323-337, May.
    2. World Bank & International Finance Corporation & Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, 2008. "Development and Climate Change," World Bank Publications - Reports 28200, The World Bank Group.
    3. World Bank & International Finance Corporation & Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, 2008. "Development and Climate Change," World Bank Publications - Reports 28201, The World Bank Group.
    4. Wafula, Benson M., 1995. "Applications of crop simulation in agricultural extension and research in Kenya," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 399-412.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Oluwabunmi Oluwaseun Popoola & Shehu Folaranmi Gbolahan Yusuf & Nomakhaya Monde, 2020. "Information Sources and Constraints to Climate Change Adaptation amongst Smallholder Farmers in Amathole District Municipality, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-23, July.
    2. Emaziye, P.O., 2013. "The Perceptions to Climate Change among Rural Farming Households in the Niger Delta Area, Nigeria," Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, Asian Economic and Social Society (AESS), vol. 3(04), pages 1-8, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Olga Golubeva, 2017. "Does Perception of Business Climate Differ Between Foreign and Local Investors. A Firm-level Study of Transition Economies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia," Applied Economics and Finance, Redfame publishing, vol. 4(2), pages 113-128, March.
    2. Christoph Böhringer & Jared C. Carbone & Thomas F. Rutherford, 2018. "Embodied Carbon Tariffs," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 120(1), pages 183-210, January.
    3. Zarsky, Lyuba, 2010. "Climate-Resilient Industrial Development Paths: Design Principles and Alternative Models," Working Papers 179080, Tufts University, Global Development and Environment Institute.
    4. Méjean, Aurélie & Hope, Chris, 2010. "Modelling the costs of energy crops: A case study of US corn and Brazilian sugar cane," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 547-561, January.
    5. Ricci, Olivia, 2012. "Providing adequate economic incentives for bioenergies with CO2 capture and geological storage," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 362-373.
    6. Natalia Zugravu-Soilita, 2018. "The impact of trade in environmental goods on pollution: what are we learning from the transition economies’ experience?," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 20(4), pages 785-827, October.
    7. Shannan K. Sweet & Jonathon P. Schuldt & Johannes Lehmann & Deborah A. Bossio & Dominic Woolf, 2021. "Perceptions of naturalness predict US public support for Soil Carbon Storage as a climate solution," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 166(1), pages 1-15, May.
    8. de Sépibus, Joëlle, 2009. "Reforming the Clean Development Mechanism to Accelerate Technology Transfer," Papers 7, World Trade Institute.
    9. Witt, Rudolf & Waibel, Hermann, 2011. "Constraints to diversification of poor fishery-dependent households in Cameroon," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 6(2), pages 1-21, September.
    10. Fischer, Carolyn & Preonas, Louis, 2010. "Combining Policies for Renewable Energy: Is the Whole Less Than the Sum of Its Parts?," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 4(1), pages 51-92, June.
    11. repec:idq:ictduk:2313 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. repec:wbk:wboper:16761 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. ZhongXiang Zhang, 2013. "Trade in environmental goods, with focus on climate-friendly goods and technologies," Chapters, in: Geert Van Calster & Denise Prévost (ed.), Research Handbook on Environment, Health and the WTO, chapter 19, pages 673-699, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Ibidun Adelekan & Adeniyi Asiyanbi, 2016. "Flood risk perception in flood-affected communities in Lagos, Nigeria," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 80(1), pages 445-469, January.
    15. World Bank, 2010. "Sub-Saharan Africa - Managing Land in a Changing Climate : An Operational Perspective for Sub-Saharan Africa," World Bank Publications - Reports 2874, The World Bank Group.
    16. Bader Alhafi Alotaibi & Azhar Abbas & Raza Ullah & Roshan K. Nayak & Muhammad I. Azeem & Hazem S. Kassem, 2021. "Climate Change Concerns of Saudi Arabian Farmers: The Drivers and Their Role in Perceived Capacity Building Needs for Adaptation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-22, November.
    17. Kerber, Samuel W. & Gilbert, Alexander Q. & Deinert, Mark R. & Bazilian, Morgan D., 2021. "Understanding the nexus of energy, environment and conflict: An overview," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    18. Jane Ebinger & Walter Vergara, 2011. "Climate Impacts on Energy Systems : Key Issues for Energy Sector Adaptation," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2271.
    19. Guido Minucci, 2016. "Assessing adaptive capacity of water management organizations. The case study of the municipality of Tomave (Bolivia)," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(7), pages 847-872, August.
    20. World Bank, 2008. "Ethiopia - A Country Study on the Economic Impacts of Climate Change," World Bank Publications - Reports 8030, The World Bank Group.
    21. Jan Corfee-Morlot & Ian Cochran & Stéphane Hallegatte & Pierre-Jonathan Teasdale, 2011. "Multilevel risk governance and urban adaptation policy," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 104(1), pages 169-197, January.
    22. Matopote, Given & Manatsha, Boga Thura & Joshi, Niraj Prakash, 2021. "The Influence of Swedish Aid in Rural Water on Agricultural Production in Botswana," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315390, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:ajosrd:197987. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aesstea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.