IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/jasjnl/v5y2013i8p252.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Farmers’ Perception of and Coping Strategies to Climate Change: Evidence From Six Agro-Ecological Zones of Uganda

Author

Listed:
  • Joshua Okonya
  • Katja Syndikus
  • Jürgen Kroschel

Abstract

In Uganda, weather-related events such as prolonged dry seasons, floods, storms, mudslides, extreme rainfall, and delayed/early rains have become more frequent and/or intense. This has left most of the rural poor farmers’ food insecure and their livelihoods threatened. A total of 192 sweetpotato farmer households distributed in six agro-ecological zones were interviewed to assess how farmers perceive the effects of changes in climatic variables, and how they have adjusted their farming practices to cope with the changes in climate. Gender of the household head and size of land owned significantly affected adaptation. Ninety nine percent of all households interviewed had observed a change in the climate in the last 10 years. Drought and floods had the highest impact on crop production across agro-ecological zones. Coping strategies towards extreme events included storing food, income diversification and digging drainage channels. Other strategies were planting trees; high-yielding, early-maturing, drought-tolerant, disease and/or pest-resistant varieties; planting at onset of rains; increased pesticide/fungicide application among others. The smallholder farmer households studied have a high awareness of changes in rainfall and temperature and have taken measures to cope with effects of a changing climate.

Suggested Citation

  • Joshua Okonya & Katja Syndikus & Jürgen Kroschel, 2013. "Farmers’ Perception of and Coping Strategies to Climate Change: Evidence From Six Agro-Ecological Zones of Uganda," Journal of Agricultural Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 5(8), pages 252-252, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:jasjnl:v:5:y:2013:i:8:p:252
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jas/article/download/26639/17280
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jas/article/view/26639
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. Arbuckle & Lois Morton & Jon Hobbs, 2013. "Farmer beliefs and concerns about climate change and attitudes toward adaptation and mitigation: Evidence from Iowa," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 118(3), pages 551-563, June.
    2. S. Seo & Robert Mendelsohn & Ariel Dinar & Rashid Hassan & Pradeep Kurukulasuriya, 2009. "A Ricardian Analysis of the Distribution of Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture across Agro-Ecological Zones in Africa," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 43(3), pages 313-332, July.
    3. Mendelsohn, Robert & Dinar, Ariel & Williams, Larry, 2006. "The distributional impact of climate change on rich and poor countries," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 159-178, April.
    4. Hassan, Rashid M. & Nhemachena, Charles, 2008. "Determinants of African farmers’ strategies for adapting to climate change: Multinomial choice analysis," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 2(01), pages 1-22, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Byela Tibesigwa & Martine Visser & Jane Turpie, 2017. "Climate change and South Africa’s commercial farms: an assessment of impacts on specialised horticulture, crop, livestock and mixed farming systems," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 607-636, April.
    2. Yves Yao Soglo & Gbêtondji Melaine Armel Nonvide, 2019. "Climate change perceptions and responsive strategies in Benin: the case of maize farmers," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 155(2), pages 245-256, July.
    3. Jawid, Asadullah & Khadjavi, Menusch, 2019. "Adaptation to climate change in Afghanistan: Evidence on the impact of external interventions," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 64-82.
    4. Amarnath Tripathi, 2016. "How to Encourage Farmers to Adapt to Climate Change?," IEG Working Papers 369, Institute of Economic Growth.
    5. Suresh, Kanesh & Khanal, Uttam & Wilson, Clevo & Managi, Shunsuke & Quayle, Annette & Santhirakumar, Samithamby, 2021. "An economic analysis of agricultural adaptation to climate change impacts in Sri Lanka: An endogenous switching regression analysis," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    6. Chonabayashi, Shun & Jithitikulchai, Theepakorn & Qu, Yeqing, 2020. "Does agricultural diversification build economic resilience to drought and flood? Evidence from poor households in Zambia," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 15(01), March.
    7. Boris O. K. Lokonon & Aklesso Y. G. Egbendewe & Naga Coulibaly & Calvin Atewamba, 2019. "The Potential Impact Of Climate Change On Agriculture In West Africa: A Bio-Economic Modeling Approach," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 10(04), pages 1-30, November.
    8. Isaure Delaporte & Mathilde Maurel, 2018. "Adaptation to climate change in Bangladesh," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 49-62, January.
    9. Julius Kotir, 2011. "Climate change and variability in Sub-Saharan Africa: a review of current and future trends and impacts on agriculture and food security," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 587-605, June.
    10. Esfandiari, Mehdi & Mirzaei Khalilabad, Hamid R. & Boshrabadi, Hossien Mehrabi & Mehrjerdi, Mohmmad R. Zare, 2020. "Factors influencing the use of adaptation strategies to climate change in paddy lands of Kamfiruz, Iran," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    11. Robert Becker Pickson & Ge He, 2021. "Smallholder Farmers’ Perceptions, Adaptation Constraints, and Determinants of Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change in Chengdu," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, July.
    12. Imtiaz Alam Khan & Muhammad Rafiq & Sanaullah Panezai & Shahab E. Saqib & Raza Ullah & Muhammad Atiq, 2022. "How do farmers cope with climate change? An analysis of alternative adaptation strategies in drought-hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa—Pakistan," 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. 112(3), pages 2259-2275, July.
    13. Mofoluwawo Esther Omoniyi, 2020. "Sensitizing Nigerian Citizens on the Effects of Climate Change: Challenges for Social Studies Curriculum Planners and Implementers," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 4(9), pages 699-703, September.
    14. Alejandro Lopez-Feldman, 2013. "Climate change, agriculture, and poverty: A household level analysis for rural Mexico," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(2), pages 1126-1139.
    15. Giuseppe Maggio & Marina Mastrorillo & Nicholas J. Sitko, 2022. "Adapting to High Temperatures: Effect of Farm Practices and Their Adoption Duration on Total Value of Crop Production in Uganda," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(1), pages 385-403, January.
    16. Gupta, Rishabh & Mishra, Ashok, 2019. "Climate change induced impact and uncertainty of rice yield of agro-ecological zones of India," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 1-11.
    17. Matthias Schmidt & Hermann Held & Elmar Kriegler & Alexander Lorenz, 2013. "Climate Policy Under Uncertain and Heterogeneous Climate Damages," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 54(1), pages 79-99, January.
    18. Mpho Tshikororo & Phineas Khazamula Chauke & Jethro Zuwarimwe, 2024. "Influence of Farmers’ Socio-economic Characteristics in Selection of Climate Change Adaptive Strategies," Journal of Agricultural Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 13(3), pages 135-135, April.
    19. David Klenert & Franziska Funke & Linus Mattauch & Brian O’Callaghan, 2020. "Five Lessons from COVID-19 for Advancing Climate Change Mitigation," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 76(4), pages 751-778, August.
    20. Nicolas Taconet & Aurélie Méjean & Céline Guivarch, 2020. "Influence of climate change impacts and mitigation costs on inequality between countries," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 15-34, May.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ibn:jasjnl:v:5:y:2013:i:8:p:252. 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: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.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.