Climate-change and variability (CC&V) exerts multiple stresses on agriculture production. It negatively impacts gender-cadres especially in Kenya's arid and semi-arid lands that occupy 89% (area), 36% (population), 70% (livestock), and 90% (wildlife). Smallholders with limited resources endowments have adopted climate-smart agriculture technologies, which are viewed as a panacea to CC&V in addressing interlinked food-security challenges. This paper reports baseline survey results on 149 randomly selected households in Kalii watershed. Primary and secondary data were collected in March 2015. Data-analyses encompassed regressions, descriptive statistics and gender-analysis. Local perceptions/results revealed precipitations downwardtrend and an upward-trend of temperatures, and other elements, and outcomes of CC&V. Gender and innovations are statistically significant at (p<0.05). Decision-making on assets' and proceeds' control and use, was men's domain. Invariably, gender and climate-smart agriculture innovations are critical in food and nutrition security strategy under CC&V.
This study uses a choice experiment method to quantify farmers' valuation of key bean variety attributes under different climatic conditions of Kenya and assess their willingness to pay or accept for changes in those attributes. The study also tests for the gender related heterogeneity in attribute preferences at individual and household level while accounting for differences in production scenarios to understand when and where men and women preferences begin to diverge or converge. The key common bean attributes were: yield, tolerance to environmental stresses (intermittent drought and root rot), early maturing, taste and reduced cooking time. Choice data was collected from random selected 504 households from purposively selected districts of high drought prone areas and high rainfall parts of Kenya. A random parameter logit model with interactions that accounts for random heterogeneity and conditional heterogeneity was used to derive unbiased estimates. Results indicate that all attributes are important but farmer derive higher utility from changes in consumption and post-harvest attributes compared to those in production attributes. Farmer valuation of the changes in yield, tolerance to environmental stresses and cooking time are heterogeneous, partly explained by size of the household, gender, risk aversion and market access. Men generally are likely to derive higher values from improvements in these attributes than women. Results have important implications for breeding priority setting, seed dissemination and integration of gender into bean improvement research.
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