Local Perceptions and Responses to Climate Change and Variability: The Case of Laikipia District, Kenya

Ogalleh, Sarah Ayeri; Vogl, Christian R.; Eitzinger, Josef; Hauser, Michael

doi:10.3390/su4123302

Cited by 128 publications

(102 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(65 reference statements)

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“…Anyway, coping strategies were implemented to respond to these constraints. The findings of this study are in agreement with those of Ogalleh et al (2012) in his work on Local Perceptions and Responses to Climate Change and Variability in Kenya. He reported that most farmers preferred multiple options, based on adaptation practices involving diversification and use of various crop varieties.…”

Section: Farmer's Perception Of Risk and Uncertainty In Climatesupporting

confidence: 82%

Climate Smart Agriculture as Final Goal: Use of Improved Cereals Varieties in Cinzana, Mali.

Traoré¹,

Sidibé²,

Coulibaly³

2017

JAS

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Climate variability and change are recognized as the greatest challenge to crop production and food security in sub-Saharan Africa. This work assesses farmers' perception on the contribution of improved varieties of sorghum and millet in the search for food security in Cinzana rural commune of Mali in the current context of climate change.The methodology was based on focus group surveys with both, the decentralized technical services, administrative and municipal authorities, NGOs, farmer organizations and producers but also farmer exchanges visits on improved varieties tested in farmer's field.The result shows that climate change is described by the majority of farmers (87%) as decrease in rainfall amount and length of rainy seasons, high increases in temperature and

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Section: Farmer's Perception Of Risk and Uncertainty In Climatesupporting

confidence: 82%

Climate Smart Agriculture as Final Goal: Use of Improved Cereals Varieties in Cinzana, Mali.

Traoré¹,

Sidibé²,

Coulibaly³

2017

JAS

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“…Research on understanding local perceptions of climate variability and its impacts is important for supporting the development of climate change adaptation policy at the local scale [21]. Agricultural livelihoods are dependent on the weather, therefore farmers pay attention to the variability of local weather and climate, and indeed they tend to notice changes.…”

Section: Conceptual Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptions of Present and Future Climate Change Impacts on Water Availability for Agricultural Systems in the Western Mediterranean Region

Nguyen

Mula

Cortignani

et al. 2016

Water

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Many Mediterranean countries have experienced water shortages during the last 20 years and future climate change projections foresee further pressure on water resources. This will have significant implications for irrigation water management in agricultural systems in the future. Through qualitative and quantitative empirical research methods carried out on a case study on four Mediterranean farming systems located in Oristano, Italy, we sought to understand the relationship between farmers' perceptions of climate change (i.e., increased temperature and decreased precipitation) and of present and future water availability for agriculture as forecasted by climatic and crop models. We also explored asymmetries between farmers' perceptions and present and future climate change and water scenarios as well as factors influencing perceptions. Our hypotheses were that farmers' perceptions are the main drivers of actual water management practices and that sustainable practices can emerge from learning spaces designed from the understanding of the gaps between perceptions and scientific evidences. Results showed that most farmers perceived that climate change is occurring or will occur in their area. They also perceived that there has been an increased temperature trend, but also increased precipitation. Therefore, they are convinced that they have and will have enough irrigation water for agriculture in the near future, while climate change projections foresee an increasing pressure on water resources in the Mediterranean region. Such results suggest the need for (i) irrigation management policies that take into account farmers' perceptions in order to promote virtuous behaviors and improve irrigation water use efficiency; (ii) new, well-designed learning spaces to improve the understanding on climate change expectations in the near future in order to support effective adaptive responses at the farm and catchment scales.

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“…The livelihood systems of small-scale farmers in this region have been studied intensively for more than 20 years [18][19][20][21][22][23]. However, to date, there is only little spatially explicit quantitative information on agricultural expansion and land use intensification in the region, if any at all.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural Expansion and Intensification in the Foothills of Mount Kenya: A Landscape Perspective

et al. 2017

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This study spatially assesses, quantifies, and visualizes the agricultural expansion and land use intensification in the northwestern foothills of Mount Kenya over the last 30 years: processes triggered by population growth, and, more recently, by large-scale commercial investments. We made use of Google Earth Engine to access the USGS Landsat data archive and to generate cloud-free seasonal composites. These enabled us to accurately differentiate between rainfed and irrigated cropland, which was important for assessing agricultural intensification. We developed three land cover and land use classifications using the random forest classifier, and assessed land cover and land use change by creating cross-tabulation matrices for the intervals from 1987 to 2002, 2002 to 2016, and 1987 to 2016 and calculating the net change. We then applied a landscape mosaic approach to each classification to identify landscape types categorized by land use intensity. We discuss the impacts of landscape changes on natural habitats, biodiversity, and water. Kappa accuracies for the three classifications lay between 78.3% and 82.1%. Our study confirms that rainfed and irrigated cropland expanded at the expense of natural habitats, including protected areas. Agricultural expansion took place mainly in the 1980s and 1990s, whereas agricultural intensification largely happened after 2000. Since then, not only large-scale producers, but also many smallholders have begun to practice irrigated farming. The spatial pattern of agricultural expansion and intensification in the study area is defined by water availability. Agricultural intensification and the expansion of horticulture agribusinesses increase pressure on water. Furthermore, the observed changes have heightened pressure on pasture and idle land due to the decrease in natural and agropastoral landscapes. Conflicts between pastoralists, smallholder farmers, large-scale ranches, and wildlife might further increase, particularly during the dry seasons and in years of extreme drought.

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Local Perceptions and Responses to Climate Change and Variability: The Case of Laikipia District, Kenya

Cited by 128 publications

References 46 publications

Climate Smart Agriculture as Final Goal: Use of Improved Cereals Varieties in Cinzana, Mali.

Climate Smart Agriculture as Final Goal: Use of Improved Cereals Varieties in Cinzana, Mali.

Perceptions of Present and Future Climate Change Impacts on Water Availability for Agricultural Systems in the Western Mediterranean Region

Agricultural Expansion and Intensification in the Foothills of Mount Kenya: A Landscape Perspective

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