Unpacking the Levels of Household and Individual Climate Change Adaptation: Empirical Evidence from Leeds, United Kingdom

Ume, Chukwuma Otum; Onah, Ogochukwu Gabriella; Adeosun, Kehinde Paul; Nnamdi, Onyekwe Chris; Ihedioha, Nice Nneoma; Onyia, Chukwuemeka Chiebonam; Idika, Ezinne Orie

doi:10.1175/wcas-d-19-0109.1

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…In terms of the log of the odds ratio we rewrite the model as the likelihood that a farmer will be in the agroecology group (A i ) with respect to the likelihood that the farmer is not in the agroecology group (1 -A i ) as expounded (Otum Ume et al, 2020). The likelihood that a farmer is non-agroecology group member (1 -A i ) we define as:…”

Section: Econometric Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who profits from agroecology to secure food and nutrition? On access of women to markets and assets

Ume¹,

Nuppenau²,

Domptail³

2023

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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In contrast to a large body of literature linking agroecology to food security through sustainable agronomic practices, research on how agroecology enhances smallholder farmers’ access to productive resources, yet necessary for food security and nutrition, is sparse in Africa. Literature does not consider the fact that agroecology practices are often adopted via entering a group that provides corresponding knowledge, network and possibly markets. We investigate the case of an agroecology group operating parallel to the dominant agri-industrial food system in Southeast Nigeria. We ask: who are the agroecology farmers? Do they improve their food status in comparison to conventional smallholders operating in the commodity oriented agro-industrial system? Who appears to benefit most among agroecology farmers? To provide answers to these questions, we collected data from 334 smallholder farmers (comprising 111 agroecology farmers and 223 non-agroecology farmers) through a stratified cluster sampling process. Descriptive statistics of our data showed that women make up 89% of the agroecology farmers in the group. We found that in both the agroecology and the conventional groups, women farmers had little access to land, even lower ownership of land, little exposure to extension services, and no access to financial credits. Thus, the sample of female farmers we addressed consists of marginal persons who operate at the margins of the capital and input-based networks and agricultural production. In contrast to the expectation of conventional hypotheses, we show that on average, agroecology farmers had lower food insecurity experiences and higher observed dietary diversity scores. Exploring more detail within the agroecology group via a quantile semi-parametric propensity score matching, we further show that women left out of conventional extension services benefit more from being in the agroecology group. Similarly, the increase in food security and nutrition was highest among those farmers who balance self-provisioning and market as food sources compared to strategies pursued mainly by one of these two sources. To these farmers, mostly women, the agroecology group provides alternative to access important resources and knowledge that they ordinarily would not have accessed being in the capitalistic food system, and which enables them to reach their nutrition goals. Our study supports a conceptualization of agroecology as an interdependency between agroecological agronomic practices, reciprocity and autonomy-fostering social innovations.

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Section: Econometric Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who profits from agroecology to secure food and nutrition? On access of women to markets and assets

Ume¹,

Nuppenau²,

Domptail³

2023

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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“…Leeds, the biggest city in West Yorkshire, was the first place in the U.K. to launch a climate commission in 2017, while a number of councils declared climate emergencies in 2019. Nevertheless, a recent survey of Leeds residents found that household-scale engagement with adaptation remains low [51].…”

Section: Locationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Envisioning Climate Change Adaptation Futures Using Storytelling Workshops

et al. 2021

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Engaging people in preparing for inevitable climate change may help them to improve their own safety and contribute to local and national adaptation objectives. However, existing research shows that individual engagement with adaptation is low. One contributing factor to this might be that public discourses on climate change often seems dominated by overly negative and seemingly pre-determined visions of the future. Futures thinking intends to counter this by re-presenting the future as choice contingent and inclusive of other possible and preferable outcomes. Here, we undertook storytelling workshops with participants from the West Yorkshire region of the U.K. They were asked to write fictional adaptation futures stories which: opened by detailing their imagined story world, moved to events that disrupted those worlds, provided a description of who responded and how and closed with outcomes and learnings from the experience. We found that many of the stories envisioned adaptation as a here-and-now phenomenon, and that good adaptation meant identifying and safeguarding things of most value. However, we also found notable differences as to whether the government, local community or rebel groups were imagined as leaders of the responsive actions, and as to whether good adaptation meant maintaining life as it had been before the disruptive events occurred or using the disruptive events as a catalyst for social change. We suggest that the creative futures storytelling method tested here could be gainfully applied to support adaptation planning across local, regional and national scales.

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