Agricultural shock resilience strategies and their effects on family farms in rural Senegal

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how family farming serves as a relevant source of income generation for the Senegalese population. In the face of climate change and agricultural shocks, the production of family farms and income generated from family farms are unfavorably affected. Given these hazards and shocks, family farms must adopt strategies of adaptation to climate change and agricultural shocks to prevent and mitigate the negative effects of potential shocks. Design/methodology/approach The objective of this research is to analyze family farms’ resilience strategies in rural Senegal in response to agricultural shocks and examine the impact of these resilience strategies on farms’ productivity and the income of farmers. To do this, the study focuses on three specific objectives. First, the authors identify common resilience strategies to agricultural shocks among family farms in rural Senegal based on a descriptive analysis of the 2018/2019 Senegal Annual Agricultural Survey. Then, the main factors that affect the adoption of resilience strategies by farms are identified using the Probit model. Finally, the study examined the effect of resilience strategies on the productivity of family farms and on the income of rural farmers using an endogenous switching regression technique. Findings It is apparent from the multivariate analysis that climate variables (humidity, temperature, precipitation), the education level of farm owners, the size of the agricultural household and agroecological zone are substantially linked to the adoption of resilience strategies by family farms. The impact evaluation shows that attendant strategies of resilience in rural areas positively impact the productivity of family farms. Policy implications are discussed. Originality/value This research improves existing studies by examining how rural farms in Senegal can enhance their resilience strategies to climate change and agricultural shocks to improve their productivity and income.