article · Climate Risk Management
Rain-fed agriculture in Kenya faces severe risks from climate change, prompting farmers to adopt targeted adaptation measures. An analysis of 540 farmers across six counties reveals that the most common practices are planting drought-tolerant crops, diversifying crops, growing early-maturing varieties, and diversifying household income. Farmer characteristics heavily influence these choices, with younger age and higher education levels increasing the likelihood of adoption. Furthermore, access to agricultural extension services, training, information, larger landholdings, and higher farm incomes correlate with implementing a higher number of adaptation practices. Crucially, adopting these strategies directly improves food security. Farmers using a single adaptation measure experience a seven to eleven per cent improvement in food security over non-adopters. This advantage grows incrementally with each additional measure, reaching a fourteen to eighteen per cent gain for those combining four strategies, confirming the cumulative benefits of climate adaptation.
Smallholder farmers relying on rain-fed crops are particularly vulnerable to climate disruption. This research demonstrates that specific farming adjustments significantly improve household food security. By showing how factors like education, extension services, and training facilitate these changes, the findings provide clear guidance for agricultural support programmes aiming to help vulnerable rural populations withstand environmental shocks.
These findings offer applied, real-world evidence for agribusinesses, agricultural extension providers, and seed developers targeting smallholder farmers. Commercial suppliers can prioritise the distribution of drought-tolerant and early-maturing seed varieties, which enjoy the highest existing adoption rates. Furthermore, the identified link between training, information access, and practice adoption indicates ready opportunities for agricultural technology firms and advisory services to deliver tailored training and climate information packages directly to farming communities.
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Climate change threatens the sustainability of food production among farmers in Kenya who depend on rain-fed agriculture. To minimize the negative impacts of climate change, farmers have sought to adopt different adaptation strategies. This study investigates factors influencing farmers' choice of climate change adaptation strategies and associated effects on their food security in Kenya using data collected from 540 farmers from six counties. A multivariate probit, censored least absolute deviation (CLAD), and propensity score matching (PSM) models were employed to identify the determinants in the farmers' choice of climate change adaptation strategies, the number of adaptation strategies adopted, and the effect of climate change adaptation strategies on their food security, respectively. Results show that planting drought-tolerant crop varieties (55%), growing diversified crops (34%), growing early maturing crops (22%), and diversifying the sources of household income (18%) were the four major adaptation strategies used by the farmers in the study area. Younger farmers and those with higher education levels are more likely to use these climate change adaptation practices. The number of adaptation strategies used was positively associated with male farmers, education level, family size, land size, farm income, extension contact, training, and information access. The farmers who adopt one adaptation strategy have higher food security status (approximately 7-11%) than those who do not. If they adopt two adaptation strategies, their food security status increases by approximately 11-14%; if they adopt three adaptation strategies, their food security status increases by nearly 12-15%; and if they adopt four adaptation practices, their food security status increases by about 14-18%, compared to those who do not adopt any strategy. Thus, the farmers' climate change adaptation practices have positive food security effects in Kenya according to the number of adaptation strategies adopted.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.crm.2023.100495
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