Communicating climate change adaptation strategies: climate-smart agriculture information dissemination pathways among smallholder potato farmers in Gilgil Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

Proven and sustainable practices like climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) need to be prioritized and promoted for uptake especially by the farmers to achieve sustainable development. These are capable of contributing to the realization of sustainable development goals through averting food and nutritional insecurity, increasing and sustaining yields that translate into increased incomes and later reduced poverty. This is because CSAPs enable farmers to adapt and mitigate climate change effects. However, due to inappropriate communication of CSAPs to the farmers, to date, some farmers still see no escape route from the frightening effects of climate change and they are currently adopting a rather fatalistic attitude. This study investigated the information dissemination pathways used by different categories of smallholder potato farmers for and practice of CSAPs. It found a difference between information sources and practice of CSAPs at a 5% level of significance (χ2 = 100.12139, df = 2, p < 0.05, Cramer's V = 1.0), and a difference in the use of the three information dissemination pathways between men and women at a 5% level of significance (χ2 = 6.05949, df = 2, p < 0.05, Cramer's V = 0.17406). The three information dissemination pathways included media, neighbors and friends, and extension officers. Generally, farmers were aware and practiced the CSAPs investigated in this study except for irrigation with high awareness yet with low uptake percentage and potato seedlings and minitubers both with low awareness and practice respectively. This study recommended mainstreaming of CSAPs information.

“Illegal” Gold Mining Operations in Ghana: Implication for Climate-Smart Agriculture in Northwestern Ghana

“…Climate change is already modifying production systems and exacerbating critical difficulties, including rising poverty and food insecurity [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2009; Yiridomoh et al, 2020;Owusu and Yiridomoh, 2021;Waaswa et al, 2021]. This prompted the Paris Climate Change Agreement jointly with the Sustainable Development Goals to set the premise for serious investments in climate change technologies for sustainable future [Food and Agriculture Organization Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), 2013; Andrieu et al, 2020;Waaswa et al, 2021]. The joint decision recognized the fact that developing countries must develop, prioritize, and invest in climate change technologies for climate risk reduction and adaptation.…”

“…One approach to respond to the changing climate system is the adoption of climate-smart agriculture (Asrat and Simane, 2017;Abegunde et al, 2019). Climate-smart agriculture is rooted in sustainable agriculture and rural development objectives, which, if reached, will contribute to achieving the sustainable development goals of reducing hunger and improved environmental management (El-Fattal, 2012;Andrieu et al, 2020;Waaswa et al, 2021).…”

“…Climate-smart agriculture is an approach that strives to meet the following criteria: (1) increase agricultural productivity in a sustainable manner, (2) improve the resilience of agricultural production and food systems to environmental change, or (3) reduce net greenhouse gas emissions associated with the agriculture and forestry sectors (Sugden, 2013;Angom et al, 2021;Waaswa et al, 2021). Rainforest Alliance (2016) added that climate-smart agriculture is not a defined set of practices or an entirely new type of agriculture, rather an approach that combines different methods under a climate change umbrella.…”

“…Climate-smart agriculture is the right way to go to fight the magnitude, immediacy, and effect of climate and environmental change. The climate-smart agriculture approach is designed to identify and operationalize sustainable agricultural development for improved livelihoods and food security, especially among smallholder farmers, by improving the management and use of natural resources and adopting appropriate methods and technologies for production of agricultural goods (Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), 2013; Andrieu et al, 2020;Waaswa et al, 2021). A key component of the climate-smart agriculture is the integrated landscape approach that follows the principles of ecosystem management and sustainable land and water use.…”

Understanding the socioeconomic determinants of adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices among smallholder potato farmers in Gilgil Sub-County, Kenya

“…In that event, distinctive consideration should be given to climate change, notably to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [2,4]. By 2030, its concentration in the atmosphere is forecasted to double, which induces a notable rise in temperature globally [5][6][7]. Yet, an increase in GHG emissions produces severe implications for the farming sector worldwide.…”