Evaluating Smallholder Farmers’ Perceptions of Climate Change: The Case of Chiredzi District, Zimbabwe

Adapting to Climate Change in Semi-Arid Rural Areas: A Case of the Limpopo Basin Part of Botswana

“…This is a critical step towards seeking ways to improve the resilience to the incremental impacts caused by climate change. Despite several studies such as [21,22] agreeing that awareness of the changes in climate is critical to adaptation decisionmaking, the same cannot be said for semi-arid areas where indigenous people have experienced impacts similar to climate change for many years. As climate change adaptation is at a local scale, the present study uses a case study of Bobirwa sub-district in the Limpopo Basin part of Botswana to understand the adaptation behaviour of indigenous people.…”

Exploring the link between climate change perceptions and adaptation strategies among smallholder farmers in Chimanimani district of Zimbabwe

“…Since the turn of the twenty-first century, numerous studies have been carried to assess the impact of climate change on smallholder farming systems (FitzRoy and Papyrakis, 2013;Arbuckle et al, 2015;Ibrahim et al, 2015;Opiyo et al, 2015;Mugari et al, 2016;Mutunga et al, 2017). Previous research has consistently shown that climate change remains a significant challenge to the attainment of higher productivity among smallholder farmers who predominantly rely on rainfed agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa (Hassan and Nhemachena, 2008;Deressa et al, 2011;Arbuckle et al, 2015).…”

“…Previous research has consistently shown that climate change remains a significant challenge to the attainment of higher productivity among smallholder farmers who predominantly rely on rainfed agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa (Hassan and Nhemachena, 2008;Deressa et al, 2011;Arbuckle et al, 2015). Apart from persistent constraints such as disease and pest infestation and post-harvest losses, climate change has exacerbated the socio-economic context of smallholder farmers in Africa through its effects on infrastructure, household income and food self-sufficiency (Hassan and Nhemachena, 2008;Opiyo et al, 2015;Limantol et al, 2016;Mugari et al, 2016;Elum et al, 2017). As a result, policy and development attention has been gradually shifting 850 IJSE 46,7 toward building resilience against climate change through a process of systematic incorporation of adaptation measures (Gbetibouo, 2009;Mashapa et al, 2013;Opiyo et al, 2015;Elum et al, 2017).…”

“…Thus, climate change measures that work in one scenario may not be effective in other situations. This is attributed to the fact that the eventual adoption of climate change measures by rural households is dependent on a complex process which relies heavily on their perceptions and knowledge about climate change (Limantol et al, 2016;Mugari et al, 2016;Elum et al, 2017). As such, in order to adapt, farmers should first perceive and notice that climate has altered and then identify potential alternative adaptation strategies in response to the perceived changes and effects (Maddison, 2007;Gbetibouo, 2009;Badmos et al, 2015;Opiyo et al, 2015;Mutunga et al, 2017).…”

“…Understanding rural farmers' behavior and perceptions toward climate change and its subsequent impact on adaptation is crucial from two perspectives. First, it is likely to influence the modus operandi of climate change projects as managers may be forced to include strategies that are consistent with the socio-cultural setup of a community (Arbuckle et al, 2015;Badmos et al, 2015;Opiyo et al, 2015;Mugari et al, 2016). Second, unlike the conventional approach of introducing an externally determined basket of climate change strategies, locally relevant measures based on indigenous knowledge are likely to be used by farmers in the long-run.…”