Everyday adaptation practices by coffee farmers in three mountain regions in Africa

Abstract

Mountain environments in East Africa experience more rapid increases in temperature than lower elevations, which, together with changing rainfall patterns, often negatively affect coffee production. However, little is known about the adaptation strategies used by smallholder coffee farmers in Africa. Using the lens of everyday adaptation, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 450 smallholder farmers living near the Bale Mountains in Ethiopia (n = 150), Mount Kenya in Kenya (n = 150), and Kigezi Highlands in Uganda (n = 150). We report similarities in adaptation strategies used (e.g., increased use of improved seeds, inputs, soilconservation techniques) but also differences across and within regions (e.g., irrigation, coffee-farming abandonment), related to different biophysical, economic, and sociocultural factors. In all regions, access to land, funds, and limited mutual-learning opportunities between farmers and other agents of change constrained further adaptation options. Local people have capacity and means to determine how best they can adapt to climate change, and government agencies and NGOs could implement more participatory engagement with smallholder coffee farmers, attuned to the opportunities and constraints in everyday life to facilitate adaptation to predicted changes in climate.

Collaborative everyday adaptation to deal with peatland fires: a case study on the east coast of Sumatra, Indonesia

“…A pastoralist community in southern Ethiopia changes their everyday herding practices by utilizing a sedentarization strategy to adapt to the droughts in the grazing areas that are induced by climate change (Wang et al 2022). A similar finding was reported in Kenya and Uganda, where coffee farmers change planting dates to adapt to changing rainfall patterns (Cuni-Sanchez et al 2022).…”

“…For example, everyday adaptation practices include planting different crops that adapt to droughts and developing settlements around higher elevation areas to secure houses from floods induced by climate change (Artur andHilhorst 2012, Bele et al 2014). We are currently in a situation in which people frequently face unpredictable and extreme weather (Dessler 2021); therefore, actors across multiple levels, such as private sectors, government institutions, and local communities, collaborate to adapt to climate change impacts (Johnson et al 2020, Cuni-Sanchez et al 2022. Research on everyday adaptation and collaborative governance has also gained increasing attention from scholars (see Brink andWamsler 2018, Funder andMweemba 2019).…”