Farmers’ Perceptions on Climate Variability and Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change in Cinzana, Mali

Abstract

Several studies predict that climate change will highly affect the African continent. These changes in climate and climate variability may be challenging issues for future economic development of the continent in general, and particularly in the region of sub Saharan Africa. Offering a case study of Sahelian zone of Mali in the present study aimed to understand farmers" perceptions of climate variability and change and to evaluate adaptation options used by farmers in the Cinzana commune of Mali. One hundred and nineteen farmers were interviewed using a questionnaire designed with six sections. The result showed that all farmers interviewed were aware of climate change and climate variability. The Farmers perceived a decrease in annual rainfall variability and an increase of temperature as main factors of climate change and climate variability. The observed meteorological data, showed a ISSN 2166-0379 2016 www.macrothink.org/jas 14 decrease of precipitation distribution during the last 14 years of which was observed by farmers. Several strategies such as selling animals, use of improved crop varieties, new activities (outside agriculture) and credit were the commonly preferred adaptation strategies to deal with climate change and variability. Factors surveyed, age, gender, education, household size, farm size were found to be significantly correlated to self-reported to adaptation. Journal of Agricultural Studies

Are perception and adaptation to climate variability and change of cowpea growers in Mali gender differentiated?

“…The model also provides a convenient closed form for underlying choice probabilities, with no need of multivariate integration, making it simple to compute choice situations characterized by many alternatives (Hausman and McFadden 1984). It was highlighted by Touré et al (2016) and confirmed by the current survey that farmers in the Cinzana area combine different agriculture coping strategies. Therefore, to analyze the farmers' adaptation strategies, it was necessary to categorize them into several classes based on the number of adaptations strategies adopted.…”

“…This result is in line with several studies conducted in West Africa. Touré et al (2016) found that 94.1% of farmers perceived a decrease in the length of the rainy season witch implicitly means an increase in dry season in Cinzana. Maddison (2006) reported that farmers perceived the change in the beginning and the end of rainy season in seven sub-Saharan African countries including Senegal, Burkina Faso and Niger.…”

“…Considering the fact that few households are headed by women in Mali because of the culture in the country (Touré et al 2016), it was necessary for the study to target individual farmers in order to have the chance to interview women and men farmers and reach the study objectives. Cowpea farmers were targeted in this study because cowpea is grown by both men and women in Mali unlike other crops such as pearl millet, sorghum and maize noted as men's crops, while groundnut is categorized as women's crop.…”

“…It is therefore imperative that gendered differentiated information on climate change adaptation is known as a means to developing gender-response adaptation strategies to climate change. In Mali, the effects of climate change on livelihood activities have received much attention with limited information on the gender dimension of climate change perception and choice of adaptation strategies (e.g., Touré et al 2016;Diiro et al 2016;Sanogo et al 2016;Traore et al 2017a, b). For instance, studies by Touré et al (2016) and Diiro et al (2016) provide an overview of climate change implications for the agricultural sector of Mali and the call to adopt innovative and sustainable solutions to avert climate-related risks.…”

“…In Mali, the effects of climate change on livelihood activities have received much attention with limited information on the gender dimension of climate change perception and choice of adaptation strategies (e.g., Touré et al 2016;Diiro et al 2016;Sanogo et al 2016;Traore et al 2017a, b). For instance, studies by Touré et al (2016) and Diiro et al (2016) provide an overview of climate change implications for the agricultural sector of Mali and the call to adopt innovative and sustainable solutions to avert climate-related risks. However, there is no reference to gender differentiate information to accentuate implications on the development of agricultural development plans and policies as part of local adaptation planning actions.…”