Rural Communities’ Perceptions of Climate Change and Its Impacts on Their Livelihood in Southeastern Niger

Abstract

Climate change exacerbates ecosystem degradation in Sahel where rural communities are highly dependent on natural resources and ecosystem services for their livelihoods. In order cope with the adverse effects of climate change by developing climate adaptation strategies, there has been a need to understand how communities perceive the change or variability in their local climate and how this change could affect their livelihood. This paper aims to examined rural communities' perceptions about climate change in the commune of Chetimari located in the region of Diffa, southeastern Niger. It investigated particularly: 1) how communities' perceptions of climate change? 2) What are the impacts of climate change on the livelihood of communities? And 3) What do elements and options to detect abrupt change points in annual precipitations and both annual maximum and minimum temperature? Survey data were collected from October to November 2018 from 101 households (15% of the total households in the study area) in three villages. Multiple Issaharou-Matchi et al.; IJECC, 9(12): 789-800, 2019; Article no.IJECC.2019.064 790 correspondence Analysis (MCA) and Factorial Correspondence Analysis (FCA) were performed with XLSTAT to analyzed data from survey. Meteorological data including Monthly precipitation from 1981 to 2017, and Monthly temperatures (maximum, minimum) from 1986 to 2017 of the Diffa meteorological station were analyzed using R to perform the Man Kendal trend test and the Pettit test for detection of abrupt changes in the series. Results showed that community perceptions on temperature increase (not for precipitation) trends as indicators of climate change are in agreement with meteorologically observed trends. The findings showed that people in this zone are aware of climate change that they see as increase in maximum and minimum temperature, decrease in rainfall, frequency of extreme events (drought and flood), dry spells, decrease in number of rainy days, strong winds etc…Results revealed the most significant impacts of climate change affecting the livelihood of rural communities in this area. These are higher risk of crop damage from drought, farmer and herder conflict frequency, drying up of wells, food shortage/insecurity, silting pools, decline in soil fertility and livestock production, silting pasture areas, frequency of livestock diseases, increased weed and invasive species, livestock mortality. The perception of the climate change and its impacts on the main socioeconomic activities vary from a village to another, according the sexes and age ranges. We conclude that communities are relatively aware about the climate change issue. For a better management of climate-induced risks in the study area we stress the need to improve the awareness of climate change within the rural community by improving the availability and the quality of relevant climate information. Original Research Article

Development of agroforestry food resources in Niger: Are farmers’ preferences context specific?

“…Farmers had to diversify their activity as a means of adapting to the progressive degradation of their resources, with men eventually considering seasonal migration as an additional activity in countries of the Sahel (Sanogo et al, 2017;Matchi et al, 2019), consequently leaving homes headed by women exposed to greater vulnerability (Boukary et al, 2016). In this study, migration is the fourth secondary activity.…”

“…Niger presents different agroecological zones [Sahelian, Sudanese-Sahelian and North Sudanese zones according to Yobom (2020)], with clear differences in the production of food resources, both agricultural and forestry (Moussa et al, 2016). Moreover, it turns out that farmers perceive climate change and want to act (Matchi et al, 2019), and they are willing to participate in improving the woody component of their traditional food production systems (Agúndez et al, 2020). Subsistence farming and livestock production are practiced according to traditional techniques.…”

Resilience and Adaptation Strategies in Response to Drought: A Spatial and Community-Based Study in West Pokot, Kenya

“…To examine these relationships, we employed the Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) model [79,80]. MCA is a sophisticated multivariate statistical technique for analyzing categorical data, including binary variables.…”

Assessment of Drought Characteristics under Changing Climatic Conditions using SPI and SPEI Indices in Semi-Arid Environment of Southeastern Niger

“…Agriculture, livestock, fishing, crafts and trade are the main sources of income for the populations mostly composed of Kanuri, Fulani, Hausa, and Arabs. The impact of climatic hazards (recurrent droughts and flood) on agricultural production systems, which remain rudimentary, generates chronic food insecurity [25].…”

“…In fact, over the past six decades drought episodes in this area have gradually become more prolonged and frequent causing low agricultural productivity [21], shortage of food and water resources placing the population at the mercy of food crisis [22,23,24], livestock decimation [23], substantial ecological losses and adverse socioeconomic impacts, hence affecting ecosystem services and rural livelihood. Drought, desertification and scarcity of natural resources have led to heightened conflicts between crop farmers and cattle herders, [25].…”