Smallholder farmers' perceptions and adaptation strategies to mitigate the effect of climate change in the oases of South-Eastern Tunisia

Abstract

Climate change is expected to have serious environmental, economic, and social impacts on arid regions such as Tunisia country. This research uses a “bottom-up” approach, which seeks to gain insights from the farmers themselves based on a farm household in the south-east of Tunisia. Econometric analyses and Main Component analysis was conducted in this research. Finally, probit binary models were estimated to determine the factors influencing adaptation strategies. All actions aimed at improving the resilience of agriculture in Tunisia’s arid regions to climate change, emphasize mainly the strategies adopted by farmers in terms of water management, technical choices and the adopted production systems combined with the experience and local know-how. Others Government policies and national adaptation programs should focus on education facilitate farmers’ access to extension, information and specialized training needed.

Exploring local knowledge on soil quality indicators, climate variability, and farming productivity: a case of farmers in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

“…and Kakembo (2012) and Masiza et al (2021) in the Keiskamma catchment of Raymond Mhlaba municipality.Impact of climate variability on land use changeOn crop productionAccording to the farmers, changes such as the abandonment of crop production were due to reductions in rainfall, increases in temperature, and ooding events. Similar ndings about the effect of low rainfall and prolonged droughts on crop production were reported in Ghana (Amfo et al, 2021), South Africa(Popoola et al, 2019(Popoola et al, , 2020, Tunisia(Jeder et al, 2021), Central America(Harvey et al, 2018), and Kenya(Kalele et al, 2021). Generally, studies that suggest sustainable management practices for cropproducing smallholder farmers on rangelands are limited, and as a result, there is limited adoption of such practices.…”

Study of regional agricultural production using multivariate analysis techniques

“…All actions aimed at improving the resilience of agriculture to climate change in arid areas mainly concern the strategies adopted by farmers regarding water management, technical solutions and production systems adopted, combined with experience and local know-how. State policy and national adaptation programs should be aimed at education, facilitating the access of farmers to the necessary knowledge, information and specialized training [3]. We partially took this direction into account in the indicators of scientific research of the industry.…”

“…Based on the use of both secondary and primary data, a study is being made of the influence of the scale of enterprises, returns on total and variable costs, as well as the structure of production on performance [2]. An econometric analysis and analysis of the main components, probit models are carried out to determine the factors affecting agricultural production and its adaptation to climatic conditions [3]. Many studies are aimed at empirical measurement and analysis of the efficiency of production of various types of industry products [6].…”

Traditional oases in Northern Africa as multifunctional agroforestry systems: a systematic literature review of the provided Ecosystem Services and of the main vulnerabilities

“…Climate change adaptation and mitigation and carbon sequestration are little considered (only cited by 11 papers), but it is interesting to notice that according to Jeder et al (2021) local farmers in Tunisia in the last years developed different adaptive strategies, partly combined with local experience and knowhow, to deal with climate change and drought and to improve the resilience of agriculture. In addition, the same paper stresses the importance of applying governmental policies and programs to facilitate farmers' access to specialized training.…”

“…Other less reported threats include climate change (Jeder et al 2021) and the spread of recently introduced water-consuming crops such as watermelon (Lamqadem et al 2019), that can affect the sustainability of the oases in the long term. According to Peano et al (2021) also the increasing property fragmentation due to traditional inheritance system can represent a vulnerability, as the new generation of farmers inherit very small plots not adequate for a sufficient agricultural production and for sufficient incomes; in this regard, the application of a participatory approach, the institution of custodian farmers and of a "maison de semences", can encourage the involvement of young farmers and contribute to the effective preservation of local agrobiodiversity.…”