MST-Department of Environmental Studies and Community Development

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Browsing MST-Department of Environmental Studies and Community Development by Subject "Climate Variability"

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    Adaptive Capacity of Pastoralists to Climate Variability in Ngaremara, Isiolo County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2022) Nkonge, Lisper Gakii; Felix Ming’ate; Joseph Kurauka
    Pastoralism is practiced for subsistence, commercial and cultural purposes. It’s a sustainable way of utilizing ASALs and contributes to 4% of Kenya’s GDP. Climate variability, population explosion, and poverty have lowered the adaptive capacity to climate variability of Ngaremara pastoralists in Isiolo County. Therefore, this study was carried out to examine the adaptive capacity of pastoralists to climate variability in Ngaremara, Isiolo county. The study’s main objective was to evaluate the ability to adapt socially, physically, and economically to climate variability among the Ngaremara pastoralists in Isiolo County. The specific objectives were establishing the existing indigenous adaptive strategies, presenting the climatic trends for the past ten years in Isiolo County, to establish climate variations occurring over shorter timeframes as opposed to climate change that persists for more than decades, and determining adaptive capacity's internal and external hindrances. The study also aimed to deduce the strategies that enhance the willingness of the Ngaremara pastoralists to adapt to new climate variability adaptive strategies. The study used a cross-sectional research design. Systematic, simple, and purposive sampling methods were used to sample the population. Direct observation method, household interviews, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions were used to collect primary and secondary data using interview schedule and questionnaires. Qualitative data from household interviews, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions were analyzed according to the study’s objectives and collected using the KMacho App. The KMacho APP was used because it allows researchers to collect geographical location-specific information to monitor incidences, integrates data in the cloud database, and saves on time and cost. Quantitative data collected from household interviews and secondary sources were collected using the KMacho App and analyzed further using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences SPSS v.22 and Microsoft Excel. Data was imported from KMacho App and automatically grouped into titles, labels, and names using SPSS summarized into categories and tabulated to calculate the frequency of specific themes. Data presentation is in the form of tables, figures, and graphs. The expected output was that low socioeconomic development among Ngaremara pastoralists in Isiolo County increased vulnerability to climate variability. The study proves that there is reduced adaptive capacity and their traditional methods to cope with climate variability are futile. Their living standards are deficient because their livelihood sources solely rely on pastoralism, which has been affected by climate variability. Moreover, fluctuating rainfall of between 250mm and 400mm and an annual average temperature of 290C have exposed pastoralists to drought, floods, famine, and pastoral conflicts. Still, they are willing to adopt new coping strategies for climate variability. The impact of the study will enable informed decision-making by external agencies such as policy makers, NGOs, Isiolo County Government, and the community to improve the adaptive capacity to climate variability by developing coping strategies, creating information avenues such as Early Warning Signs, and enhance development by introducing various projects to diversify livelihoods. Future research should look into dimensions of food insecurity in Ngaremara and the effects of climate variability on human health.
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    Effects of Climate Variability on Dodder Invasion, Distribution and Management in Belgut Area of Kericho County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2020) Chepkirui, Winny
    Parasitic weeds are plants that have evolutionarily lost autotrophic way of life during their development stages. Dodder, a plant of the Cuscuta species, is one such invasive parasitic weed with a wide range of world geographic distribution and host diversity. In Kenya, dodder is common in counties at the Coast, Central, Nyanza, Western and Rift valley. The plant is alleged to parasitize on a variety of perennial crops, wild and domesticated trees and shrubs thus affecting host vigor quality and quantities of crop yields, in particular the socio-economic reliance on crops infested by the weeds is in jeopardy as measures to curb the spread and control it are being sought urgently. Moreover, there are relatively less local research reports on socio-economic, biological and physical factors enhancing its spread, host association and effective control methods. This survey therefore sought to find out implications of climate variability on dodder invasion, association, distribution and management in Belgut area of Kericho County, Kenya. Specifically, the study examined climate variability in the study area between 1988 and 2017 in relation to dodder occurrence and distribution. Historical climate data, consisting of rainfall and temperature, was obtained from the Kericho Meteorological Department for the period 1988 to 2017. The study also identified socio-economically valued plant hosts, impacts and cultural management methods of the dodder control. The Survey of Kenya Topographic Sheet No. 117/3 was used to sample 399 households as the sample size for the study. This was done by first sampling the land segments. The study area covered an area of 200km² and was divided into 1 km² land segments. Yamane’s formula was used to determine the sample size and 133 of these land segments were obtained as the sample size. Within each 1 km² land segment, three farm households were purposively selected for acquisition of data based on field accessibility. A questionnaire consisting of items on such variables as socioeconomic profiles, historical dodder invasion, hosts and its management, was administered to the heads of the selected households. An observation sheet was used to record GPS locations of dodder occurrence, broad ecological characteristics, host species associations and related characteristics. The data were classified and statistically analyzed (p≤0.05). Linear regression model revealed that rainfall has been decreasing while temperature has been increasing. The Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index of dodder hosts was 1.89, this implies diversity was on average since the index normally lies between 1.5 and 3.5 for most communities. Simpson Diversity Index was 0.2, This index lies between 0 and 1 and approaches 1 in cases of monoculture. The number of parasitized species were 43 in total, tea was the most parasitized host with 2391 individuals parasitized. Analyzed data map indicate that Waldai and Sigowet wards had the highest relative occurrence and densities of dodder. Six local methods were used for management of dodder and their applications differed significantly by gender of the household head (χ2 = 24.72, df = 10, N = 124, p = 0.006) and non-significantly with education level of the household head (χ2 = 39.79, df = 40, N = 124, p = 0.48). Killing of host was reported to be the most effective dodder management method. There is rapid spread of dodder primarily because of the wide host range (Shannon Weiner Index 1.89) and no economical and effective management method. Further research in a multi-disciplinary approach needs to be undertaken urgently to understand the local environment in relation to proliferation as well as determination of the most effective management methods. Prevention of dodder spread is the best way to manage dodder, where infestation has occurred treatment should be done immediately.