Indigenous and Conventional Climate-Knowledge for Enhanced Farmers’ Adaptation to Climate Variability In the Semi-Arid Agro-Ecologies of Kenya
Loading...
Date
2021-10-28
Authors
Mugi-Ngenga, E.W.
Kiboi, M.N.
Mucheru-Muna, M.W.
Mugwe, J.N.
Mairura, F.S.
Mugendi, D.N.
Ngetich, F.K.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract
Climate variability is among the main threats to rain-dependent smallholder farming in most sub-Saharan Africa
countries. Hence, farmers should make efforts at the local level to utilize indigenous knowledge (IK) combined
with conventional knowledge to adapt to climate variability impacts. We assessed; IK used by farmers in climate
forecasting, their perceptions of climate variability and adaptation strategies, and their correlation with conventional approaches. We conducted the study in Tharaka South and Kitui Central sub-counties of Kenya. We used the
triangulation approach to obtain the quantitative and qualitative data. To select respondents, we used purposive
and random sampling strategies combined with the snowballing technique. Observed rainfall and temperature
data from 1998 to 2018 were obtained from the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD). Results showed that
there were significant (p<0.05) differences in the use of indigenous indicators such as observation of the behavior
of the sky (𝜒2 = 14.631), moon (𝜒2 = 7.851), and wind (𝜒2 = 5.864). The majority of the smallholder farmers
(87%) used the change in the behavior of trees as the indigenous indicator in weather forecasting. The most
common adaptation strategies (over 80%) used were food storage for future use (88.5%) and change of planting
dates (87.5%). The analysis output of conventional data from KMD conformed with the farmers’ observations and
perception of climate variability over the reference period. Because farmers are still using IK that agrees with conventional knowledge, there is a need to integrate IK with conventional knowledge for use by rain-fed-dependent
smallholder farmers in climate forecasting
Description
A Research Article in the Environmental Challenges
Keywords
Rainfall variability, Temperature variability, Indigenous indicators, Anomalies, Coping strategies, Seasonal climate forecast
Citation
Mugi-Ngenga EW, Kiboi MN, Mucheru-Muna MW, Mugwe JN, Mairura FS, Mugendi DN, Ngetich FN (2021). Indigenous and conventional climate-knowledge for enhanced farmers’ adaptation to climate variability in the semi-arid agro-ecologies of Kenya. Environmental Challenges 5 (2021) 100355, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2021.100355