Impact of Climate Variability on Food Security in Gachoka Constituency in Mbeere District, Embu County, Kenya
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Date
2014-03-10
Authors
Mwaniki, Paul Ireri
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Abstract
Climate change has become one of the most pressing issues facing Kenya. Warming
temperatures and decreasing precipitation levels over the last 30 years have led to
innumerable weather anomalies causing droughts, floods, unseasonal precipitation,
falling ground water tables, all impacting on food production. While it is projected
that further change in climatic conditions will take place over the coming decades, the
impacts of these environmental stresses on the living conditions and livelihoods of
Kenyans have already been significant and adverse. Among all population groups,
rural communities in Kenya are particularly more vulnerable to the impacts of climate
change due to their strong dependence on rain fed agriculture for living. This research
was carried out in Gachoka constituency, Embu County in Kenya. It focused on
assessing the impact of climate variability on food security. The specific objective of
this study was to analyze the effects of climate variability on quantity of food harvests
at household level in Gachoka constituency, assessed the role of knowledge on
climate variability impacts on food security in Gachoka constituency and identified
the climate variability information needs by peasant farmers in Gachoka constituency
between 1982 and 2012. Descriptive research design was employed. Simple random
sampling was used to select 70 farmers and purposeful sampling to select 20
agricultural officers and 10 religious leaders. A total of 100 respondents were
interviewed. The data collected was analyzed using statistical package for social
sciences (SPSS) and excel to generate frequencies, tables, pie charts, graphs,
percentages and moving averages. The finding shows that there is significant
relationship between food harvest and climate variability ():2=62.234, P- value= 0.002,
df=1 and n=100) and thus climate variability caused low food harvests at household
level in Gachoka constituency. The study also revealed that there was significant
relationship between Knowledge on climate variability and food security, (t=43.741,
p, value= 0.253, df =2 and n=IOO) and therefore Knowledge on climate variability
among small scale farmers threatened food security in Gachoka Constituency. The
results further shows that, there was a high need for climate variability information
and food security among the community in Gachoka Constituency, (t=24.324, p,
value= 0.003, df =1 and n=IOO). The study therefore recommended that more
information on climate variability to be availed to the farmers in order to prepare them
on how to mitigate and prepare for climate variability thus ensuring sustainable food
production. Farmers should also consider planting drought resistant crops to ensure
stable food supply and reduced dependency on relief foods. Further the findings
would also help in formulating policies and establishing practices in mitigating the
impacts of climate variability in the country in order to ensure the country is food
secure. The study suggested for further research on the best strategies on reducing
subsistence farmers' vulnerability to climate change as well as mitigating impacts of
climate change on indigenous food security in rural communities.
Description
Department of Environmental Studies and Community Development, 2013