Economic Value of Water Harvesting for Climate Smart Adaptation in Semi Arid Ijara Garissa, Kenya
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Date
2017-03-27
Authors
Mwaura, Joseph
Koske, James
Kiprotich, Bernard
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer
Abstract
Background: The semi-arid Ijara experienced erratic and declining rainfall whereas temperature increased, triggering extreme weather events shocks. Given the shocks that outwitted traditional coping mechanisms, pastoralists
spontaneously took to water harvesting pans as adaptation strategy. The spontaneity translated into unclear costs
benefits which the study clarified by isolating them for analysis and also measured the strategy’s viability. The design
used was costs-benefit-analysis, complemented by the regional financial market-driven 15% discounting rates. Also
co-ordinated regional downscaling experiment models were used to ascertain climate performance and projection.
Household questionnaire was administered to 240 calculated from 9000 farmer population.
Results: Annual water pan cash flow netted present value US$ 5393 and 57% pastoralists had embraced agro-pastoralism. Land size inadequacy and the communal tenure upset 86.26% users and 53.08% lacked requisite skills. Other
challenges were feed deficit at 30.41%, and diseases 20.41% in that order. Benefits from harvesting water exceeded
costs, making the investment viable for adaptation.
Conclusion: Considering the limited adaptation capacities, disease control and feed deficit costs, policies need to
focus on formulating climate-smart water harvesting technologies, improve feed to include revitalizing traditional
grazing management practices. Other pertinent investment opportunities include strategic value-chain linkages
and infrastructure as well enriched soil stabilization using multi-benefits crops and generation and consistent use of
weather data.
Description
A Research article in Journal of Environmental Systems Research
Keywords
Water harvesting pan, Costs benefits, Adaptation, Net present value, Agro-pastoralists
Citation
Mwaura, J., Koske, J. & Kiprotich, B. Economic value of water harvesting for climate-smart adaptation in semi-arid Ijara Garissa, Kenya. Environ Syst Res 6, 11 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40068-017-0088-3