DETERMINATION OF FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE ADOPTION OF CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION STRATEGIES BY SMALLHOLDER FARMERS IN MACHINGA DISTRICT, MALAWI

Abstract

Climate change effects have had significant impact on agricultural production thus adaptation to climate change impacts is essential; however, not all smallholder farmers are able to successfully adopt them. The study was therefore conducted in order to determine the factors that influence the adoption of these CCAS and further assess the challenges that limit the adoption of CCAS. Majority of the famers cited to have observed climate change in the area, however, it was noted that not all the farmers had adopted CCAS. The results disclosed that 66.9 percent of the smallholder farmers had adopted at least one or multiple CCAS while 33.1 percent of the assessed smallholder farmers had not adopted any of the CCAS. There was no correlation between the farmers’ perception results and the computed annual rainfall trend which was done using Mann Kendall statistics set at 95 percent confidence interval. However, there was a high positive correlation between the temperature trend and farmers’ perceptions. The logit model analysis results showed that farm experience, access to information, temperature variability, education and land size were the major factors influencing adaptation uptake. It was also noted that the farmers faced challenges in successfully implementing most of the adaptation strategies due to among other things shortage of farm labor, deficiency of water sources, lack of raw materials and farm inputs, lack of information, shortage of arable land, culture and religious. Improving these factors would be important to enhance adaptive capacity for the smallholder farmers.