Assessing The Effectiveness Of Agricultural Households’ Strategies For Sustainable Adaptation To Climate Change In The Sissala East District

ABSTRACT Effective adaptation to climate change provides the means through which agricultural households reduce the vulnerability of their livelihood to the impacts of climatic hazards. Effective strategies reduce the adverse impacts of fluctuations and changes in climatic variables on households’ livelihood leading to the achievement of their livelihood targets whiles maintaining the quality of the environment. Agricultural households in Sissala area have devised their own mechanisms for effectively adapting their livelihood activities to climate change which have been outlined by various studies in the area. However, there have been debates about whether some of these mechanisms are effective in reducing the impacts of climatic hazards especially drought and floods and meeting the food security and increased crop and income targets of households. This study sets out to assess the effectiveness of households’ strategies in reducing impacts and meeting their targets using multi-methods. Focus group discussions, individual interviews and questionnaires were used in this study. SPSS version 16.0 and STATA Software for Binary regression analysis were used for analysis. The main climatic impacts and threats identified in the area include: droughts, floods, rainstorm and the incidence of pests and diseases which destroy crops, public infrastructure, private properties and loss of farmlands. Farmers have knowledge of climate change through local experience and awareness creation via radio and mobile phones. The main adaptation strategies of farmers include: crop diversification, the use of weedicides/pesticides and chemical fertilizer, changing consumption, land rotation, tillage practices, changing planting dates, irrigation, harvesting of rain water, and migration to urban areas, the use of compost/manure, and cultivation of cover crops. Due to the need to pay for social services, farming households’ objectives have shifted from achieving food security to enhancing family income. Location factors and characteristics of households influence the adaptive capacities of farmers. Also the success of adaptation strategies adopted depend on wealth of the farmer, gender, experience and the ecological conditions of the community where farms are located. The use of weedicides, tillage practices and chemical fertilizer were found to be more effective for non-poor and rich farmers and experienced farmers than poor and inexperienced farmers and also more effective among farmers in Wellembelle than their counterparts in Sakai. Changing consumption and the cultivation of cover crops was common among poor and older farmers. It was however revealed that, if care is not taken, the unintended effects of some of these strategies could lead to maladaptation in the long-run. The use and misuse of weedicides has taken a toll on livestock population and exacerbating inequalities between livestock and crop producers. Again, the use of wood for fencing gardens in irrigation areas on annual basis could lead to deforestation in the area. Also, environmentally friendly strategies such as the use of compost/manure are poorly patronized. The effectiveness of land rotation is waning due to social change processes.