Smallholder Farmers’ Susceptibility to Climate Change Variability: Assessing Adaptation Strategies and Impact on livelihoods

Abstract

Climate change and variability present a new set of obstacles that smallholder farmers in the 21st century have to face, especially hitting farmers in developing countries hard. The livelihoods of many farmers have become exacerbated due to the adverse impact of climate change. Governments and non-governmental agencies have stepped up their roles in helping smallholder farmers rise to the challenge through novel adaptation strategies. Using content analysis of relevant theoretical and empirical literature sources, this paper discusses the concept of climate change adaptation and its impact on the livelihood of smallholder farmers. The susceptibility of smallholder farmers to climate change are discussed and various adaptation options and more importantly, their effect, are explored. The study concludes that interventions by government and non-governmental actors have an impact on the overall livelihood of smallholder farmers in terms of neutralizing the adverse impact brought forth by climate change. The study makes some recommendations, including advancing a combination of traditional and modern practices in adaptation processes; consideration of socio-demographic characteristics of farmers in the adaptation processes.