Contributions of Climatic Smart Agricultural Practises on Adaptation to Climate Change among Small holder farmers in Nyaribari Chache Sub-County, Kisii County

Abstract

Smallholder farmers are usually susceptible to the effects of climatic variations. Most of these farmers, their agricultural activities are greatly rainfall dependent and compounded by their acute poverty, poor infrastructural and technological advancement. This study sought to assess the contribution of Climate Smart Agricultural strategies on adaptation to climate change among small holder farmers in Nyaribari Chache Sub-County, Kisii County. A household survey was conducted for collection of primary data. Ten administrative sub-locations were randomly sampled for the study. Twenty households were randomly sampled from each sub-location to make a sample size of 200 households. Questionnaires, interviews and focused group discussions were administered to collect data on contributions of Climate Smart Agricultural strategies to adapt to climate change among small holder farmers in Nyaribari Chache Sub-County, Kisii County. Both descriptive and inferential analysis were used to analyze data collected. Study findings indicated that crop diversification, use of different crop cultivars, crop rotation and mixed cropping were the primary adaptation approaches employed in the study area. CSAP Adopted by Smallholder Farmers was statistically significant (p<0.005). Determinants of smallholder farmers’ choice of CSAP on adaptation to climatic variations had a significant impact on embracing of CSAP (p<0.005). Access to credit facilities, inadequate extension facilities, low education levels, scanty weather and climate statistics were main hurdles impacting on implementation of CSAP. Therefore, in order to check the susceptibility of smallholder farmers to effects of weather or climate erraticism and variations, stakeholders should heighten exposure of farmers to extension services and prompt distribution of climate variations data for informed decision making.