Crop mix portfolio response to climate risks: evidence from smallholder farmers in Kisumu County, Kenya

IF 1.6 4区经济学 Q2 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS & POLICY

Agrekon Pub Date : 2022-02-03 DOI:10.1080/03031853.2022.2028642

Hezbon Akelo Awiti, E. Gido, G. Obare

{"title":"Crop mix portfolio response to climate risks: evidence from smallholder farmers in Kisumu County, Kenya","authors":"Hezbon Akelo Awiti, E. Gido, G. Obare","doi":"10.1080/03031853.2022.2028642","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT\n Farm households respond to market uncertainties and household demand for food commodities by diversifying their farm-level crop portfolio. However, it is unclear if farmers’ crop mix also responds to unpredictable climate variability. We use primary data from 267 randomly selected respondents and apply a multinomial logit model to test the hypothesis that crop portfolio choice is an ex-ante mechanism to manage climate risks in the absence of crop insurance. The results suggest that access to information on climate variability does influence the mix of maize, cassava, sweet potato, and sorghum, which smallholder farmers in Kisumu County, Kenya grow in various combinations. Access to credit services, farm size, gender of household head, farming experience, and distance to nearest market also influence the farm-level crop mixture. These findings imply that policies geared towards incentivizing a better crop choice portfolio at the smallholder farm level should address climate variability awareness. In addition, encouraging crop-variety mixes that are tolerant to climate risks would enhance resilience in food systems among these smallholder farmers.","PeriodicalId":55541,"journal":{"name":"Agrekon","volume":"61 1","pages":"192 - 206"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2022-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Agrekon","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03031853.2022.2028642","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS & POLICY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 2

Abstract

ABSTRACT Farm households respond to market uncertainties and household demand for food commodities by diversifying their farm-level crop portfolio. However, it is unclear if farmers’ crop mix also responds to unpredictable climate variability. We use primary data from 267 randomly selected respondents and apply a multinomial logit model to test the hypothesis that crop portfolio choice is an ex-ante mechanism to manage climate risks in the absence of crop insurance. The results suggest that access to information on climate variability does influence the mix of maize, cassava, sweet potato, and sorghum, which smallholder farmers in Kisumu County, Kenya grow in various combinations. Access to credit services, farm size, gender of household head, farming experience, and distance to nearest market also influence the farm-level crop mixture. These findings imply that policies geared towards incentivizing a better crop choice portfolio at the smallholder farm level should address climate variability awareness. In addition, encouraging crop-variety mixes that are tolerant to climate risks would enhance resilience in food systems among these smallholder farmers.

查看原文本刊更多论文

作物组合对气候风险的反应：来自肯尼亚基苏木县小农户的证据

摘要农业家庭通过多样化其农场层面的作物组合来应对市场的不确定性和家庭对粮食商品的需求。然而，目前尚不清楚农民的作物组合是否也会对不可预测的气候变化做出反应。我们使用来自267名随机选择的受访者的主要数据，并应用多项logit模型来检验作物投资组合选择是在没有作物保险的情况下管理气候风险的事前机制的假设。研究结果表明，获取气候变化信息确实会影响玉米、木薯、红薯和高粱的组合，肯尼亚基苏木县的小农户以各种组合种植玉米、木薯和红薯。获得信贷服务的机会、农场规模、户主性别、农业经验以及与最近市场的距离也会影响农场层面的作物组合。这些发现意味着，旨在激励小农户更好地选择作物组合的政策应该解决气候变化意识问题。此外，鼓励耐受气候风险的作物品种组合将增强这些小农户的粮食系统抵御能力。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Agrekon AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS & POLICY-

CiteScore

2.80

自引率

7.70%

发文量

审稿时长

>12 weeks

期刊介绍： Agrekon publishes scholarly articles that contribute to the existing literature in the domain of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics as it applies to Southern Africa. The editors of Agrekon therefore invite contributions in this context that provide new insights, either through the problems they address, the methods they employ or the theoretical and practical insights gained from the results. The quarterly journal serves as the official publication of the Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA) and is published by Taylor & Francis.