Posts

Showing posts with the label Smallholder farmers

Co-designed Practical Use of Probabilistic Climate Advisories among Smallholder Farmers: A Balance between Confidence and Caution

Image
Co-designed Practical Use of Probabilistic Climate Advisories among Smallholder Farmers: A Balance between Confidence and Caution DOI:  https://doi.org/10.30564/jasr.v6i2.5511 Abstract Especially for smallholder farmers with limited land and financial resources, farming in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs), where season-to-season rainfall fluctuation dictates production, is a risky business. Through participatory approaches, this study compares deterministic and probabilistic interpretations of climate forecasts and their use by smallholder farmers through a crop-growing season. The study revealed that deterministic advisories are good for smallholder farmers only when formulated from forecasts with higher accuracy than the historical climatological distribution. Otherwise, they cause farm loss in terms of labor and inputs. On the other hand, probabilistic advisories help farmers spread the risk to cater to all the uncertainty and in so doing bring out a balance between co...

Co-designed Practical Use of Probabilistic Climate Advisories among Smallholder Farmers: A Balance between Confidence and Caution

Image
Co-designed Practical Use of Probabilistic Climate Advisories among Smallholder Farmers: A Balance between Confidence and Caution DOI:  https://doi.org/10.30564/jasr.v6i2.5511 Abstract Especially for smallholder farmers with limited land and financial resources, farming in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs), where season-to-season rainfall fluctuation dictates production, is a risky business. Through participatory approaches, this study compares deterministic and probabilistic interpretations of climate forecasts and their use by smallholder farmers through a crop-growing season. The study revealed that deterministic advisories are good for smallholder farmers only when formulated from forecasts with higher accuracy than the historical climatological distribution. Otherwise, they cause farm loss in terms of labor and inputs. On the other hand, probabilistic advisories help farmers spread the risk to cater to all the uncertainty and in so doing bring out a balance between co...

Agroforestry for Climate Change Adaptation, Resilience Enhancement and Vulnerability Attenuation in Smallholder Farming Systems in Cameroon

Image
Agroforestry for Climate Change Adaptation, Resilience Enhancement and Vulnerability Attenuation in Smallholder Farming Systems in Cameroon Abstract The adverse impacts of climate variability and change are felt mostly by smallholder farmers and smallholder farming systems where rainfed agriculture is predominant. Continuous dependence on rain-fed agriculture has led to declining crop productivity and crop failure in most cases as weather patterns shift which is very problematic for crop growth. Agroforestry which is one of the climate-smart, environmentally benign and agroecological practices has been found to mitigate climate change adversities while fostering adaptation, enhancing resilience and attenuating vulnerability especially in smallholder farming systems. However, in Cameroon, limited empirical research has been done to ascertain the role played by agroforestry in climate change adaptation, resilience enhancement and vulnerability attenuation. This paper which is based on an...