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Assessing Vulnerability to Support Promotion of Adaptive Agricultural Practices in the Sahel

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Innovation in Climate Change Adaptation

Part of the book series: Climate Change Management ((CCM))

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Abstract

Across the Sahel, rural producers struggle to maintain viable livelihoods owing to the harsh and variable climate. Unfortunately, climate change is expected to exacerbate many of the challenges they currently face. While a number of adaptive agriculture practices exist, numerous studies have demonstrated that the reasons farmers adopt (or do not adopt) these practices are complex and context dependent.

This paper seeks to broaden our understanding of how assessments of vulnerability can be used to inform development programs designed to promote adaptive agricultural practices by summarizing the methodologies and findings from four vulnerability studies relevant to the Sahel conducted for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2012 to 2014. These studies took different approaches that have advantages and challenges depending on the spatial scale being assessed. Specific assessment findings include identification of a significant difference between the practices being promoted and those being adopted, a need to improve our understanding of the current and future effectiveness of agricultural practices in a changing climate, and that vulnerability in eastern Senegal varies both spatially and with livelihood practiced. Together these assessments demonstrate that there is neither a methodology to assess vulnerability nor an agricultural practice that is likely to be universally acceptable or effective across the Sahel. This suggests that different development programs will require different levels of specificity in analysis, and that assessments should consider carefully the spatial scale over which a development program will act and which factors affect adoption of practices at those scales. The lessons and findings from these studies will be useful to anyone seeking to support climate change adaptation or assess vulnerability in the Sahel.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development through the African and Latin American Resilience to Climate Change (ARCC) project. The authors would also like to thank all the people who helped conduct these assessments, who are, unfortunately, too numerous to list here.

Disclaimer

Alex Apotsos was employed by USAID when the research for the current paper was conducted. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily the views and opinions of the United States Agency for International Development.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geoscience Department, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, USA

    Alex Apotsos Ph.D.

  2. U.S. Agency for International Development, Bureau for Africa, Washington, DC, USA

    Alex Apotsos Ph.D.

  3. ACDI/VOCA, Washington, DC, USA

    David Miller Ph.D.

  4. Investment Center, Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy

    Brent Simpson Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Alex Apotsos Ph.D.
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  2. David Miller Ph.D.
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  3. Brent Simpson Ph.D.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alex Apotsos Ph.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Life Sciences, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

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Apotsos, A., Miller, D., Simpson, B. (2016). Assessing Vulnerability to Support Promotion of Adaptive Agricultural Practices in the Sahel. In: Leal Filho, W. (eds) Innovation in Climate Change Adaptation. Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25814-0_12

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