Abstract
This chapter examines Kenyan farmers’ perceptions of and responses to the impact of climate change using a mixed methods research design. The findings reveal that a vast majority of the farmers (87%) were already feeling the effects of climate change and viewed it as a risk that threatened their livelihoods. Some reported suffering negative impacts such as reduced crop yields and unreliable sources of water for their farming as a result of the severe weather events (such as droughts) they reported to have experienced. Consequently, many (87%) reported that their exposure to the impacts of climate change weighed negatively on their emotions, with some reporting to feel despair (23%) and irritated (17%). The causes of climate change were not well understood by farmers. This however did not inhibit them from adopting adaptive practices which included mixed cropping (21%) and agroforestry (18%). Poor access to water (27%) and lack of financial resources (23%) were cited as major challenges when implementing adaptive practices. Employing psychological interventions to help farmers cope with the emotional impact of climate change and considering farmers’ cultural or religious perspectives when building their adaptive capacity are provided as recommendations to enhance their resilience to climate change impacts.
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Mwaniki, F., Ngibuini, H.M. (2018). Understanding Kenyan Farmers’ Perceptions of and Responses to Climatic Variability to Build their Resilience. In: Leal Filho, W. (eds) Handbook of Climate Change Resilience. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71025-9_82-1
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