Adaptation to climate change and climate variability and its implications for household food security in Kenya

Concerns of food and environmental security have increased enormously in recent years due to the vagaries of climate change and variability. Efforts to promote food security and environmental sustainability often reinforce each other and enable farmers to adapt to and mitigate the impact of climate change and other stresses. Some of these efforts are based on appropriate technologies and practices that restore natural ecosystems and improve the resilience of farming systems, thus enhancing food security. Climate smart agriculture (CSA) principles, for example, translate into a number of locally-devised and applied practices that work simultaneously through contextualised crop-soil-water-nutrient-pest-ecosystem management at a variety of scales. The purpose of this paper is to review concisely the current state-of-the-art literature and ascertain the potential of the Pfumvudza concept to enhance household food security, climate change mitigation and adaptation as it is promoted in Zimbabwe. The study relied heavily on data from print and electronic media. Datasets pertaining to carbon, nitrous oxide and methane storage in soils and crop yield under zero tillage and conventional tillage were compiled. Findings show that, compared to conventional farming, Pfumvudza has great potential to contribute towards household food security and reducing carbon emissions if implemented following the stipulated recommendations. These include among others, adequate land preparation and timely planting and acquiring inputs. However, nitrous oxide emissions tend to increase with reduced tillage and, the use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides is environmentally unfriendly.

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Climate Change-Driven Postharvest Losses and Household Food Security in Kayonza District, Rwanda

10.1007/978-3-030-57281-5_180 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 325-343

Author(s):

Toyib Aremu ◽

Olawale Olayide ◽

Andre Ndagijimana ◽

Jean Claude Mudahunga

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Food Security ◽

Household Food Security ◽

Postharvest Losses ◽

Household Food

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Participatory agroecological research on climate change adaptation improves smallholder farmer household food security and dietary diversity in Malawi

Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment ◽

10.1016/j.agee.2019.04.004 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 279 ◽

pp. 109-121 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Rachel Bezner Kerr ◽

Joseph Kangmennaang ◽

Laifolo Dakishoni ◽

Hanson Nyantakyi-Frimpong ◽

Esther Lupafya ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Food Security ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Dietary Diversity ◽

Household Food Security ◽

Smallholder Farmer ◽

Household Food

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Household and Community Social Capital Links to Smallholder Food Security

Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems ◽

10.3389/fsufs.2021.583353 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 ◽

Author(s):

Meredith T. Niles ◽

Jessica Rudnick ◽

Mark Lubell ◽

Laura Cramer

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Social Capital ◽

Food Security ◽

Social Network ◽

Food Insecurity ◽

Group Membership ◽

Multiple Scales ◽

Household Food Security ◽

Household Food ◽

Group Memberships

Agricultural adaptation to climate change is critical for ensuring future food security. Social capital is important for climate change adaptation, but institutions and social networks at multiple scales (e.g., household, community, and institution) have been overlooked in studying agricultural climate change adaptation. We combine data from 13 sites in 11 low-income countries in East Africa, West Africa, and South Asia to explore how multiple scales of social capital relate to household food security outcomes among smallholder farmers. Using social network theory, we define three community organizational social network types (fragmented defined by lack of coordination, brokered defined as having a strong central actor, or shared defined by high coordination) and examine household social capital through group memberships. We find community and household social capital are positively related, with higher household group membership more likely in brokered and shared networks. Household group membership is associated with more than a 10% reduction in average months of food insecurity, an effect moderated by community social network type. In communities with fragmented and shared organizational networks, additional household group memberships is associated with consistent decreases in food insecurity, in some cases up to two months; whereas in brokered networks, reductions in food insecurity are only associated with membership in credit groups. These effects are confirmed by hierarchical random effects models, which control for demographic factors. This suggests that multiple scales of social capital—both within and outside the household—are correlated with household food security. This social capital may both be bridging (across groups) and bonding (within groups) with different implications for how social capital structure affects food security. Efforts to improve food security could recognize the potential for both household and community level social networks and collaboration, which further research can capture by analyzing multiple scales of social capital data.

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CLIMATE CHANGE-FOOD SECURITY-FINANCIAL ASSETS NEXUS: EVIDENCE FROM INDONESIA

Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews ◽

10.18510/hssr.2019.718 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 62-68 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dini Yuniarti ◽

Yunastiti Purwaningsih ◽

AM Soesilo ◽

Agustinus Suryantoro

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Human Capital ◽

Food Security ◽

Food Insecurity ◽

Natural Capital ◽

El Nino ◽

Household Food Security ◽

Financial Assets ◽

Livelihood Assets ◽

Household Food

Purpose: The aim of the study is to investigate the position of household food security when they face climate change and examine the influence of financial asset on food security dynamic. Additionally, we investigate the impact of livelihood assets such as human capital, financial capital, social capital, natural capital, and physical capital on food security dynamic. Methodology: There are four categories of food security dynamic namely household that always secure, improved, worse, and always food insecure. Taking the case on Kulonprogo, Yogyakarta Special Region, we use primary data with a longitudinal survey when El Nino (2015) and La Nina (2016). The sample size is 107 households of Program KeluargaHarapan’s receiver. To examine the association between financial assets and food security dynamic we used Multinomial Logit Regression. Results: The results of the study indicates that households in the face of climate change did not experience significant changes in food security positions in both seasons (El Nińo and La Nińa). Mild food insecurity still dominates impoverished households. Implications: Thus, the proportion of households that experienced improvement or decline was dominated by mild food insecurity. Furthermore, financial assets such as saving and credit can enhance poor household food security. Meanwhile, there are not all household livelihood assets improve food security yet; only human capital and natural capital can improve household food security. The appropriate food security strategies can be the focus on financial sector intervention program.

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Impact of Farm Households’ Adaptations to Climate Change on Food Security: Evidence from Different Agro-ecologies of Pakistan

The Pakistan Development Review ◽

10.30541/v55i4i-iipp.561-588 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 55 (4I-II) ◽

pp. 561-588 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Munir Ahmad Gattoo ◽

Ghulam Mustafa ◽

Muhammad Iqbal

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Food Security ◽

Treatment Effects ◽

New Technologies ◽

Cropping Systems ◽

Farm Households ◽

Household Food Security ◽

Farm Income ◽

Household Food ◽

The Impact

The study used data from 3298 food crop growers in Pakistan. Potential outcome treatment effects model was applied to evaluate the impact of adaptations on household food security. A household Food Security Index (FSI) was constructed applying Principle Component Analysis (PCA). Adaptation strategies employed by the farmers in response to climate change were categorised into four groups namely: changes in sowing time (C1); input intensification (C2); water and soil conservation (C3); and changes in varieties (C4). Out of 15 mutually exclusive combinations constructed for evaluation, only 7 combinations were considered for estimating the treatment effects models because of limited number of observations in other cases. Results of only two of the 7 are discussed in the paper, as the other 5 had very small number of adapters and the impact measures shown either insignificant results or had opposite signs. The first (C1234) combined all the four, while the second (C234) combined the last three strategies. The results suggest that the households which adapted to climate changes were statistically significantly more food secure as compared to those who did not adapt. The results further show that education of the male and female heads, livestock ownership, the structure of house—both bricked and having electricity facility, crops diversification, and non-farm income are among the factors, which raise the food security of farm households and their impacts are statistically significant. The variables which are significantly negatively associated with the food security levels include age of the head of household, food expenditure management, households having less than 12.5 acres of land— defined as marginal (cultivate 6.25 to 12.5 acres). Farmers of cotton-wheat, rice-wheat, and rain-fed cropping systems are found to be more food secure as compared to the farmers working in the mixed cropping systems where farm holdings are relatively small and high use of tube-well water adding to salinity of soils. It is crucial to invest in the development of agricultural technological packages, addressing issues of climate change relevant to different ecologies and farming systems; improve research-extension-farmer linkages; enhance farmers‘ access to new technologies; improve rural infrastructure; development of weather information system linking meteorological department, extension and farmers; and establishment of targeted food safety nets as well as farm subsidy programs for marginal farm households.

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