scholarly journals Identifying Challenging Barriers to Farmers’ Adaptation to Climate Change: A Case of Leribe District, Lesotho

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsepang Clementine Mofolo ◽  
Kheleli Mareabetsoe Rethabile

Climate change has become a global issue that most if not all countries around the world are tackling. Its impacts cut across different sectors, but for less developed countries like Lesotho, agriculture is a sector that is being affected the most. Lesotho depends on rainfed agriculture, mostly for subsistence and in part for commercial purposes as a source of income. Research in Lesotho has focused more on the implications of climate change on environmental processes, and less attention has been directed towards farmers as producers of food in an industry that provides livelihood to over 70% of its population. The first approach this article takes is to identify the intent and decision of farmers to adapt to climate change and the barriers that affect these decisions are explored. In identifying challenging barriers to farmers’ adaptation to climate change adaptation, the study was carried out in Leribe district, one of the 10 districts in Lesotho because it is known as the food basket of the country because of its high potential arable land. 138 farmers were purposively sampled to carry out the research, which was conducted using questionnaires administered through face-to-face interviews. From the study, perceptions of farmers that rainfall intensity, duration and frequency has decreased, and that temperatures have become extremely high were recorded. This, according to farmers, had led to impacts of water shortages, increase in frequency of droughts among other impacts. Farmers have adopted measures to minimize these impacts. The intention of farmers to adapt to climate change amidst the impacts exists amongst farmers. The study therefore aims of the study is to identify the potentially challenging barriers to farmers’ adaptation to climate change in Leribe. The conclusions drawn from the study are that in the sense of climate change impacts, agricultural productivity reduced, and seasonal food shortages prevailed. Lesotho’s capacity to grow its own food has dwindled dramatically. The food security policy must lay out plans to boost food production, and there must be cross-sector partnerships to provide necessary assistance for the lowest and most vulnerable farmers at both district and national levels.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 10420
Author(s):  
Ioannis Chatziioannou ◽  
Efthimios Bakogiannis ◽  
Charalampos Kyriakidis ◽  
Luis Alvarez-Icaza

One of the biggest challenges of our time is climate change. Every day, at different places of the world, the planet sends alarming messages about the enormous transformations it is experiencing due to human-based activities. The latter are responsible for changing weather patterns that threaten food production, energy production and energy consumption, the desertification of land, the displacement of people and animals because of food and water shortages due to the reductions in rainfall, natural disasters and rising sea levels. The effects of climate change affect us all, and if drastic measures are not considered in a timely manner, it will be more difficult and costly to adapt to the aforementioned effects in the future. Considering this context, the aim of this work is to implement a prospective study/structural analysis to the identified sectors of a regional plan of adaptation to climate change so as to promote the resilience of the region against the negative phenomena generated by the climate crisis. This was achieved in two steps: first, we identified the relationships between the strategic sectors of the plan and organized them in order of importance. Second, we assessed the effectiveness of several public policies oriented towards a city’s resilience according to their impact upon the strategic sectors of the plan and the co-benefits generated by their implementation for society. The results highlight that the most essential sectors for the mitigation of climate change are flood risk management, built environment, forest ecosystem management, human health, tourism and rise in sea level. As a consequence, the most important measures for the resilience of the North Aegean Region against climate change are the ones related to the preparation of strategic master plans for flood protection projects.


Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 215
Author(s):  
Liudmila Tripolskaja ◽  
Asta Kazlauskaite-Jadzevice ◽  
Virgilijus Baliuckas ◽  
Almantas Razukas

Ex-arable land-use change is a global issue with significant implications for climate change and impact for phytocenosis productivity and soil quality. In temperate humid grassland, we examined the impact of climate variability and changes of soil properties on 23 years of grass productivity after conversion of ex-arable soil to abandoned land (AL), unfertilized, and fertilized managed grassland (MGunfert and MGfert, respectively). This study aimed to investigate the changes between phytocenosis dry matter (DM) yield and rainfall amount in May–June and changes of organic carbon (Corg) stocks in soil. It was found that from 1995 to 2019, rainfall in May–June tended to decrease. The more resistant to rainfall variation were plants recovered in AL. The average DM yield of MGfert was 3.0 times higher compared to that in the AL. The DM yields of AL and MG were also influenced by the long-term change of soil properties. Our results showed that Corg sequestration in AL was faster (0.455 Mg ha−1 year−1) than that in MGfert (0.321 Mg ha−1 year−1). These studies will be important in Arenosol for selecting the method for transforming low-productivity arable land into MG.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart A. Jennings ◽  
Ann-Kristin Koehler ◽  
Kathryn J. Nicklin ◽  
Chetan Deva ◽  
Steven M. Sait ◽  
...  

The contribution of potatoes to the global food supply is increasing—consumption more than doubled in developing countries between 1960 and 2005. Understanding climate change impacts on global potato yields is therefore important for future food security. Analyses of climate change impacts on potato compared to other major crops are rare, especially at the global scale. Of two global gridded potato modeling studies published at the time of this analysis, one simulated the impacts of temperature increases on potential potato yields; the other did not simulate the impacts of farmer adaptation to climate change, which may offset negative climate change impacts on yield. These studies may therefore overestimate negative climate change impacts on yields as they do not simultaneously include CO2 fertilisation and adaptation to climate change. Here we simulate the abiotic impacts of climate change on potato to 2050 using the GLAM crop model and the ISI-MIP ensemble of global climate models. Simulations include adaptations to climate change through varying planting windows and varieties and CO2 fertilisation, unlike previous global potato modeling studies. Results show significant skill in reproducing observed national scale yields in Europe. Elsewhere, correlations are generally positive but low, primarily due to poor relationships between national scale observed yields and climate. Future climate simulations including adaptation to climate change through changing planting windows and crop varieties show that yields are expected to increase in most cases as a result of longer growing seasons and CO2 fertilisation. Average global yield increases range from 9 to 20% when including adaptation. The global average yield benefits of adaptation to climate change range from 10 to 17% across climate models. Potato agriculture is associated with lower green house gas emissions relative to other major crops and therefore can be seen as a climate smart option given projected yield increases with adaptation.


Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 2342
Author(s):  
Wangang Liu ◽  
Yiping Chen ◽  
Xinhua He ◽  
Ping Mao ◽  
Hanwen Tian

Global food insecurity is becoming more severe under the threat of rising global carbon dioxide concentrations, increasing population, and shrinking farmlands and their degeneration. We acquired the ISI Web of Science platform for over 31 years (1988–2018) to review the research on how climate change impacts global food security, and then performed cluster analysis and research hotspot analysis with VosViewer software. We found there were two drawbacks that exist in the current research. Firstly, current field research data were defective because they were collected from various facilities and were hard to integrate. The other drawback is the representativeness of field research site selection as most studies were carried out in developed countries and very few in developing countries. Therefore, more attention should be paid to developing countries, especially some African and Asian countries. At the same time, new modified mathematical models should be utilized to process and integrate the data from various facilities and regions. Finally, we suggested that governments and organizations across the world should be united to wrestle with the impact of climate change on food security.


Geosciences ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Sesana ◽  
Alexandre Gagnon ◽  
Chiara Bertolin ◽  
John Hughes

Changes in rainfall patterns, humidity, and temperature, as well as greater exposure to severe weather events, has led to the need for adapting cultural heritage to climate change. However, there is limited research accomplished to date on the process of adaptation of cultural heritage to climate change. This paper examines the perceptions of experts involved in the management and preservation of cultural heritage on adaptation to climate change risks. For this purpose, semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts from the UK, Italy, and Norway as well as a participatory workshop with stakeholders. The results indicate that the majority of interviewees believe that adaptation of cultural heritage to climate change is possible. Opportunities for, barriers to, and requirements for adapting cultural heritage to climate change, as perceived by the interviewees, provided a better understanding of what needs to be provided and prioritized for adaptation to take place and in its strategic planning. Knowledge of management methodologies incorporating climate change impacts by the interviewees together with best practice examples in adapting cultural heritage to climate change are also reported. Finally, the interviewees identified the determinant factors for the implementation of climate change adaptation. This paper highlights the need for more research on this topic and the identification and dissemination of practical solutions and tools for the incorporation of climate change adaptation in the preservation and management of cultural heritage.


2017 ◽  
pp. 1351-1365
Author(s):  
Bhupen Mili ◽  
Anamika Barua ◽  
Suparana Katyaini

Climate Change impacts would disproportionately have larger impacts on the developing countries. Both government and development agencies have initiated various adaptation strategies in the developing countries to enhance the adaptation of the local communities. Various policies and programmes have been designed keeping in mind the impact of climate change. This study was conducted in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, India, to see the benefits of such policies and programmes. Focus group discussion with community members were held in the study area. Based on the fieldwork it was seen that most of the intervention made in the study area focused on income, resources, and assets. It has failed to benefits the people due to variation in the capability among various section of the society. Various projects related to health, education, housing, and livelihood, have been implemented in the study region. However, due to lack of conversion factors in the form of gender inequality, discriminatory practices, transparency among others have come as a hindrance in the successful implementation of the projects. Hence, such project-based approach to enhance community's adaptation to climate risk, in the end fails to show benefits as it fails to expand community's capabilities and real freedom, due to the project's pre-defined aims. It is important to understand community's as agent of change rather than merely beneficiaries of adaptation projects. This study therefore recommends that to enhance community's adaptation to climate change, the interventions should be such that it enlarges the range of people's choices so that when climate disaster strikes them they will have a set of opportunities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carola Klöck ◽  
Patrick D. Nunn

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) share a common vulnerability to climate change. Adaptation to climate change and variability is urgently needed yet, while some is already occurring in SIDS, research on the nature and efficacy of adaptation across SIDS is fragmentary. In this article, we systematically review academic literature to identify where adaptation in SIDS is documented; what type of adaptation strategies are taken, and in response to which climate change impacts; and the extent to which this adaptation has been judged as successful. Our analysis indicates that much adaptation research is concentrated on the Pacific, on independent island states, and on core areas within SIDS. Research documents a wide array of adaptation strategies across SIDS, notably structural or physical and behavioral changes. Yet, evaluation of concrete adaptation interventions is lacking; it thus remains unclear to what extent documented adaptation effectively and sustainably reduces SIDS’ vulnerability and increases their resilience.


2006 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frans Berkhout ◽  
Julia Hertin ◽  
David M. Gann

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