Factors Affecting Multiple Climate Change Adaptation Practices of Smallholder Farmers in lower Eastern Kenya

Abstract

The study investigated factors influencing uptake of multiple climate change adaptation practices among smallholder farmers. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 384 small-scale farmers. Percentage and regression were used in the analysis. The empirical results indicated complementarity among all the adaptation practices (i.e. integrated farming system, intercropping, crop rotation, conservation agriculture, agroforestry, crop diversification and water harvesting). Among the socio-economic factors, age and household size had significant and differing effects on all the adaptation practices. Among the institutional factors, distance to markets positively or negatively influenced uptake of all the technologies. The study, therefore, calls for agricultural policy reforms that aim at designing incentive programs which adequately address most of the issues related to uptake of adaptation practices as well as encouraging off-farm diversification. Keywords: Adoption, agricultural technologies; smallholder farmers