Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
dissatisfactory adaptation results. Such policies and projects are likely to waste
precious financial resources and time without reducing climate risks, thus
hindering much-needed efforts to bring about deliberate transformations for
those most vulnerable to climate change.
Contextualizing vulnerability to climate change in the LVB
The complexity of climate change and its impacts across levels requires
adaptation responses that are equally diverse and inclusive. This reality calls
for in-depth knowledge and understanding of the specific cultural context
and locale (Morton 2007). In the case of the LVB of Kenya and Tanzania
examined here, this has been made possible by using an integrative and place-
based approach to understand climate vulnerability, drawing on qualitative and
quantitative methods as well as data gathered during repeated fieldwork periods
between 2007 and 2011 from four communities in Kenya and Tanzania (Onjiko,
Thurdibuoro, Kisumwa, Kunsugu) along Lake Victoria. The research included
a baseline household survey with 200 households randomly selected from
the four communities, covering demography, health, livelihood strategies and
climate issues. It also involved engagement with elders through 17 life-history
interviews, 12 focus groups centred on coping and adaptation strategies during
hardship seasons, in addition to four narrative walks and four participatory
mapping and seasonal calendar exercises in the communities. Data also come
from interviews with 30 widows and other women from various village-savings
and loans groups, focusing on adaptive capacities. What follows is a synopsis
of these research findings and a discussion on their implications for the future
development of adaptation projects and policy.
Climate risks and their induced stress on livelihoods in the LVB
As rain-fed agriculture is the mainstay of livelihoods in the LVB, grasping the
local dynamics of rainfall is vital for understanding how climate variability and
change may induce stress on farmers' livelihoods and wellbeing (Odada et al.
2006). According to elderly and currently active farmers in the four communities,
rainfall has become increasingly unpredictable in the last 10 to 15 years, deviating
from the otherwise dependable bi-modal rainfall patterns. This deviation has
been confirmed by regional climate analysis (Thornton et al. 2010; Kizza et
al. 2009). Farmers explain that increasingly erratic rainfall makes it difficult
for them to know when to plant and harvest optimally. Many of them have
witnessed their crops rotting in the fields from too much soil water, or seedlings
wilting due to lack of soil moisture, with a decline in agricultural production as
the direct result (Gabrielsson et al. 2013). An observable consequence of this
is the abandonment of crop-surplus storage as a coping mechanism for food
security - a reality shared by other smallholder communities across sub-Saharan
Africa (SSA) (Toulmin 2009; Rarieya and Fortun 2010). With less produce to
 
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