Factors Underlying Smallholder Farmers’ Subjective Resilience to Floods

Abstract

Worldwide, the increase in extreme weather conditions has stimulated numerous scholars’ growing interest in estimating people’s resilience to disasters through indicator-based measures, while less consideration is given to the subjective approach centered on self-well-being estimation. This study attempted to fill this gap by using a subjective resilience approach to assessing flood-prone smallholder farmers’ resilience to flood damages in Upper Guinea. Toward this end, three resilience capacities were used: people’s ability to prepare to counter the effect of flooding on their livelihoods; people’s confidence to recover from a flood disaster aftermath; and people’s ability to adjust or change their income sources sensitive to flooding. Descriptive statistics and probit regression analysis, respectively, were used to characterize respondents’ perceived resilience and to identify the underlying factors that explain this resilience. The results of descriptive statistics disclosed a shallow level of flood resilience among respondents within the following three dimensions: preparedness (37.86%), recovery (30.46%), and adjusting to change (39.86%); furthermore, gender-based disparities disadvantaged most women (23%, 26%, and 25%) compared to men (39%, 30%, and 41%). Probit regression analysis results indicated that key factors shaping flood resilience among smallholder farmers were the ownership of assets (OAs), indigenous knowledge (IK), and livelihood diversification (LD). In contrast, household size (HS) was a key factor in decreasing resilience. The results indicate a strong connection between households’ flood resilience and their socioeconomic characteristics regarding OAs, IK, and LD, which need to be improved to strengthen farmers’ resilience.