Perceptions of climate variability and determinants of farmers’ adaptation strategies in the highlands of Southwest Cameroon

Abstract

In Cameroon, climate variability largely controls agriculture related livelihood strategies This variability enhances environmental threats including deforestation, water scarcity and land degradation, which would affect these long and short-term livelihood strategies. This study examined farmers’ perceptions of climate variability and the factors that influence various climate adaptation strategies in the highlands of Southwest Cameroon. Using local scale meteorological data from 1974 to 2014 and climate perception data collected from 355 households, in 22 rural villages through household surveys and 12 focus group discussions, descriptive statistics and logit regression model analyses were performed. Results showed 85.1%, 83.9% and 86.2% of the respondents to have observed changes in patterns of temperature, rainfall and number of rainy days. Results further showed household characteristics such as marital status (P-value 0.072) to influence the household decision of increasing in farm size more than gender of household head (P-value 0.221). Also, age of household head (P-value 0.086) influenced adoption of changing planting dates more than gender of household head (P-value 0.207) in a village at the 95% level of significance. This study will help policy makers educate local rural farmers on climate adaptation measures, impacts, and methods for increasing crop yields.