Excerpt
Climate change is a serious challenge for the future development of Africa, particularly the drier regions. Knowledge and awareness about climatic patterns are important for adaptation planning. Although there are many studies on farmers’ perceptions about climate change, the views of heterogeneous farm households also need to be addressed. This paper investigates the variations and similarities in the views of heterogeneous farm households about climate change. We employed a household survey (186) and interviews for data collection. Using principal component analysis and K-mean cluster analysis, we identified two household types that differ in terms of assets (human, natural and financial) and we compared their perceptions about climate change. Household-1 farmers are better off than household-2 in terms of land area cultivated and income generated from rain fed rice. On the other hand, household-2 farmers are better off than household-1 in terms of area cultivated for maize and income generated from maize. In addition, household-2 farmers are better off than household-1 in terms of land area cultivated and income generated from irrigated rice. The findings from this study show that the two household types shared similar views with respect to rainfall and temperature patterns, as well as in the ranking of climate change drivers. However, variation was observed in the perceptions of the household types of adaptation constraints. More household-1 farmers (60%) compared to household-2 (43%) saw access to dry season farmland as a barrier for adaptation. This may be due to the fact that household-2 farmers are better off with respect to irrigated farming. Heterogeneous household perceptions about climate change reveal similarities, but differences still exist in some aspects. From a similar environment, we can see that farm household heterogeneity shows a relationship with climate change perception. Therefore, it will be important to account for diversities within our local environments when planning for climate change adaptation.