Browsing by Author "Baudoin, Marie-Ange"

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    Barriers and enablers to uptake and implementation of system of rice intensification: a case study of Mwea irrigation scheme in Kenya
    (2016) Gicheru, Mercy Njeri; Johnston, Peter; Baudoin, Marie-Ange
    It already seems preposterous to be able to sufficiently meet global food demand of the expected nine billion people by 2050 while at the same time maintain our emissions levels below 2ᵒC by the end of the century. This is more so for a continent such as Africa where much of this population is expected to arise from considering the fact that the continent is ranked to have the highest proportion of food insecure population. In order to overcome this challenge, we will need a total revolution of our agricultural production systems to systems that not only focus on increasing food production but also build our resilience to climate change. An example of one such practice is System of Rice Intensification (SRI) which is acclaimed to increase rice production while at the same time reducing the pressure on scarce water resources, minimizing agricultural greenhouse gases emissions and improving the farmers' households' adaptive capacity to climate change impacts by increasing their income. However, despite the success attributed to SRI, its uptake across Sub Saharan Africa is arguably low. This is puzzling considering the high proportion of food insecurity in the region and the region's susceptibility to damage from increased severity and frequency of climate extreme events such as droughts and floods due to its geographical positioning and the limited adaptive capacity of its people. In this work, the researcher sought to understand the barriers and enablers to the adoption of the System of Rice intensification in Mwea irrigation scheme (MIS) in Kenya. The findings show that most barriers to the uptake of SRI in MIS occur during the dissemination of SRI. Further critical barriers to the uptake of SRI in MIS were identified as follows: lack of formal SRI training, high costs of rice production, failure to involve key stakeholder institutions such as SACCOs while marketing SRI and farmer's age. Moreover, the study also depicted that most barriers to SRI adoption were intertwined, thus focusing on a single barrier would be myopic. Furthermore, enablers to the uptake of SRI in MIS are tied to the benefits of SRI pre-empted by lead farmers. This correlation implies that the benefits of SRI are key motivators for SRI adoption. Other enablers include training. However, informal training on SRI through social networks which play a crucial role at disseminating climate adaptation activities amongst small scale farmers, is marked with a lot of inconsistencies which makes it a barrier for SRI uptake. In this regard, we advise that SRI trainers clearly highlight the activities involved in SRI and their resultant benefits during initial SRI information dissemination.
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    The capacity of local governments to build flood resilience in informal settlements: a social networks approach
    (2017) Bouwer, Roy; Pasquini, Lorena; Baudoin, Marie-Ange
    As greenhouse gas emissions drive anthropogenic climate change, flooding and flood related risk are likely to increase in frequency and intensity. The burden of these risks are expected to be concentrated in urban areas, particularly affecting highly vulnerable informal settlements. Adapting to these risks will largely fall under the responsibility of local governments. However local governments, in particular those in developing countries, often lack the capacity to implement effective adaptation strategies for long-term resilience. Drawing on social network analysis this research examines the role of social ties and social capital in facilitating knowledge sharing to improve the capacities of local governments to deal with flood-related risks. Using the case studies of Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality and Mossel Bay Local Municipality in South Africa, this research found that patterns of social interactions in the two local governments were largely a result of the size of structures of governance. The larger Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality network consisted of poorly connected sub-groups with poor knowledge dispersal. This led to poor adaptive and inclusive governance because poor levels of collaboration and social learning inhibited effective flood management. The smaller Mossel Bay Local Municipality network consisted of a bonded network with high knowledge transfers. These characteristics contributed to improved adaptive and inclusive governance because strong collaboration enabled informed and flexible flood management. The poor collaboration in NMBMM is likely to negatively affect the municipality's capacity to build resilience for informal settlements by negatively affecting coping, adaptive and transformative capacity. The strong collaboration in MBLM can foster coping and adaptive capacities, but may be hampering the transformative capacity of the municipality. Thus social networks have a considerable role to play in the governance of flooding, thereby influencing the ability of the two local governments to build resilience in informal settlements.
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    Climate change impacts and farmers' responses in Chilanga District, Zambia
    (2017) Kinkese, Theresa; Baudoin, Marie-Ange
    Climate change and variability are predicted to threaten agricultural production in Southern Africa. For example, Zambia's agriculture remains vulnerable to climate change and variability due to the small-scale farmers' dependence on rain-fed agriculture. Some studies in Zambia have shown the quantitative negative impacts of climate variability on agriculture; however, there is limited knowledge on how farmers perceive the impacts and adapt their agricultural systems. To fill in the knowledge gap mentioned above, the aim of the present study was to evaluate farmers' observations of climate variability impacts and their responses. The study then evaluates the integration of farmers' climate variability observations and adaptation strategies into local district plans. Such integration is deemed critical to ensure agricultural strategies promoted by extension officers are locally relevant and are adopted by the farmers. The study is based on semi-structured interviews and literature review. Thirty-one (31) farmers from Mwembeshi, Chilanga District, Zambia, participated in the study. The findings of the survey indicate that farmers in Mwembeshi are aware of their vulnerability to climate variability impacts. As a result of the observed impacts, they have developed several adaptation strategies. Through this study, extension agents were also interviewed in order find out what adaptation strategies are promoted to the farmers. The findings of the research indicate agricultural extension agents follow national agricultural adaptation strategies (top-down approach). As a result, local agricultural development plans would not specifically integrate/respond to climate variations impacts observed by the farmers. In order to engage local farmer impacts of the climate variability and their adaptation strategies into the local plans, the research suggests a more flexible (or bottom-up) approach to local development planning. Such an approach would allow the integration of local farmer observations of climate variability and their adaptation strategies into district plans. The study also found that extension agents have limited knowledge of climate variability and change, which negatively affects knowledge transfer to farmers on the subject. Therefore, training the extension officers in the subject would most likely increase farmers' knowledge on climate variability and adaptation decision.