Impact of Climate Change Adaptation Strategies within Agricultural Communities in Central Benin Republic

Abstract

The harmful effects of climate change on developing countries’ agriculture, particularly in the Republic of Benin, are no longer in question as they have been the subject of several studies. The analysis of the effectiveness of agricultural adaptation strategies put in place must now be further examined in order to get the best out of them. This is how the present thesis aims to analyse the socio-economic impact of Climate change agricultural coping strategies on local communities in central Benin Republic. For this, the study identifies three climate change adaptation strategies adopted at communities’ level and analyses through a micro level study their outcome on the livelihood improvement of involved communities. We investigate of the use improved varieties, the crop calendar modification and the engagement in off-farm activities, on respectively crop yield, crop diversification and poverty reduction. Based on a primary cross sectional data collection from maize and cassava farmer’s communities of central Benin, we use quantitative and qualitative approaches, and run endogenous switching model regressions. The results show that different factors are usually behind the decision of adaptation by the farmers. Climate variables play a determinant role in adaptation undertaking, but also, the information channels, the farm socioeconomic and unobservable factors show their importance in the farmers’ adaptation decision taking. Coming to the effects of adaption strategies, it appears that, they have a globally positive impact the targeted aspects. However, the heterogeneity in socio-economic factors among the households and their farm need to be considered while shaping agricultural climate change adaptation strategies. Not all farmers’ groups, and all crops respond the same way to a giving adaptation strategy.