Abstract:
Agroforestry parklands in the Sahel
provide a number of ecosystem services that help
farmers cope better with climate change effects and
thus reducing their vulnerability. However, parklands are threatened due to the decline in densities
of species that are sensitive to drought and that
might compromise the delivery of the above
mentioned ecosystem services to farmers. Therefore, data were collected by interviewing 400
smallholder farmers to elucidate farmers’ perceptions of climate change in southern Mali and
potential consequences on the delivery of ecosystem services from the parklands. Descriptive statistics and multinomial logit model were used to
analyse the data collected and identify the indictors
as well as the determinants of farmers’ perception
of climate change. The findings revealed increases
in the frequency of strong wind, dust, drought, high
temperatures and number of hot days as the main
climate change-related indicators. Furthermore, an
early cessation of the rainy season, frequent drought
and wind were found to be the factors impeding a
better delivery of the ecosystem services from the
parklands. Early cessation of rains and frequent
drought might affect the water availability which in
turn affects the flowering and fruiting phases of the
trees. The occurrence of strong wind causes the
shedding of the flowers thus reducing the fruit
production. Age, educational level, farm size and
gender are key factors influencing farmer’s perception of climate change. The strategies adopted by
these farmers to cope with climate shocks include
use of improved drought-tolerant crop varieties,
diversification of crops, off-farm activities and
seasonal migration. Based on these findings, we
therefore suggest the development of conducive
environment that can help create agricultural related
off-farm income earning activities that could protect
active households from the impacts of climate
change and variability.
