Browsing by Author "Di Falco, Salvatore"

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    Adaptation to Climate Change and Variability and Its Implications for Household Nutrition in Kenya
    (2017-06) Kabubo-Mariara, Jane; Mulwa, Richard M; Di Falco, Salvatore
    Climate change and variability are affecting weather patterns and causing seasonal shifts with serious repercussions for households and communities in Kenya. The livelihoods of the majority of Kenyans are therefore threatened due to the potential adverse impacts of climate change, such as declining production and productivity, which could lead to food insecurity. To mitigate the negative impacts of climate change and variability, farmers need to adopt different strategies, such as new crop varieties, crop and livestock diversification, and water-harvesting technologies. These climate change adaptation strategies are expected to influence the level of food production (hence food security) in the country, and therefore their linkages with food security in Kenya need to be studied. It is against this background that this study was undertaken to assess factors influencing climate change adaptation and the implications of adaptation for nutrition, measured in kilocalories (Kcal) produced. To accomplish this task, an endogenous switching regression model is applied to household survey data of 708 households from 38 counties in Kenya. The results demonstrate that mean temperature does not influence Kcal production but increased precipitation can negatively or positively influence Kcal production, depending on whether it rains during harvest, land preparation or crop growing periods. Households living in areas with different soil types are likely to produce varying quantities of Kcal depending on the soil type. This requires intervention in improving soil fertility, alongside adopting crop enterprises suitable for these areas. In addition, older and more experienced farmers will produce more nutrition compared to younger farmers with little farming experience. Finally, it is shown that farmers who adapted to climate change produced 1,305,414 Kcal against 564,789 Kcal for households that did not adapt. The treatment effects results show that farm households that actually adapted would have produced about 996,224 Kcal less (that is, about 23.7% less) if they had not adapted. By contrast, if farmers who did not adapt had adapted, they would have produced about 773,879 Kcal more (that is, about 27.01% more). Thus, adaptation to climate change significantly increases production of nutrition.
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    Determinants of Adoption and Impacts of Sustainable Land Management and Climate Smart Agricultural Practices (SLM-CSA) :Panel Data Evidence from the Ethiopian Highlands
    (2017-08) Beyene, Abebe D; Mekonnen, Alemu; Kassie, Menale; Di Falco, Salvatore; Bezabih, Mintewab; Abebe D. Beyene, corresponding author, Environment and Climate Research Center, Ethiopian Development Research Institute, email: abebed2002@yahoo.co.uk. Alemu Mekonnen, Department of Economics, Addis Ababa University, email: alemu_m2004@yahoo.com. Menale Kassie, International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), P.O. Box 1041, 00621 Village, Market, Nairobi, Kenya, email: mkassie@icipe.org. Salvatore Di Falco, University of Geneva, Switzerland, email: Salvatore.DiFalco@unige.ch. Mintewab Bezabih Ayele, Environment and Climate Research Center, Ethiopian Development Research Institute. email: mintewab.ayele@gmail.com.
    This paper analyzes the factors affecting adoption of sustainable land management and climate smart agricultural (SLM-CSA) practices (in particular tree planting, soil conservation and intercropping) and the effects of adoption on crop net revenue. We use two rounds of household and parcel level survey data collected from the East Gojjam and South Wollo Zones in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, in combination with spatially explicit climate data (rainfall and temperature). We use a multinomial endogenous switching regression model to understand the impacts of SLM-CSA practices on crop net revenue and we conduct a counterfactual analysis to compare the returns from various adaptation strategies. The results show the importance of household characteristics, physical characteristics of the farm, and climate-related factors in farm households’ decisions to adopt adaptation strategies. We also find that the adoption of SLM-CSA practices, either in isolation or in combination, can result in both positive and negative returns in crop net revenue. Tree planting has the best payoff among the practices considered in this study, either in isolation or in combination. The study also suggests that adoption of all three SLM-CSA practices does not necessarily result in better returns compared to other strategies considered in this study.