Contribution of agroforestry trees for climate change adaptation: narratives from smallholder farmers in Isiolo, Kenya
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Contribution of agroforestry trees for climate change adaptation: narratives from smallholder farmers in Isiolo, Kenya Amy Quandt
Received: 7 April 2020 / Accepted: 4 September 2020 Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Agroforestry is often praised as a sustainable approach for the adaptation of smallholder farmers to climate change and variability in Africa. The environmental, economic, and social benefits of agroforestry can contribute to climate change adaptation efforts; however, most studies to date are quantitative and do not focus on specific natural hazards. To address these gaps, this study draws from the concepts of vulnerability and adaptation to explore how individuals from 20 smallholder farming households in semi-arid Isiolo County, Kenya have benefited from their agroforestry trees during drought and flood events. A total of 83 qualitative interviews were conducted with both male and female household heads. The interviews were recorded, and interview text was coded into major themes. The results highlight (1) the contributions of agroforestry trees to reducing sensitivity and increasing adaptive capacity to drought and flood events, as well as (2) the key characteristics of drought-important and flood-important agroforestry trees. In both drought and flood events agroforestry had an important role to play in reducing sensitivity, largely through improving environmental conditions (shade, soil erosion, windbreaker, microclimate regulation), and increasing adaptive capacity by providing critical tree products A. Quandt (&) Department of Geography, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182-4493, USA e-mail: [email protected]
and financial benefits (fruit, food, firewood, construction materials, fodder, traditional medicines, money from sales of fruit products). Agriculture is often considered the livelihood strategy most vulnerable to climate change, and thus better understanding how to adapt agriculture to the impacts of climate change is critical for both the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and global food security efforts. Keywords Adaptation Agroforestry Climate change Kenya Sensitivity Vulnerability
Introduction Agroforestry is often praised as a sustainable approach for the adaptation of smallholder farmers to climate change and variability in Africa, as well as Kenya more specifically (Quandt et al. 2017; Bisong and Larwanou 2019; Amadu et al. 2020). Agroforestry can contribute to adapting smallholder agricultural systems to the impacts of climate change by creating microclimates with lower mean air temperatures and higher soil moisture (Gomes et al. 2020); reducing crop transpiration rates by shading crops (Verchot et al. 2007; Lin 2010); drawing water from deeper soil layers and supporting root water update by crops (Padovan et al. 2015); minimizing soil loss from water erosion during flooding (Lal et al. 1991); enhancing
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soil fertility (Awazi and Tchamba 2019); diversifying produc
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