Climate-Smart Practices of Smallholder Farmers in Cameroon Confronted with Climate Variability and Change: The Example o
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FULL-LENGTH RESEARCH ARTICLE
Climate-Smart Practices of Smallholder Farmers in Cameroon Confronted with Climate Variability and Change: The Example of Agroforestry Nyong Princely Awazi1
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Martin Ngankam Tchamba1 • Lucie Felicite Temgoua1
Received: 18 February 2020 / Accepted: 18 July 2020 Ó NAAS (National Academy of Agricultural Sciences) 2020
Abstract Faced with the adverse effects of climate variability and change (CVC), agro-ecological farming practices like agroforestry are crucial especially for smallholder farmers who are extremely vulnerable. It was within this context that this study appraised smallholder farmers’ agroforestry practices faced with climate change adversities. Biophysical and socioeconomic data were collected from ten villages in Cameroon. Findings showed that climate parameters have experienced significant fluctuations in the past five decades. Smallholder farmers practice several agroforestry practices and integrate a plethora of tree/shrub species on agroforestry plots in order to adapt to climate change. Six main types of agroforestry trees/ shrub species (trees/shrubs used for fuelwood, fruits, building materials, fodder, soil improvement, medicines) were integrated by smallholder farmers within agroforestry plots. T test and Chi-square test statistics indicated a strong noncausal relationship between explanatory variables (institutional and socio-economic attributes) and smallholder farmers’ agroforestry practicing decision faced with CVC. Logistic regression showed that a strong positive causal relationship exists between four explanatory variables (age of household head, access to information, access to credit and degree of vulnerability) and smallholder farmers’ agroforestry practicing decision faced with CVC. The study therefore recommends that institutional and socio-economic factors (credit facilities and reliable information) fostering smallholder farmers’ practice of agroforestry faced with CVC should be provided by governmental and non-governmental agencies in order to enhance the odds of smallholder farmers practicing agroforestry faced with the adverse effects of CVC. Keywords Climate variability Climate change Smallholder farmers Agroforestry practices Cameroon
Introduction The continuous increase in the number of smallholder farms in the developing world which in most cases are unsustainable and vulnerable to the adverse effects of
& Nyong Princely Awazi [email protected] Martin Ngankam Tchamba [email protected] Lucie Felicite Temgoua [email protected] 1
Department of Forestry, Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences, University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon
climate variability and change, calls for swift action geared towards reducing vulnerability and enhancing resilience of the small-scale farming sector [4, 15]. In order to achieve this lofty goal, it is absolutely imperative to document and promote sustainable and agro-ecological options which can aid smallholder farmers cope with and/or mitigate the adverse effects of climate variabili
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