Abstract
AbstractFood production in Kenya and Africa in recent past has experienced vagaries of weather fluctuations which ultimately have affected crop yield. Farming in Kenya is localized in specific Agro-ecological zones, hence understanding crop growth responses in particular regions is crucial in planning and management for purposes of accelerating adoption. A number of strategies for adoption and adaptation to changing weather patterns have been deployed yet only limited challenges have been partially addressed or managed. This chapter examines previous methods used in classifying agro-ecological zones and further provides additional insightful parameters that can be adopted to enable farmers understand and adapt better to the current variable and unpredictable cropping seasons. The chapter scrutinizes past and current documented information on agro-ecological zonal valuations coupled with the use of earth observation components such as air temperature at surface, land surface temperature, evapotranspiration, soil, temperature, and soil and moisture content in order to better understand and effectively respond to new phenomena occurring as a result of climate change in the marginal agricultural areas. Significant variations in precipitation, ambient temperature, soil moisture content, and soil temperature become evident when earth observation data are used in evaluation of agro-ecological lower midland zones IV and V. The said variations cut across areas within the agro-ecological zones that have been allocated similar characteristics when assigning cropping seasons. The chapter summarizes the outcomes of various streams of contributions that have reported significant shifts or changes in rainfall and temperature patterns across Kenya and wider Eastern Africa region. The chapter highlights the need for re-evaluation of the agro-ecological zones based on the recent earth observation datasets in their diversity. The research emphasizes the use of multiple climate and soil-related parameters in understanding climate change in the other marginal areas of Kenya.
Highlights
Climate Change and Its Impacts in Lower Midland Agro-ecological Zones IV and VThe worrying trends and implication of the changing climatic patterns and extreme weather events have been previously documented (Donat et al 2013; Schneider et al 2018)
This chapter concludes that variation within agro-ecological lower midland zones IV and V does exist and changes have been occurring over a long period of time
Earth observation products used alongside in situ information have the potential of improving agro-ecological zoning and the interpretation of the cropping season and crop suitability
Summary
The worrying trends and implication of the changing climatic patterns and extreme weather events have been previously documented (Donat et al 2013; Schneider et al 2018). The studies on agro-ecological zoning put emphasis on the use of FAO classification of 1978 which looks at the ability of agricultural land to support crop production through length of growing period, temperature, and precipitation. This chapter focuses on the agro-ecological zones IV and V of the marginal lands of Tharaka-Nithi, Meru, Makueni, and Machakos counties that run along a similar agro-climatic belt in Eastern Kenya These areas cover semi-arid region where most farmers depend on rain-fed agriculture for livelihood. The dataset used for this study are general time average maps for periods not less than 10 years to bring various phenomena of variation in the area of study These phenomena are meant to provide current insight into climate change variability and influence in agro-ecological lower midland zones IV and V.
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