Abstract
This paper assesses the climate smart agricultural practices triggered by learning videos on integrated striga management, soil fertility and cost and benefit evaluation practices. Using household head interviews and focus group discussions, this study revealed that farmers have similar perceptions of climate change and related impacts in video-villages and in non-video-villages. However, farmers’ observation of climate change and related impacts are influenced by gender; men perceived more climate change and related impacts than women. In non-video villages, few respondents adopted crop rotation, intercropping, crop diversification, improved short-cycle seed varieties and zaï techniques as climate change adaptation strategies. Videos contribute more to the adoption of crop rotation, intercropping and fertilizer application for men than women. Videos on accounting (managing money) enable more women than men to enhance their cost-benefit evaluation practices for income improvement. During the interviews, women farmers in video-villages were eager to demonstrate their knowledge about cost and benefit evaluation. We also found that the yield of sorghum, millet and maize is high in video-villages and low in non-video-villages. Thus, using videos as extension tool is suitable for knowledge development and leads to the high adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices for food security.
Highlights
Agriculture contributes on average 34% to the GDP of Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries and employs 64% of the labour force (World Bank, 2007)
Beyond Striga and soil fertility management, this study aims to assess innovation towards the climate smart agriculture practices triggered by learning videos since the videos‟ content focused on integrated weed management, soil fertility and conservation agriculture which constitute the key elements of mitigating climate change (Dinesh, 2016)
This study focuses on Climate smart agriculture (CSA) by considering farmers‟ practices or innovations related to adaptation to climate change and agricultural productivity
Summary
Agriculture contributes on average 34% to the GDP of Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries and employs 64% of the labour force (World Bank, 2007). It accounts for about 40% of exports and provides various ecosystem services. With subsistence agriculture practiced by most smallholder farmers, yield gaps are high and poor soils, among other constraints, add to the difficulties for sustainable agriculture and incomes. Cereals such as maize, sorghum, millets and rice remain the most consumed staple foods of most African countries (Adebayo & Ibraheem, 2015; Macauley & Ramadjita, 2015). Striga is a more severe problem in poor soils, one reason why Striga and soil fertility are best managed together
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
