Building an Indigenous Agro-pastoral Adaptation Framework to Climate Change in Sub-Saharan Africa: Experiences from the North West Region of Cameroon

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), among other regions of the world, stands today as one of the hardest hit areas as far as the concomitants of climate change is concerned. This is particularly the case with the agro-pastoral sector which is the lifeblood of most of the economies of this region with about 85% of the indigenous populations relying on agriculture for their survival. Both long and short term climatic oscillations have succeeded to disrupt crop and livestock output thus signaling threats to food security. Although the communities have either consciously or unconsciously made use of some indigenous adaptation strategies, they are judged to be weak at the moment. This requires the designation of context-specific agro-pastoral adaptation frameworks. Using focus group discussions (FGDs) of 6 agro-pastoral groups (10 representatives each) in this region, complemented by field surveys and the extensive review of literature on case studies for other SSA communities, we analyze the knowledge, perceptions and adaptation strategies for individual agro-pastoral households in rural Cameroon. Our analysis of data leads us to conclude that future climatic situation is characterized by increasing unpredictability, introducing shocks of varying degrees in the crop and livestock sector necessitating varying formal and informal mechanisms. Current adaptation measures rely mainly on crop diversification and mixed farming. Although these methods are good, the scale of operation and the degree of diversification is still low to climate-proof the agro-pastoral sector. Furthermore, these changes are introduced in the midst of poor farming practices such as slash and burn and ankara systems. Current indigenous adaptation strategies are weak and have a connection with income levels, level of farmers organizations, knowledge and perception.