Abstract

AbstractThe impacts of climate change are already being felt on human and environmental systems, with the brunt of the impacts being felt by communities in the Global South, particularly small-holder farmers due to their poverty levels and greater direct dependency on natural resources for their livelihoods. Hence, there is a need to understand how to build small-holder farmers’ resilience to climate change. Climate change adaptation strategies need to build livelihood resilience in the face of climate change as well as address the factors that contribute to farmers’ vulnerability. This chapter draws from a mixed-method study conducted in three villages each in a different agro-ecological zone in the Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania, to explore how to build farmers’ livelihood resilience through addressing factors that increase livelihood vulnerability to climate change. These farmers’ livelihoods are vulnerable because of both the impacts of climate variability on the farmers’ livelihood assets and certain social and environmental structures and characteristics. Building small-holder farmers’ livelihood resilience that can ensure the desired levels of livelihood outcomes in the face of climate variability and change, requires integration of strategies across household resource management as well as farm-based livelihood assets, and a holistic rather than piecemeal approach to small-holder farmers’ livelihoods.

Highlights

  • BackgroundThe impacts of climate change are expected to affect human and environmental systems across the globe but the more devastating impacts are projected to occur in developing countries affecting small-holder farmers (Serdeczny et al 2017)

  • Climate change is expected to intensify existing challenges and there is an urgent need for adaptation of the livelihoods of small-holder farmers to enable them to thrive in the face of climate change

  • This section is structured around four key areas of focus to support small-holder farmer adaptation to increase resilience to climate change

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Summary

Introduction

BackgroundThe impacts of climate change are expected to affect human and environmental systems across the globe but the more devastating impacts are projected to occur in developing countries affecting small-holder farmers (Serdeczny et al 2017). Addressing how to build resilient small-holder farmers’ livelihoods through adaptation to climate change is vital for food security as well as livelihood development (Afifi et al 2014). To address these issues, considerable emphasis is placed by researchers on describing specific locally relevant agricultural or natural resource management practices or innovations that could potentially deal with impacts of extreme events at the farm/household level. The context-specific adaptations result from examining the vulnerability of the target community empirically, and utilizing community experience and knowledge to examine exposure and sensitivity of the community to climate change (Ebi and Burton 2008).

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