Can Social Capital influence Smallholder Farmers’ Climate-Change Adaptation Decisions? Evidence from Three Semi-Arid Communities in Burkina Faso, West Africa

Thomas Yaméogo,Tobias Wünscher,William Fonta

doi:10.3390/socsci7030033

Abstract

This study examines the influence of farmers’ social capital on their decisions to deal with climate change and climate variability in Burkina Faso. The study is based on a household survey conducted among 450 households, randomly selected from three communities in Burkina Faso. Two indexes were constructed to capture farmers’ structural and cognitive social capital; and using generalized Poisson regression (GPR) and a multivariate probit model, the study probes the effect of farmers’ social capital on their choice of adaptation alternatives, the number of adaptation practices used, and the extent to which adaptation measures were applied. The results indicated that the effect of social capital depends on the type of indicator used and on the type of adaptation strategies necessary. Farmers’ cognitive social capital was significantly and positively related to their choice of soil and water conservation techniques (SWCT), and techniques such as agroforestry and irrigation. Structural social capital, on the other hand, was positively associated with the adoption of new varieties and conservation tillage strategies and negatively associated with the use of a crop-diversification strategy. The results also highlighted that socio-economic, institutional and agro-ecological variables determine farmers’ decisions to adapt to climate change.

Highlights

Producers in Sub-Saharan African are among the most vulnerable to climate change impacts (Hummel et al 2012; Niang et al 2014)
The first section presents the results of the generalized Poisson regression (GPR) on the relationship between social capital and the adoption of adaptation strategies
Negative and highly significant dispersion factors confirm the under dispersion of the dependent variables, and indicate that the use of GPR is more appropriate compared to the regular Poisson model

Summary

Introduction

Producers in Sub-Saharan African are among the most vulnerable to climate change impacts (Hummel et al 2012; Niang et al 2014). This vulnerability is exacerbated by multiple stresses occurring at different levels, namely the dependence of agriculture on rainfall, recurrent drought, poverty, population growth and low adaptive capacity (Kurukulasuriya et al 2006; Boko et al 2007; West et al 2008; Hassan 2010). Farmers have to make significant changes in their management practices, land use and off-farm

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion