Climate Information as A Support for Optimizing Agricultural Public Policies: A Comparative Analysis Among Peasant Communities in The Middle Couffo (Benin) And Kpékplémé In the Middle Mono in The South-East of Togo

Abstract

Responses to climate change often take the form of strengthening the resilience and adaptive capacities of communities vulnerable to hazards. To this end, climate information is very crucial and must constitute an essential element of local public agricultural policies. In this perspective, how do local communities participate in the popularization of climate information in order to establish sustainable strategies for climate resilience? This involves analyzing the role of local communities in agricultural extension through the dissemination of climate information. The methodological approach taken is based on the observation of the agrarian landscape and the modification of the finage, the techniques of resilience of the peasant communities and semi-structured interviews carried out with 221 targeted actors in three agricultural communes of Moyen-Couffo in Benin. and in Kpékplémé and Aklakou in southern Togo. The analytical approach oriented from the perspective of local agricultural public policies has made it possible to bring climate information closer to a competence of local communities. This article, based on a corpus of resilience itineraries, sheds light on the role of local authorities in anticipating and adapting to climate change. It appears from the cases studied that the promotion of sustainable adaptation strategies depends on a local public agricultural policy supported by planning and agricultural innovations based on climate information and their popularization by decentralized territorial entities.