Climate resilience in rural Zambia: Evaluating farmers’ response to El Niño-induced drought

Abstract

This paper examines the impacts of the El Nino during the 2015/2016 season on maize productivity and incomes in rural Zambia. The analysis aims at identifying whether and how sustainable land management (SLM) practices and livelihood diversification strategies have contributed to moderate the impacts of the El Nino related drought. This is done using a specifically designed survey called the El Nino Impact Assessment Survey (ENIAS), which is combined with the 2015 wave of the Rural Agricultural Livelihoods Surveys (RALS), as well as high resolution rainfall data from the Africa Rainfall Climatology version 2 (ARC2). This unique data set provides an opportunity to understand the impacts of shocks like El Nino that are expected to get more frequent and severe in Zambia, as well as understand the agricultural practices and livelihood strategies that can buffer household production and welfare from the impacts of such shocks to drive policy recommendations.