Farm-level land use responses to climate change among smallholder farmers in northern Benin, West Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACT Adaptation to climate change often involves land use adjustments that can shape the sustainability of production systems. We conducted a survey to identify current farm-level land use strategies driven by climate change and their underlying socioeconomic determinants. Our study involved primary data collected on 336 maize producers randomly selected in 8 villages. We find that crop association/rotation, land reallocation/change of cropping patterns, water and soil conservation strategies, and field relocation are the main land use strategies driven by climate change at the farm-level. Farmers’ socioeconomic characteristics such as such as experience in agriculture, participation in off-farm activity, availability of farmland, organization membership, access to credit, contact with extension and household size have significant but differential effects on the choices of land use strategies. As a recommendation, extension services need to be revisited to better support smallholder farmers in adopting crops association/rotation and water and soil conservation methods. Policymakers can also tap into the opportunity of changes in cropping patterns to promote crops that are suitable for new climate conditions and have additional benefits for household food and nutritional security.