Socioeconomic Determinants of Banana Farmers’ Perception to Climate Change in Nyeri County, Kenya.

Abstract

This study examined the perception of banana farmers in Mt. Kenya region of Kenya (Nyeri County) on climate change and assessed the socio-economic factors that determines their perceptions. Triangulation research design was used to guide the study by integrating both qualitative and quantitative methods in data collection and analysis. The sites were purposively selected to include Mukurweini sub-county where banana production has been practiced since 1980. A sample size of 130 respondents were sampled. Simple random sampling was used to select the participating respondents. Field survey techniques were used in the collection of data which was analysed using the SPSS v21. Results showed that about 78.2% of the respondents perceived unpredictable rainfall and increased temperature, while 21.5% perceived no change in rainfall and temperature over the last 20 to 30 years period. Majority (79%), of the farmers highly perceived climate to have changed over the years while 53.5% of the respondents in the study area understood climate change as occurrence of unpredictable rainfall. Perceived effect of high rainfall on banana marketing and trading was reported as low market prices (48.5%), while during low rains (dry seasons) was high market demands with (56.2%). Logit model was used to determine the socioeconomic factors influencing farmers perception and was significant at p<0.001 and correctly predicted 83.5% of both those who perceived and those who never perceived changes in rainfall and temperature in the last 20 to 30 years. Results of the logit model analysis showed that the gender of household head, farming system, type of farming and access to weather information influenced banana farmers perception towards climate change. About 47.7% recommended provision of weather information on the onset of the rainfall period while 49.2% preferred information on rainfall distribution within the seasons in order to respond to climate change issues. This has implications on policy makers in the formulation and integration of the policies on development of climate information.