Abstract
The research was funded by the Aquaculture Centre of Excellence (ACE II) project. Abstract The study was conducted in Dowa and Mchinji districts of central Malawi to understand how fish farmers make choice of village savings and loans, income generating activities and insurance to deal with weather and climate shocks. A multivariate probit model was used to analyse the drivers of farmers’ choice so that we know if the strategies are complements or substitutes. Data from 353 fish farmers was collected. The study has shown that education level, age of the farmer, farming experience and the hypothetical insurance bid are significant drivers of fish farmers’ choice. We recommend promotion of adult literacy, civic education and enhancement of extension services on the coping strategies as a proxy to formal education which has proved so crucial in the adoption of coping strategies. Keywords : fish farmers, weather and climate shocks, coping strategies, multivariate probit model DOI : 10.7176/JESD/10-4-02
Highlights
Weather and climate shocks have emerged to be serious threats to the agricultural sector in many different parts of the world (Shannon and Motha, 2015)
6.0 Conclusions and policy recommendations The multivariate probit results indicated that education level, operating status, years of farming experience, age of the farmer, shock experience, marital status and bid price are significant drivers of the adoption of rainfall indexed insurance (RII)
Fish sales, household size and value of worst damage were very crucial in the adoption of village savings and loans (VSLs) in both districts
Summary
Weather and climate shocks have emerged to be serious threats to the agricultural sector in many different parts of the world (Shannon and Motha, 2015). In Malawi, these shocks include extreme temperatures, dry spells within a rainfall season that turn into a drought if they last for more than three months (Chabvunguma et al, 2015), and excess precipitation which results in floods and pest and diseases (Shannon and Motha, 2015). In Dowa and Mchinji Districts, households face challenges in food production due to persistent dry spell, pest and disease and other associated factors (FEWSNET, 2015). To the detriment of fish production, fish farmers in the study area, practice a low input, low output form of aquaculture relying heavily on the interaction with the ecosystem and naturally available feed to support their fish (Omonepade, 2014), which can hardly suffice the changing climate and weather. An understanding of how farmers in general and fish farmers in particular make their choices to cope with the changing climate will be an important ingredient to any efforts to lessen the burden of weather and climate shocks
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