Endogenous Farmer Practices of Adaptation to Climate Variability in the Town of Banikoara, Benin
Adjahossou Vidédji Naéssé *
Université Nationale des Sciences Technologies Ingénierie et Mathématiques (UNSTIM), Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Biosciences et Biotechnologies Appliquées (ENSBBA), Laboratoire des Biotechnologies, Ressources Génétiques et Amélioration des Espèces Animale et Végétale (BIORAVE), 01 BP 2417 Cotonou, Bénin.
A. Adekambi Souleïmane
Université de Parakou, Institut Universitaire de Technologie (IUT), Centre de Recherche en Entrepreneuriat, Création et Innovation (CRECI), Laboratoire de Recherche en Dynamique Economie et Sociale (LARDES - UP) Benin.
Adjahossou Baï Sêdami
Université d’Abomey-Calavi, Ecole Polytechnique d’Abomey-Calavi (EPAC), 01 BP 526 Cotonou, Bénin.
Djego Julien Gaudence Mahutin
Université d’Abomey-Calavi (UAC), Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques (FSA), Laboratoire d’Ecologie Appliquée (LEA), Benin.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Background: Agriculture is an activity that provides more than 70% of employment in sub-Saharan African countries. However, climate variability has significant negative impacts on agricultural productivity, particularly in countries such as Benin that are highly dependent on rainfall. The objective of this research is to highlight the different perceptions and endogenous strategies of adaptation to climate variability adopted by farmers. It took place in Benin's largest cotton production area, the commune of Banikoara located in the northern region of the country.
Methodology: The surveys were conducted on a sample of 120 farmers randomly selected in four (4) villages, all of which are large agricultural producers, i.e. 30 farmers per village. In addition to descriptive statistics based on the calculation of proportions and averages, a multivariate probit model was estimated in order to identify the factors that influence the choice of endogenous adaptation strategies to climate variability.
Results: Approximately 50% of the respondents stated that they had practiced early seeding in order to cope with the consequences of climatic variability, 38% stated that they practiced ridge tillage, 28% indicated that they practiced late seeding while 15% declared that they practiced agroforestry. The results show that farmers use different combinations of endogenous strategies to drastically mitigate the adverse consequences of climate variability. Each farmer takes a number of parameters into account when defining the strategy to adopt.
Keywords: Climate change, adaptation strategies, endogenous practices, determinant