Farmers Awareness, Knowledge and Risk Perception of Climate Change in Homa Bay County, Kenya

Abstract

Climate change has emerged as a complex challenge in the Lake Victoria Basin. This is due to the basin's geographical and climatic conditions, its high dependence on natural resources, limited capacity to adapt to a rapidly changing climate and frequent natural disasters. Limited research has been undertaken on the relation between people's perceptions of climate variability and climate change and their actual and intended practices. This study aimed at finding out Farmers awareness, knowledge and risk perception of climate change in Homa Bay County with a view to guide policy makers in decision making and management of climate change impacts. A quantitative household based cross-sectional survey questionnaire was used to collect information from 384 farmers drawn from the eight sub-counties of Homa Bay County. Target respondents comprised of men and women aged fifteen to seventy-five years old. This study employed multi-stage sampling technique to select each Primary Sampling Unit (PSU). Qualitative data was collected through in-depth interviews conducted to fifteen key informants from government agencies and five from non-state actors and four Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). The study found out that all respondents indicated that they had experienced at least one extreme weather event a year prior to the interview with over half of the respondents (78%) having experienced drought while 74% had experienced heavy rains. About a third of the residents (?36%) never received information about extreme events that affected them while about two thirds (62%) of those who received information did so during and after the extreme weather event. The study also established that other issues including HIV and AIDS (64%), education (59%), health 54%, development (52%) corruption (39%) and unemployment (31%) ranked high and were therefore perceived to require immediate attention as opposed to climate change despite its far-reaching effects among the residents. The study recommended that deliberate effort be made to raise awareness on climate change adaptation strategies to enable residents understand the causes and consequences of climate change, enhance preparedness towards the impacts of climate change and adopt sustainable lifestyles.