Abstract

The certainty of the perception of climate change case of maize farmers in the Buea is asserted in the perception of observable changes in rainfall and temperature reported by more than 52% of farmers in Cameroon and almost 70% in the humid region.

Responding to these observable changes, soil and crop management techniques are adopted to ease climatic stress and insure farms from income shocks and associated vulnerabilities.

Farmers were surveyed on their perception and adaptation on maize farmers production and a probit model reveals that the probability of adopting recommended that the farm size, types of crops cultivated alongside maize, education, gender, experience, and non-farm income.

Noting that producers’ adoption of recommended measures is the initial step for medium to the long-term adaptation of the productive capacity of their farmland, the Switching Regression Model shows that property rights, access to market, access to extension, and adaptation due to farmers’ perception of a changing climate significantly contribute to maize production.

While this is informative for policy measures required to promote technology adoption, however, participating and employing adaptive measures is plausible insurance to both current climate variability and long-term climate change.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Study

Climate change poses a significant threat to smallholder farmers and threatens to undermine global progress toward poverty alleviation, food security, and sustainable development.

Globally, there are an estimated 475 million smallholder farmers cultivating less than 2hecters of land, many of whom are poor, experience food insecurity, and live in highly precarious conditions.

Smallholder farmers are highly vulnerable to climate change because most depend on rain-fed agriculture, cultivate marginal areas, and lack access to technical or financial support that could help them invest in more climate-resilient agriculture.

Farmers’ Perception and Adaptation to Climate Change is a two-step process that requires that farmers perceive climate change in the first step and respond to changes in the second step through adaptation.

In the Buea Sub-Division like in most parts of Cameroon, maize is the principal staple food crop accounting for a significant proportion of calorie intake by the population.

It does not only provide a sustained and secured food supply in terms of high yields, it also remains a significant boost to the income of the peasant farmers given that much of the maize yields are often sold in local and sub-regional markets.

Thus, maize production provides a safety valve against frequent food insecurity which, most often, arises from climatic shocks such as droughts, floods, and tornadoes, and climatically enhanced spread of pests and diseases.

This is because, in the event of these climatic and climatic-assisted caprices, maize yields are often better off than yields of crops such as beans, potatoes, and a host of market gardening crops which are widely cultivated especially in humid and sub-humid tropical Africa.

Improving maize yields involves a combination of factors such as research on hybrid species, improving soil fertility through fertilizer application, and combating pests and diseases with the use of pesticides, insecticides, and fungicides among others.

However, even though climate plays a key underpinning role in maize yields, temporal variations in climatic parameters of rainfall and temperature could usher in direct and indirect adverse effects on maize production.

Crop simulation models indicate that by 2050 in Sub-Saharan Africa, average rice, wheat, and maize yields will decline by up to 15, 22, and 10 %, respectively, as a result of climate change (IFPRI, 2009). In this regard, this study investigates the effects of such climatic oscillations on maize by using statistical analysis.

1.2 Problem Statement

The Cameroon economy is highly reliant on agriculture. Agriculture contributes a significant share to the Country’s GDP, total employment, and export earnings and provides a source of livelihood for a large part of the population especially in the rural areas around the Buea Municipality. Maize is a key subsector in the agricultural sector.

Maize is one of the most widely grown in the country in terms of area under cultivation. It provides the Buea population with a third of their calorie intake and a key source of farm incomes, especially in the maize surplus areas.

Food security in Cameroon and maize production are closely interlinked. At the country level, the availability of maize determines whether the country is food secure or not (Nyoro et al., 2007).

This is also true at the households level, more so in the rural areas. However, despite the importance of maize to the country, production especially in the last decade has been poor.

The reasons for this include the high cost and increased adulteration of inputs, low and declining soil fertility, decreasing land sizes, limited access to affordable capital, and low absorption of modern technology (Ministry of Agriculture, 2009).

Besides the above factors, policymakers have begun to recognize the increasingly adverse role being played by climate change on maize production. Erratic weather conditions have been blamed for a succession of maize crop failures forcing the Cameroon government to import maize to feed its population.

Most studies conducted on the effect of climate change on the agricultural sector have analyzed the impact of climate on general agriculture. It is important to analyze the impact of climate change at individual crop or animal levels so as to be able to get a better understanding of how climate change will affect agriculture production in Cameroon.

For this reason, the study sought to address this gap in knowledge by providing insights on maize farmer’s perception and adaptation to climate change in the Buea Sub Division.

1.3 Research Questions

To advance the understanding of perception and adaptation of climate change on the agricultural production of maize, the following research questions drive this study:

1. What are the correlates of climate change perception among maize farmers in the Buea sub-division?
2. What are the different adaptation measures adopted by maize farmers in Buea municipality?
3. To what extent does perception leads to adaptation?

1.4 Research Objectives

1. To examine the correlates of climate change perception among maize farmers in Buea sub-division
2. To evaluate the different adaptation measures adopted by maize farmers in Buea municipality.
3. To know how farmers’ perception and adaptation influences maize production.