Modelling farmers’ choice of adaptation strategies towards climatic and weather variability: Empirical evidence from Chikhwawa district, Southern Malawi
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This study analysed factors that influence household choice of adaptation strategies and examined the contribution of such strategies on crop production and household food security. The study collected data from 283 randomly selected households from 26 Villages of Chikhwawa district using a semi-structured questionnaire. Results show that irrigation farming, income-generating activities, crop diversification and shifting planting dates are some of the adaptation strategies in the study area. Empirical results from a Multinomial Probit Model indicate that flood, droughts, gender and education are important factors on influencing household choice of adaptation strategies. Climatic information, input markets and credit accessibility deterred households from adapting to climatic and weather variability. Based on the Normalized Translog Production and Tobit Models’ results, irrigation farming increased crop production and household food security by 80% and 21% in the study area, respectively. On the other hand, shifting planting dates reduce crop production and household food security by 50% and 9% in the study area, respectively. The study concludes that adaptation strategies have significant contribution on crop production and household food security in the study area. The study therefore advocates that projects should mainstream barriers and choice of adaptation strategies in the farming system.