Assessing ecologically sound practices influencing climate change adaptation strategies and food security : a case of smallholder farmers in central Bekaa, Lebanon.

Abstract

Background: Climate change impacts are likely to occur in and are channeled through agriculture, which is the most natural resource-based and climate-sensitive sector. The study examined the local smallholder perceptions, attitudes, and understanding of climate change, identified the climate-smart adaptive measures they undertook, analyzed the determinants that influence their choice of adaptation methods, and classified the barriers that impede adaptation along with evaluating the farming households’ food security levels. Design-methods-approach: The study is based on cross-sectional, quantitative survey. Primary data was collected from 120 randomly-selected households from nine villages in central Bekaa using a structured questionnaire. The study compromised two sets of questionnaires: the first aimed to assess the farming households’ resilience to climate change and variability and second intended to evaluate household food security adopting four indexes developed by international agencies (i.e., HFIAS, MIAHFP, FCS and CSI). The analysis used descriptive statistics and a Poisson Regression Model to estimate the number of adaptation strategies the smallholder farmers implemented and the intensity of coping with changes in temperature and rainfall. Findings: The majority of farmers in central Bekaa believe that climate change is occurring and mostly due to human activities. The severity index (SI) of the farmers’ perceptions, attitudes and knowledge are all in the “agree” range. Farmers adopt a combination of practices to meet the challenges posed by climate changes, mainly crop diversification, improved irrigation systems, soil conservation techniques, and chemical fertilizers. Further, the most critical barriers hindering adaptation are water scarcity, limited access to agriculture markets and lack of agricultural policy. The econometric results revealed that different aspects of human, financial, natural-physical and institutional-social capital impact the adoption likelihood.