Climate variability increases vulnerability among agro-pastoralists, stressing the need for effective adaptation strategies. However, how these communities respond to such changes is still unclear. Data were collected from 308 agro-pastoral households in Laikipia West Sub-County, Kenya, using a multistage sampling technique to explore how socio-economic and institutional factors impact the adoption of adaptation strategies. Factor analysis categorized these strategies into seven groups: farm risk reduction, cultural practices, sustainable agriculture, farm management, livestock management, diversification, and traditional practices. Poisson regression was used to evaluate the number of strategies adopted, while a multivariate probit model analyzed the effects of socio-economic and institutional variables on strategy selection. The results showed that the household dependency ratio, education level, gender of the household head, group memberships, and household wealth positively influenced the number of strategies adopted. Specifically, a one-unit increase in education level was associated with a 0.25 increase in the number of adaptation strategies adopted (p < 0.05). In contrast, the age of the household head, the interaction between gender and farming experience, years of education, and unmet credit needs variables negatively affected strategy adoption. The magnitude and direction of the multivariate probit marginal effect revealed that the dependency ratio had a negative effect on sustainable practices and a positive effect on farm and traditional practices. Education had a positive effect on farm and diversification practices, while having a negative effect on traditional practices. The distance to extension agents showed a negative association with traditional practices and a positive effect with diversification practices. Group memberships, lack of credit demand, and wealth index for affluent households increased the probability of adopting strategies. In contrast, age, gender, farm size, and livestock holdings variables reduced the probability of using the strategies. The findings imply that an increase in the number of dependents in the household resulted in a 52.7% decrease in the probability of using sustainable agricultural practices for agro-pastoral communities facing climate change and variability. The study recommends that agricultural policies should emphasize the adoption of interdependent packages to mitigate climate change.
Awuonda et al. (Fri,) studied this question.