Effects of Climate and Weather Variability on Adoption of Sustainable Land Management
Technologies in Kenya
Michael Ndwiga Jairo
Jane Kabubo-Mariara
Wilfred Nyangena
This paper investigates the impact of climate and weather variability and other covariates on
adoption and intensity of adoption of sustainable land management (SLM) technologies in
Kenya. Household survey data combined with climate data that had been interpolated at
household level was used in the analysis. The paper used trivariate regression and negative
binomial-logit hurdle models to analyze adoption and intensity of adoption of SLM technologies
respectively. The results underscores the importance of household characteristics, resource
constraints, farm characteristics and market access in influencing adoption and intensity of
adoption of SLM technologies. Further, the results accentuate the importance of climate and
weather variability on adoption and intensity of adoption of SLM technologies. Climate
variability was found to positively influence adoption and intensity of adoption while weather
variability positively influenced adoption of SLM technologies. The result suggests that
government should promote adoption of specific SLM technologies in specific climatic zones. In
drier areas where temperatures are expected to rise, government should encourage adoption of
SLM technologies that conserve water while in regions where precipitation is high SLM
technologies that reduce soil erosion should be encouraged. In addition a multidisciplinary
approach should be used to gather knowledge on adoption of SLM technologies in different
climatic zones and knowledge shared with farmers and local leaders in order to ensure that
appropriate SLM technologies are adopted. Moreover, there is need to design policies that
increase access and ownership of productive resources by female headed households and policies
that encourage birth control.
Project dates 2013-2015