RAMIFICATIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON PASTORALISM IN KAJIADO SOUTH SUB-COUNTY
Abstract
Purpose of the Study: The main aim of this study was to investigate the ramifications of climate change on pastoralism in Kajiado South sub-county. Specifically this study investigated the influence of adaptation strategies used by local pastoral communities and climate change impact on increase on pastoralists’ socio-economic vulnerabilities in Kajiado South Sub County.
Statement of the Problem: Different climate issues such as prolonged droughts have resulted to reduced precipitation which has equally led to the adaptation strategies to mitigate the impact of drought.
Research Methodology: The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. Research target population was; Staff at Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Department, County Assembly of Kajiado Staff and Managers working for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). The sample size was of 23 Staff at Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Department, 42 County Assembly of Kajiado Staff and 40 Managers working for CSOs that were singled out to participate in the study. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were applied to single out sampled subjects. Questionnaires were employed in the gathering of data from all the study’s sampled subjects in the study area. Data was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively making use of SPSS version 20.0.
Results: Based on study findings demonstrated that local pastoral communities had engaged in community financial rotating cooperatives as an adaptation strategy to address impact of climate change to their pastoral activities in Kajiado South Sub County shown by 53.4% (Mean=3.99). In addition, the study findings revealed that a substantive number of the sampled subjects as illustrated by 55.8% (Mean=3.95) disagreed that climate change impact does not increase pastoral socio-economic vulnerabilities in the form of number of pastoralists that have access to food and this does not have an impact on pastoralism in Kajiado South Sub County.
Conclusion: The study concluded that failure to engage in subsistence farming of vegetables and cereals as an adaptation strategy targeting the impact of variability in climate resulted to its continued adverse impact on pastoralism in the study area.
Recommendation: From the research findings the study recommended that county governments and CSOs should partner in improving community financial rotating cooperatives such as table banking to encourage the adaptation efforts to climate variability of pastoral communities.
Keywords: Ramifications, Climate Change, Pastoralism, Adaptations, Strategies, Vulnerabilities
References
Ayanda, I. F. (2013). Assessment of effect of climate change on the livelihood of pastoralists in Kwara State, Nigeria. Journal of development and agricultural economics, 5(10), 403-410.
Azibo, B.R., & Kimengsi, J.N. (2015). Building an indigenous agro-pastoral adaptation framework to climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa: experiences from the North West Region of Cameroon. Procedia Environmental Sciences, 29, 126-127.
Berhanu, W., & Beyene, F. (2014). The impact of climate change on pastoral production systems: A study of climate variability and household adaptation strategies in southern Ethiopian rangelands (No. 2014/028). WIDER Working Paper.
Bernard, H.R. & Ryan, G.W (2010).Analyzing qualitative data: Systematic approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA:SAGE.
Bobadoye, A.O. (2016). Vulnerability Assessment of Maasai Pastoralists under Changing Climatic Condition and Their Adaptation Strategies in Kajiado County, Kenya. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Nairobi: University Of Nairobi.
Bohle, H.G. (2001). Vulnerability and criticality: perspectives from social geography. Newsletter of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP) Update (2/2001; Heidelberg, Germany: South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg), 3–5.
Bohle, H.G., Downing, T.E., and Watts, M.J. (1994), 'Climate change and social vulnerability: Toward a sociology and geography of food insecurity', Global Environmental Change, 4 (1), 37-48.
Christensen, L. B., Johnson, R.B., & Turner, L. (2011). Research methods, design, and analysis (11thed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Elo, S. & Kyngäs, H., (2008). The qualitative content analysis process. Journal of Advanced Nursing,62,,107-115.
Fisher, C.M. (2010). Researching and Writing a Dissertation: An Essential Guide For Business Students. 3rd ed.Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall:808.066658 FIS & e-book.
Füssel, H.M. and Klein, R.J.T. (2006), 'Climate change vulnerability assessments: an evolution of conceptual thinking', Climatic Change, 75 (3), 301-29.
Kgosikoma, K. R., Lekota, P. C., & Kgosikoma, O. E. (2018). Agro-pastoralists’ determinants of adaptation to climate change. International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, 10(3), 488-500.
Kgosikoma, O.E., & Batisani, N. (2014). Livestock population dynamics and pastoral communities’ adaptation to rainfall variability in communal lands of Kgalagadi South, Botswana. Pastoralism, 4(1), 19.
Kima, S. A., Okhimamhe, A. A., Kiema, A., Zampaligre, N., & Sule, I. (2015). Adapting to the impacts of climate change in the sub-humid zone of Burkina Faso, West Africa: Perceptions of agro-pastoralists. Pastoralism, 5(1), 16.
Maalla, O.S.A., Abakar, A.M., Hamdi, Y. M., & Maruod, M. E. (2015). The impact of Climate change on pastoralist's livelihood in South Kordofan State, Sudan.
Maiti, S., Jha, S. K., Garai, S., Nag, A., Chakravarty, R., Kadian, K.S., & Upadhayay, R. C. (2014). Adapting to climate change: Traditional coping mechanism followed by the Brokpa pastoral nomads of Arunachal Pradesh, India.
Matsa, M., and Matsa, W. (2013). Traditional Adaptation Mechanisms to Climate Change and Variability Among Women Pastoralists in South-West Zimbabwe. Impacts of Climate Change and Variability on Pastoralist Women in Sub-Saharan Africa, 297.
Mushi, V.A., & Makauki, A.F. (2017). Climate Change Adaptation Strategies and Gender Inequality Among Pastoralists in Tanzania. In Beyond Agricultural Impacts (pp.147-168).
Næss, M. W. (2012). Tibetan nomads facing an uncertain future: impacts of climate change on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Environment and Disaster Risk Management, 11, 95-118.
Namgay, K., Millar, J. E., Black, R. S., & Samdup, T. (2014). Changes in transhumant agro-pastoralism in Bhutan: A disappearing livelihood?. Human Ecology, 42(5), 779-792.
Salamula, J.B., Egeru, A., Asiimwe, R., Aleper, D.K., & Namaalwa, J.J. (2017). Socio-economic determinants of pastoralists’ choice of camel production in Karamoja sub-region, Uganda. Pastoralism, 7(1), 26.
Sallu, S.M., Twyman, C., & Stringer, L.C. (2010). Resilient or vulnerable livelihoods? Assessing livelihood dynamics and trajectories in rural Botswana. Ecology and Society, 15(4), 1-34.
Sanou, C.L., Tsado, D.N., Kiema, A., Eichie, J. O., & Okhimamhe, A.A. (2018). Climate Variability Adaptation Strategies: Challenges to Livestock Mobility in South-Eastern Burkina Faso. Open Access Library Journal, 5(02), 1.
Sulieman, H.M. & Elagib, N.A. (2012) Implications of Climate, Land-Use and Land-Cover Changes for Pastoralism in Eastern Sudan. Journal of Arid Environments, 85, pp.132-141.
Wolf, J. & Moser, S. (2011). Individual understandings, perceptions and engagement with climate change: insights from in-depth studies across the world. Wiley interdisciplinary reviews, 2(1), 547-569.
Xiao, N., Cai, S., Moritz, M., Garabed, R., & Pomeroy, L. W. (2015). Spatial and temporal characteristics of pastoral mobility in the far north region, cameroon: data analysis and modeling. PloS one, 10(7), e0131697.
Yamane, T. (1967). Statistics, An Introductory Analysis, 2nd Ed., New York: Harper and Row.
Yi S, Ismail M, Zhaoli Y (2012) Pastoral communities’ perspectives on climate change and their adaptation strategies in the Hindu Kush Karakoram Himalaya. In: Kreutzmann H (ed) Pastoral practices in High Asia. Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research, Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 307–322.
