Farmers’ information sharing for climate change adaptation in Mozambique

Abstract

Small scale African farmers are facing increasing challenges due to climate change. One of the most important strategies identified in the literature to improve farmers’ resilience is the enhancement of information sharing between all the actors involved, as a key step of the capacity building process. To provide insights into this objective, we analyse Mozambique farmers’ perception of climate change, agricultural adaptation options, the information sources most used currently by farmers, and which are preferred to be strengthened in the future. We also analyse the main barriers for improving the exchange of information, as well as geographical and gender differences. We collected quantitative and qualitative data from a survey to 100 farmers (52 women and 48 men) and 9 focus groups with farmers, plus 9 interviews to local and provincial government officials and NGOs technicians. We studied four case study areas that showed different vulnerability to climate change and socioeconomic characteristics: two case studies close to the capital city of Mozambique (Maputo) and two case studies far away from the capital city. With the data from the survey we performed descriptive and comparative statistics and a generalized linear model regression analysis. With the data from the focus groups we built Fuzzy cognitive maps that were used for assessing the impacts of information enhancement policies on the communities’ adaptation capacity. We demonstrate the need for adopting a contextualized approach for defining the most suitable climate change adaptation option in each study area. Oral communications and extension agents are the key short term resources to improve the exchange of information with small scale farmers, with smartphones showing a high potential only in the long future, due to the existing barriers to their massive use (high prices for buying and using them, low quality of mobile network, high proportion of illiterate farmers).