Farmers ’ Perception of Climate Change and Adaptation Options in Southwest Cameroon

In recent decades, scientists have been suggesting that the earth’s climate is fast changing and these changes are expected to have serious economic and social impacts particularly on farmers whose livelihoods depend on agriculture. Adaptation is a necessary option to the adverse impacts of climate change. However, for farmers to manifest adaptation options, they must be aware of changes in climatic conditions and the negative effects on crop yields. This study assessed farmers’ perception of climate change and adaptation options in the Southwest Region of Cameroon. Questionnaires were administered to 680 farmers randomly selected for the study. Results revealed that most farmers perceived climate change as late start and early cessation of rains, decrease intensity of rainfall, increase temperature and intensity of sunshine. Meteorological data coborrates farmers’ perceptions. Despite the fact that climate change had negatively affected cocoyam, plantain, cassava and cocoa cultivated by farmers, few had taken measures to adapt. Majority of farmers adapted to negative impacts on plantain by treating suckers with Mocap before and after sowing. Treatment of cassava cuttings with Mocap before planting was also the coping strategy opted for by most cassava farmers. Change in cocoyam variety cultivated and trees planting were the most common adaptation measures to the negative impacts of climate change on cocoyam and cocoa respectively. There is the need to sensitize farmers on possible adaptation measures and how these measures will reverse the negative impacts, increase crop yields and assure sustainability of livelihood. Keywords— Climate change, Perception, Adaptation options, Livelihood.


INTRODUCTION
The earth has always witnessed changes in its climate with well-marked cold and dry periods to which most life forms adapted naturally.In recent decades, scientists have been suggesting that the earth's climate is fast changing and IPCC (2007) stated that human activities like deforestation and burning of fossil fuels are responsible for most of the observed changes.These changes are expected to have serious economic and social impacts particularly on farmers whose livelihood depend on agriculture.Dependency of agriculture on climate makes it vulnerable to changing climate.This is because temperature, precipitation and sunshine are necessary climatic conditions for plant and animal growth and increase in GHG effect alters these climatic conditions. .Agricultural production is both a source of food and income for many in Cameroon and changes in temperature and rainfall associated with continued emissions of GHGs will bring changes in land suitability and crop yield (Schmidhuber and Tubiello 2007).Changes in rainfall pattern are likely to lead to severe water shortages with far reaching implications on agriculture, forestry and fishing (Ekpo and Nzegblue, 2012).Empirical evidence shows that there will be changes in the supply and demand of food commodities as a result of low yields resulting mainly from drought and flooding events and this will also affect the profitability of farming and the affordability of food (Chika and Ozor, 2010).The threats of climate change are more severe in developing countries because many low-income countries are located in tropical and subtropical regions, which are particularly vulnerable to rising temperatures, and in semi-desert zones, which are threatened by decreasing water availability (FAO, 2008a).As stated by Molua and Lambi (2007), 2.5°C increase in temperature would cause net revenues from farming in Cameroon to fall by $0.5 billion and a 7% decrease in precipitation would cause net revenues from crops to fall by $1.96 billion.Increase CO2 fertilization accompanied by increase temperature and low precipitation decreased yield of maize and sorghum in Cameroon (Tingemet al., (2008)

II. METHODOLOGY 2.1; Study Area
The study was carried out in the Southwest Region of Cameroon situated between latitude 5° 25' 00" N and longitude 9° 20' 00" E with a surface area of 24.91Km 2 representing 5.2% of the surface area of the country.The area has an equatorial climate (to be more precise the Cameroon mountain Western type) characterized by a short dry season from November-February and a long rainy season which runs from March-October.The mean monthly temperature for the region ranges between 20 o C and 28 o C and rainfall is of 1500-3000mm with highest amount of rainfall recorded within the months of July and August.The region is entirely composed of volcanic soils that result from volcanic eruptions.The population is 1.8 million inhabitants and its density is 75.4 persons per km 2 .The region is mostly agrarian and there exist both large and small scale farmers.Food crops like cocoyam, cassava, yam, plantain, water melon, egusi, groundnut and maize are cultivated alongside cash crops like cocoa and palms sometimes in a mixed farming system.Women often referred to as "Buyam-Sellam" purchase farm outputs directly from the farm or from the market and carry these food stuffs within and out of the region where they sell them at higher prices.Figure 1 presents the area where the study was carried out.

SAMPLING PROCEDURE
Through simple random sampling, the sub-divisions of Tombel, Muyuka and Konye were chosen.The population for the study consisted of farmers of age 30 and above belonging to Common Initiative Groups and Cooperatives.Through simple random sampling technique 680 farmers were selected from a population of 3176 farmers to constitute the sample size for the study.

DATA COLLECTION
Primary data was collected by use of questionnaires.The questionnaire was made up of open and close questions to capture socio-economic characteristics of farmers, perception of climate change and coping measures put in place to reduce impact and ensure food security.

DATA ANALYSIS
Data on socio-economic characteristics were tabulated as frequencies and percentages.Data collected on farmers' perception of climate change and adaptation measures opted to reduce or halt the negative effects were analyzed and presented as bar and pie charts.Farmers' perception was compared with climatic data of the area to better assess their perception.
The statistical package used to analyze collected data was SPSS software and Microsoft Excel.

III.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Social characteristics of farmers Table 1 presents social characteristics of farmers.Majority of respondents (71%) were male and this can be due to the fact that men are more likely to belong to CIGs and Cooperatives than women.The dominant age group of respondents was 40-49 years (38%).Forty and above is considered the age of maturity and responsibility and farmers are more likely to take farming more seriously.Ugwokeet al., (2012) noted that the age range of 41-50 is an active age for farming and farmers of this age are usually willing to adopt measures or technologies geared at combating the challenges of climate change.Most farmers (54%) had attained primary education.As level of education increased, the proportion of farmers with such qualifications decreased accordingly with 27% of respondents having attained secondary education, 8% with high school education and only 1% with tertiary education.Results further revealed that 10% had never attended school.A low level of education is observed and this can be attributed to high dropout after primary level especially for girls who often get into marriages.Many youths drop out of school to work on their parent's farms or rented farms and later on acquire theirs.Sofoluweet al., (2011) explained that education may play an important role in adopting a new system of farming.As farmers acquire more education, their ability to obtain and use information improves.Majority of respondents (38%) had been into farming for more than 20 years.This means that most of the farmers have been farming long enough to have experienced climate change and therefore convinced of their perceptions regarding the climate variables considered in the study.

3.2Assessment of farmers' perception of climate change
Results revealed that almost all the farmers (95%) perceived climate change.The perceived changes are discussed under the sub-headings hereafter;

Farmers' perception of start and end of rain
Figure 2 shows that 69% perceived late start of rain, 21% noticed early start of rain while 10% of the farmers were of the opinion that the start of rain was erratic as there were periods when rain started early and some other times late.Concerning farmers' perception of end of rains, 56% of farmers perceived early end of rain, 34% perceived late end of rain and 10% perceived erratic end of rain (Figure 3).They observed that effective rains now fell within one month, and there is increasing spatial rainfall variation, with some places receiving evenly distributed rainfall, whilst other areas received erratic rainfall.This is similar to findings of Ayanladeet al., ( 2017), wherenearly all the farmers perceived that the onset of rainfall is much later in last ten years than 20 years ago and they also noticed that rainfall ceases halfway into the wet season.Dhakaet al.,(2010) also cohort that farmers have noticed a significant increase in temperature accompanied by variability in rainfall.

Farmer's perception of rainfall intensity
Decrease in rainfall intensity was perceived by 67% of farmers while 14% perceived an increase in intensity as shown on Figure 4. From experience, farmers already know months of the year when much rainfall is expected and when it doesn't rain heavily during such periods, they perceive it as decrease in rainfall amount.When a couple of days pass-by without rain, it is indicator of decrease rainfall intensity.If the rain falls heavily and then ceases for a long period before the next rain, the long dry spell can be devastating to farmers.However if the rain falls in small amounts but at the expected time and spreads over the period of planting, it is a good season for farmers.These observations are similar to findings of Manobaet al.,(2016) that rainfall is decreasing over the same time interval in all measures regarding amount of rainfall, duration, intensity and number of rainfall events. .

Fig.4: Perception of rainfall intensity
In a nutshell, farmers' perception ofrainfall is corroborated by statistical record on rainfall of the CDC meteorological station.Figure 5 shows decreasing trend in rainfall and the linear trend line with a negative value shows that mean annual rainfall has decreased by -23.28mm per year.This implies that as years pass-by, amount of rainfall decreases.

Farmers' perception of temperature
According to Figure 6temperature increase was observed by 94% of the farmers while 4% noticed decrease and 2% simply said it was the same.The ease at which farmers perceive temperature increase can be due to the rate of transpiration and dehydration in human bodies.Periods of dry spells during the rainy season can be said to be the reason for increasing temperatures during the season.The rainy season which in the past was a cold period especially in the months of June, July, August and September is nowadays observed to be hot with hot conditions prevailing more at night than day.This can be explained by the fact that plants make use of CO2 during the day and release CO2 by night thereby increasing atmospheric concentration of CO2.This implies increase in GHG effect leading to a greater warming at night than during the day.These results are in line with findings of Dhaka et al., (2010) who analyzed farmer's perception of climate change and observed that majority of the farmers noticed a significant increase in temperature.

Fig.6: Perception of temperature
The meteorological data on temperature(Figure 7) attests that temperature is increasing overtime.The linear trend line shows that mean annual temperature had increased by 0.06 0 C per year.According to the R 2 value, it is certain by 36% that variation in temperature is explained by the model.

Farmers' perception of sunshine intensity
According to Figure 8, 97% of farmers were affirmative that sunshine intensity had increased.Considering that sunshine is associated with heat stress, it is easy for farmers to notice increase sunshine intensity.Increase sunshine intensity can also be associated to increase temperature observed by farmers for it is normal that the higher the hours of sunshine, the greater the temperature.Ayanladeet al., (2017) cohorts that majority of the farmers perceive a prolonged dry spell and recurrence of drought.Meteorological data on sunshine (Figure 9) also shows increase in the number of hours for sunshine.The linear trend line shows that mean annual sunshine has increased by 27.6 hours.Based on R 2 value, this model explains 49% variation in sunshine.Due to the perceived changes and the impacts on crops,81% of farmers were affirmative that plantain yields had decreased while 17% observed increase and 2% perceived it was sameas shown on figure 10.Excessive evaporation causes water table to be low and insufficient water makes plantain stem to bear small bunches and fingers and the plant often dies after first harvest.Increase temperature and sunshine intensity caused plantain leaves to become yellowish in colour and the plantain plant and young suckers wither and die before maturity.Increase temperature is also a favourable condition for proliferation of nematodes and borers that bore into the plantain trunks and roots, eating off the roots and weakening grip of the plant.These findings are in line with Thornton and Cramer (2012), who stated that if banana-plantain plant undergoes water stress for a long period of time and if temperature increases by 2°C favouring increase risk of pest and diseases, a significant yield loss will be observed.
In the same light, 94% of farmers affirmed decrease in yields of cocoyam, 2% witnessed increase, 2% said it was same and 2% had no idea as shown on Figure 11.Cocoyam withers and dies after cultivation, suffers from stunted growth due to lack of water in the soil and increase temperature since the start of rain is often accompanied by a period of dry spells.Dasheen mosaic causes spots on leaves like eczema and cocoyam blight causes leaves and roots to rot.The consequences of these are decline in cocoyam yield.This is in conformity with Ifeanyi-Obi et al.,(2016) that rainfall, heat (atmospheric temperature) and sunshine (solar radiation) result in decline in cocoyam production.Regarding cassava, 46% observed increase, 22% noticed decrease, 29% said it was same while 3% had no idea (Figure 12).Jarvis et al., (2012) referred cassava as a "Rambo" food crop because it survives despite all that the climate throws at it.According to Figure 13, 79% of farmers observed decrease in cocoa yields, 20% mentioned increase and 1% said yields were the same.Sensitivity of cocoa to temperature, sunshine and rainfall makes it vulnerable to climate change.Rainfall variability reduces water availability in stem and soil and this causes late flowering.Another danger to cocoa production is prolong sunshine which encourages bush burning, drying /dying of cocoa trees and sun ripe of cocoa pods before maturity resulting to weight and quality loss.This is similar to findings ofOyekaleet al., (2009) where farmers observed that yields of cocoa was decreasing as a result of drought conditions often associated with increase temperature and decrease in rainfall amount.

Adaption to negative impacts of climate change on plantain
Farmers cultivating plantain have employed some measures to reduce the negative impacts in order to ensure their livelihood.Table 2  weeds and other organic matter were sources of manure used to improve plantain growth and yields.
Replanting failed farms was an adaptation strategy used by 14% of farmers.This explains why farmers mentioned increase workload as a consequence of climate change.In Ozoret al., (2012), farmers replanted withered farms due to unfavourable climate conditions.Change in planting date was mentioned by 13% of farmers.
They plant either at the end of the dry season or the beginning of the rainy season.
Increasing land under cultivation was the adaptation strategy used by 3% of farmers.However, increasing population over the years is a threat to this adaptation practice since agricultural lands are also used for residential and industrial purposes.Even though this strategy was not very popular with farmers in this study, findings of Epule and Bryant, (2016) revealed that expansion of farm size was the most common coping strategy used by farmers of Fako and Meme divisions of Southwest Cameroon in the face of declining crop yields.Source: Field survey 2016

Adaption to negative impacts of climate change on Cassava
Adaptation measures used by farmers are shown on Table 3. Majority of the farmers (37%) adapted to the negative impacts on cassava by treating the cuttings with Mocap before sowing.Replanting failed farms was adaptation strategy used by 21% of farmers.Another 21% changed the cassava variety cultivated.
Selecting and planting only unaffected cuttings was an adaptation strategy applied by 14% of farmers.Much precaution was taken to avoid planting infested cuttings in order to increase chances of survival and increase yields.Source: Field survey 2016

Adaption to negative impacts of climate change on Cocoa
Table 5 illustrates the coping strategies out-listed by farmers in the study to minimize cocoa failure as a result of climate change, It was revealed that tree planting was the most common adaptation strategy (34%).The trees act as canopy for cocoa and prevent drying from too much sunshine.Trees planted were bitter-kola, oranges, palms Reducing spraying interval was mentioned by 22% of the farmers.Usually farmers spray after every three weeks but in order to fight black-pods, an interval of two weeks was respected.Change in pruning date was mentioned by 9% of farmers.Farmers have changed calendar of pruning from the dry season to months of March and April to prevent drying of plant from excessive sunshine.Picking up black pods and capsids to prevent further expansion was applied by 21% of farmers.Usually pods closer to the ground are first to be infested.Good Agricultural practice (GAP) was mentioned by 14% of farmers.This consisted of clearing the farm and regular pruning of trees to keep it neat.IV.CONCLUSION Farmers have perceived climate change as late start and early end of rains, increase temperature and increase in the hours of sunshine and its intensity.Few have taken measures to adapt.There is the need to sensitize farmers on possible adaptation measures and how these measures will reverse the negative impacts, increase crop yields and assure sustainability of livelihood.
Gamboet al., (2010) noted that hunting, the principal activity of the male folks in International journal of Rural Development, Environment and Health Research(IJREH) [Vol-1, Issue-3, Sep-Oct, 2017] https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijreh.1.3.11ISSN: 2456-8678 SouthernCameroon has become difficult as footprints of animals that are usually evident in wet conditions are disguised on dry leaves and the traditional fish catching done by women has become almost impossible due to reduction of volume of water thus affecting food security.For farmers to manifest adaptation options, they must be aware of changes in climatic conditions and the negative effects on crop yields.Adaptation to climate change requires that farmers must first notice that climate has changed and then take measures to adapt to perceived changes (Maddison 2006).Perception deals with sensory information, how it is interpreted and used to interact in the environment.Perception therefore varies from person to person as different persons perceive different things about the same situation.Adaptation measures help farmers guard against losses due to climate change.Boselloet al.,(2010) identified three dimensions of adaptation; the subject of adaptation,object of adaptation and the way in which adaptation takes place.Without adaptation, climate change will be a serious problem on the economy of most sub-Saharan countries and Cameroon in particular.Exploring how farmers perceive climate change and how adaptation occurs is very important because perception as well as the capacity and potential to adapt differ across countries and even across regions within a country.It is therefore imperative to understand how farmers of southwest Cameroon perceive and adapt to negative effects of climate change.

Fig. 14 :
Fig.14: Adaptation to climate change presents the different climate change coping strategies employed.Treatment of suckers with Mocap before and after sowing was enumerated by 27% of farmers.Even after sowing, farmers continue with application of Mocap at-least once a month till maturity to prevent nematodes and borers infestation.Similar coping strategy was observed inMolua,(2008) where farmers treated seed with fungicides before sowing to reduce seed rot incidence.Fertilizer application now and then, around the plant was mentioned by 23% of farmers.Use of manure as a coping measure to climate change was applied by 20% of farmers.Application of animal dung, household refuge and wood ash as manure was restricted mostly to farms nearby homestead.For distant farms corks of cocoa, rooted Increasing land under cultivation was employed by 7% of the farmers.Similarly in Eneteet al., (2011), farmers in Southeast Nigeria adapted to climate change by expanding land under cultivation and changed variety cultivated.

Table 2 :
Adaptation measures linked to plantain

International journal of Rural Development, Environment and Health Research(IJREH) [Vol-1, Issue-3, Sep-Oct, 2017] https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijreh.1.3.11 ISSN: are
yellowish in colour, rougher and longer in length (about 30cm).Farmers conveniently use this because of the potential that it resists adverse climatic conditions and the tubers are bigger and sweeter.Change from cocoyam to cassava cultivation was mentioned by 18% of farmers.According to the farmers the crops are not always planted at the same time but at different time during the growing season.They also ensure that crops planted together do not compete with each other for space, soil nutrients and sunlight but grow together for mutual benefit.This implies that farmers have a good knowledge of advantages of mix cropping in terms of maturity period of crops and their water requirement.The farmers revealed that those who practice these strategies suffered less damage than their counterpart using monocultures.Treatment with chemicals was the coping measure used by 12% of farmers.Suckers were treated with Mocap and Gammaline and dried for a day before sowing.Wood ash was also applied on plants infested by insects.Insecticides and fungicides were used as pest management strategy on affected plants affected by blight.Another adaptation strategy practiced by 13% of farmers was mulching.When cocoyam stems are capped with leaves or grasses, the heat that penetrates to the seed is reduced and this prevents burning of the spout due to high temperature and sunshine intensity.Mulching also increases amounts of organic matter, reduces water evaporation from soil, improves soil fertility, conserves soil moisture, reduces soil compaction, and attracts earthworms.Change in planting dates was the coping strategy used by 11% of farmers.Traditionally, farmers would prepare farms from periods of January to early March and plant in anticipation of first rains by mid March so as to benefit from early harvest.Nowadays, the first rain is an alert for the commencement of farm preparation rather than sowing.Farms are tilled but the seedlings are not sowed until rainfall would have concentrated within a period of time.When they are sure that the soil is wet for the crop to survive and tolerant drought conditions until further rains arrive, they proceed with sowing.Similarly in Irenikatcheet al., (2010), farmers adapted to the uncertain start and end of rain by changing sowing dates.Agro-forestry was done by 11% of farmers.Trees planted in cocoyam farms are oranges, cocoa, pears, plums and mangoes to provide shade and reduce withering as a result of intensive sunshine.The foliage of the trees also improve soil nutrients.However, precaution is taken to prevent over shading by spacing out the trees since cocoyam equally needs sunshine for effective growth and photosynthesis to take place.Similarly inEneteet al., (2011) agro-forestry and mulching were adaptation strategies put in place by farmers.

Table . 5
: Adaptation measures linked to Cocoa