Assessment of Livelihood Coping Challenges and Viable Solutions available to Small-scale Farmers Aimed at Enhancing their Resilience to Farming in Bunyala sub-county, Kenya

Farmers in Bunyala sub-county depend on rain fed agriculture and over the years frequent floods and droughts, crop failures and water shortages have become common. Research has shown that small-scale farmers in the developing countries are more vulnerable to rainfall variability due to their reliance on rainfed agriculture and poor adaptive capacity. However, most studies so far have concentrated on climate-driven coping capacity in flood prone areas and arid and semi-arid areas and have not considered the challenges experienced by small scale farmers in the wake of these coping strategies and opportunities and innovations that can be explored to enhance the coping capacity to rainfall variability. The objective of this study was to establish the coping challenges and identify viable solutions through opportunities and innovations to enhance small scale farmers’ resilience to rainfall variability. Data was collected through use of questionnaire, interviews, focus group discussion and field observation. Bunyala Sub-County has about 15,245 households in six locations. Proportionate stratified sampling was used to select the required number of respondents. The stratification was based on the populations of six locations. A total of 384 households were randomly selected and sampled from the selected locations together with 11 key informants. Qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques were used while the results were presented in tables, figures and charts. Findings of the study indicate several challenges stand in their way like lack of technical support and financial constraints. The study recommends that adaptive practices must be promoted while simultaneously strengthening long-term, sustainable institutional responses to help households adapt to rainfall variations. The farmers should be sensitized on the need to engage in sustainable adaptation strategies such as planting drought tolerant crops and use of agricultural technology. Small-scale farmers’ should focus on information gathering, enhance social networks to improve on their financial capability. Local communities be empowered through trainings/skills programs (new technology for farming) to improve small-scale agricultural productivity. Women, as important contributors to food production and income generation, should be empowered to access resources such as finances and land, and trained to develop decision-making skills.