Expert’s opinion on Irish potato farmers awareness and preferences towards climate smart agriculture practices attributes in Kenya; A conjoint analysis

• Main Authors: Robert John O Ogola, Kevin Okoth Ouko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2021-01-01
• Series: Cogent Food & Agriculture
• Subjects: climate smart agriculture; conjoint analysis; preference; adaptation; mitigation; irish potato
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311932.2021.1968163

Climate change is an environmental threat to all sectors, especially the agricultural sector around the globe. Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) is one of the essential strategies to overcome low productivity, adaptation and mitigation problems in the face of global climate change challenges in developing countries including Kenya. Despite considerable efforts to improve adoption of CSA practices in Kenya, increasing awareness does not necessarily imply that farmers have access to innovative CSA practices preferred. There is no empirical evidence on how previous research adequately addressed how CSA attributes are compatible with Irish potato farmers’ awareness and preferences. A Delphi study was conducted to elicit information on farmers awareness and preference towards CSA practices and their pillar attributes from 22 experts from varied Irish potato and climate research organizations in Kenya. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse farmers awareness of CSA practices while conjoint experiment method was employed to identify the most preferred attributes of CSA pillars. The results showed that farmers were aware (76%) of the listed CSA practices even though the CSA practices uptake was still low (40%). Furthermore, the findings indicated high adaptation, medium mitigation and high productivity were the most preferred CSA combination across the pillars by the farmers. Contrary to this low adaptation, low mitigation and low productivity were the least preferred CSA combination across the pillars. In addition, the result revealed that adaptation and mitigation were the most important factors that influence farmers preferences for CSA practices in Irish potato farming. Based on these findings, the study, therefore, calls for the need to set the level of priority towards climate change and adaptation and establish a solid strategy of creating awareness in the implementation of CSA practices. There is a need to plan for a coordinated and effective capacity-building effort focusing on CSA pillars tradeoffs.