Effects of seasonal climate forecasts and participatory workshops among subsistence farmers in Zimbabwe.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Department of Geography and Environment, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.

Published: August 2005

Improvements in the ability to model El Niño and other large-scale interannual climate variations have allowed for the development of seasonal climate forecasts, predicting rainfall and temperature anomalies for many places around the world. These forecasts have allowed developing countries to predict shortfalls in grain yields, with benefits for food security. Several countries communicate the forecasts to subsistence farmers, which could allow them to mitigate the effects of drought on their harvests by adapting their cropping decisions accordingly. However, it has not been demonstrated that subsistence farmers benefit from having access to the forecasts. Here we present evidence of subsistence farmers using the forecasts over multiple years to make different decisions and significantly improving their harvests when they do so. In a controlled study, farmers in Zimbabwe who reported adapting their farming methods to seasonal climate forecasts significantly improved their harvests over baseline amounts. Moreover, farmers who had attended a brief workshop and learned more about the forecasts were significantly more likely to use the forecasts than were farmers who learned of the forecasts through nonparticipatory channels.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1194959PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0506125102DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

subsistence farmers
16
seasonal climate
12
climate forecasts
12
forecasts
10
farmers zimbabwe
8
learned forecasts
8
farmers
7
effects seasonal
4
climate
4
forecasts participatory
4

Similar Publications

The genetic demographic history of the last hunter-gatherer population of the Himalayas.

Sci Rep

January 2025

Department of Medicine and Life Sciences, Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.

Nepal, largely covered by the Himalayan mountains, hosts indigenous populations with distinct linguistic, cultural, and genetic characteristics. Among these populations, the Raute, Nepal's last nomadic hunter-gatherers, offer a unique insight into the genetic and demographic history of Himalayan foragers. Despite strong cultural connections to other regional foragers, the genetic history of this population remains understudied.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This review aims to emphasize the important role that goats and dairy goats play for many small-scale rural families worldwide, as well as to introduce a proposal for categorizing the main dairy goat production systems (DGPSs), using a multifactorial approach but emphasizing rainfall and nutritional supplementation level, as the focal categorization factors. The main DGPSs were divided into two metasystems based on available resources, each consisting of three production subsystems. In the first metasystem, the three subsystems have limited water, biotic, and economic resources, whose main economic rationality is based on reducing risk rather than maximizing outputs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated food insecurity issues in geographically isolated communities, including Fort Albany First Nation (FAFN). This research examines FAFN's adaptive strategies to improve food security, highlighting community resilience and leadership. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 20 community members who were involved in the pandemic response, either as members of the pandemic committee or as managers of community programs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Crop foraging by primates, particularly olive baboons and grivet monkeys, poses significant economic challenges to subsistence farmers in southern Ethiopia, especially near protected areas, leading to substantial maize damage.* -
  • The study, conducted over 12 months with a team of experts and farmers, found that maize damage was worse in protected fields (43.1% loss) compared to unprotected fields (31.4%), with the highest damage occurring near the forest edge.* -
  • Despite attempts to deter primates with wire mesh fencing and human guarding, the measures were largely ineffective, emphasizing the need for improved strategies to resolve human-wildlife conflict and protect both farmers' livelihoods and primate conservation.*
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Unlabelled: Floods are one of the persistent major risk drivers impacting the Cuvelai-Etosha basin of northern Namibia. Locally known as , this disruptive event negatively impacts particularly the rural population, who have limited resources to combat its effects. Being mostly subsistence farmers in isolated communities, the floods wreak havoc with their homesteads, harvests, animals, and general way of life by cutting them off from their fields, neighbours, and essential services for prolonged periods.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!