Abstract:
Rainfall variability has negatively impacted rain-fed crop farming in arid and
semi-arid lands increasing households’ vulnerability. This study sought to establish the extent to which rain-fed crop farming households in Kitui South
sub-County in semi-arid Southeastern Kenya are vulnerable to rainfall variability. The study used index-based approach where Livelihood Vulnerability
Index (LVI) for each of the randomly sampled 311 households was calculated
using the IPCC framework. Rainfall data for six rainfall seasons for the period
2016-2018 was used to calculate index for exposure while questionnaires were
administered to the household heads to establish sensitivity and adaptive capacity indices. Responses from the selected sub-components were assigned
index values ranging between zero and one. LVI levels were scored between
−1 and +1. The study established that indices for exposure, sensitivity and
adaptive capacity were 0.71, 0.09 and 0.19 respectively and that 97.4% of the
households in the study area were vulnerable to rainfall variability. The study
concludes that households in the study area have different livelihood vulnerability levels to rainfall variability due to differences in their sensitivity and
adaptive capacity. The study recommends use of households’ LVI levels in
determining appropriate intervention measures to effects of vulnerability to
rainfall variability among different farming households in order to avoid generalization.
Description:
Rainfall variability has negatively impacted rain-fed crop farming in arid and
semi-arid lands increasing households’ vulnerability. This study sought to establish the extent to which rain-fed crop farming households in Kitui South
sub-County in semi-arid Southeastern Kenya are vulnerable to rainfall variability. The study used index-based approach where Livelihood Vulnerability
Index (LVI) for each of the randomly sampled 311 households was calculated
using the IPCC framework. Rainfall data for six rainfall seasons for the period
2016-2018 was used to calculate index for exposure while questionnaires were
administered to the household heads to establish sensitivity and adaptive capacity indices. Responses from the selected sub-components were assigned
index values ranging between zero and one. LVI levels were scored between
−1 and +1. The study established that indices for exposure, sensitivity and
adaptive capacity were 0.71, 0.09 and 0.19 respectively and that 97.4% of the
households in the study area were vulnerable to rainfall variability. The study
concludes that households in the study area have different livelihood vulnerability levels to rainfall variability due to differences in their sensitivity and
adaptive capacity. The study recommends use of households’ LVI levels in
determining appropriate intervention measures to effects of vulnerability to
rainfall variability among different farming households in order to avoid generalization.