Contribution of agroforestry trees for climate change
adaptation: narratives from smallholder farmers in Isiolo,
Kenya
Amy Quandt
Received: 7 April 2020 / Accepted: 4 September 2020
Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Agroforestry is often praised as a sustain-
able approach for the adaptation of smallholder
farmers to climate change and variability in Africa.
The environmental, economic, and social benefits of
agroforestry can contribute to climate change adapta-
tion efforts; however, most studies to date are
quantitative and do not focus on specific natural
hazards. To address these gaps, this study draws from
the concepts of vulnerability and adaptation to explore
how individuals from 20 smallholder farming house-
holds in semi-arid Isiolo County, Kenya have bene-
fited from their agroforestry trees during drought and
flood events. A total of 83 qualitative interviews were
conducted with both male and female household
heads. The interviews were recorded, and interview
text was coded into major themes. The results
highlight (1) the contributions of agroforestry trees
to reducing sensitivity and increasing adaptive capac-
ity to drought and flood events, as well as (2) the key
characteristics of drought-important and flood-impor-
tant agroforestry trees. In both drought and flood
events agroforestry had an important role to play in
reducing sensitivity, largely through improving envi-
ronmental conditions (shade, soil erosion, wind-
breaker, micro climate regulation), and increasing
adaptive capacity by providing critical tree products
and financial benefits (fruit, food, firewood, construc-
tion materials, fodder, traditional medicines, money
from sales of fruit products). Agriculture is often
considered the livelihood strategy most vulnerable to
climate change, and thus better understanding how to
adapt agriculture to the impacts of climate change is
critical for both the livelihoods of smallholder farmers
and global food security efforts.
Keywords Adaptation Agroforestry Climate
change Kenya Sensitivity Vulnerability
Introduction
Agroforestry is often praised as a sustainable approach
for the adaptation of smallholder farmers to climate
change and variability in Africa, as well as Kenya
more specifically (Quandt et al. 2017; Bisong and
Larwanou 2019; Amadu et al. 2020). Agroforestry can
contribute to adapting smallholder agricultural sys-
tems to the impacts of climate change by creating
microclimates with lower mean air temperatures and
higher soil moisture (Gomes et al. 2020); reducing
crop transpiration rates by shading crops (Verchot
et al. 2007; Lin 2010); drawing water from deeper soil
layers and supporting root water update by crops
(Padovan et al. 2015); minimizing soil loss from water
erosion during flooding (Lal et al. 1991); enhancing
A. Quandt (&)
Department of Geography, San Diego State University,
5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182-4493, USA
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https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-020-00535-0
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soil fertility (Awazi and Tchamba 2019); diversifying
production systems and producing crops of high
economic value (Verchot et al. 2007); contributing
to financial capital (Quandt et al. 2018); and building a
household’s livelihood resilience (Quandt et al. 2017).
However, more research is needed to holistically
understand agrofore stry as a tool that sma llholder
farmers can use for effective, sustainable, and cost-
efficient adaptation to the impacts of climate change
(Verchot et al. 2007; Awazi and Tchamba 2019).
Importantly, most studies to-date focus on the
general benefits of agroforestry trees to livelihoods,
without focusing on the adaptation potential of
agroforestry to a specific climate change-impact, such
as a drought (Reppin et al. 2020). Further, most recent
social science-focused research has relied on large-
scale surveys and qu antitative analysis, while there
remains a lack qualitative work (for examples, see
Awazi and Tchamba 2019; Awazi et al. 2019;De
Giusti et al. 2019; Nyong et al. 2019; Paudel et al.
2019; Tran and Brown 2019; Reppin et al. 2020). To
fill these research gaps, this paper takes a qualitative
approach because adaptation to climat e change often
occurs at the local level, where climatic variability is
directly experienced by individuals (Olufemi et al.
2018). Qualitative research is an effective tool for
understanding meaning, interpretations, and individ-
ual experiences by analyzing stories, narratives, and
lived-experiences (Bernard 2011; Overland and Sova-
cool 2020). Thus, this research draws from the
concepts of vulnerability and adaptat ion to explore
how individuals from 20 smallholder farming house-
holds in Isiolo County, Kenya have benefited from
their agroforestry trees during drought and flood
events. Specifically, this paper highlights the research
participants’ perspectives on (1) the contributions of
agroforestry trees to reducing sensitivity and increas-
ing adaptive capacity to drought and flood events, as
well as (2) the key characteristics of drought-impor-
tant and flood-important agroforestry trees.
Vulnerability and adaptation
In the context of climate change, vulnerability can be
defined as the degree to which a system is susceptible
to, or unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate
change, including climate variability and extremes
(Adger 2006; IPCC 2014; Olufemi et al. 2018). The
key components of vulnerability are often explained in
the following formula (IPCC 2014; Olufemi et al.
2018):
Vulnerability ¼ exposure þ sensitivity
ðÞ
adaptive capacity:
Exposure is the degree to which a system experi-
ences stress, including the magnitude, frequency,
duration, and area extent of the stress; for example
the frequency and intensity of a flood event (Adger
2006; Olufe mi et al. 2018). Sensitivity is the degree to
which a system is modified or affected by perturba-
tions (Adger 2006). Thus, increased exposure and
sensitivity to a drought or flood event would increase
vulnerability. Importantly, livelihood activities and
human behavior, such as practicing agroforestry, can
influence (improve or decrease) a systems’ sensitivity
to exposures (Smit and Wandal 2006).
Significant to this research are the concepts of
adaptation and adaptive capacity. Adaptation in the
context of climate change usually refers to a process,
action, or outcome in a system in order for the system
to better cope with, manage, or adjust to some
changing condition, stress, hazard, risk, or opportunity
(Smit and Wandal 2006). The adaptive capacity of a
system refers to its ability to adjust to potential
damage, take advantage of opportunities, or to respond
to consequences (IPCC 2014). Adaptations are man-
ifestations of adaptive capacity, and they represent
ways of reducing the vulnerability of households and
individuals to climatic change and variability (Smit
and Wandal 2006; Adger 2006). There is a critical
need to develop adaptation options to reduce the
vulnerabilities induced by climate change (Wheaton
and Maciver 1999), and thus this research draws on the
concepts of vulnerability and adaptation to understand
how agroforestry can be an effective adaptation
strategy to reducing smallholder farmer vulnerability
to drought and flood events.
Methods
The methods section below describes the study area,
data collection and analysis methods, and outlines the
limitations of the researc h methods. The study design
took a cross-sectional, qualitative approach and drew
from interviews in two communities in Isiolo County,
Kenya.
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Study area
This research took place in the communities of Burat
and Kinna in Isiolo County, Kenya (Fig. 1). This study
area was chosen because (1) there is little agroforestry
research from semi-arid regions (2) Burat and Kinna
are the major agricultural areas of Isiolo County, and
(3) there have been no recent agroforestry projects in
these communities, and thus interview respondent’s
answers were not influenced by such projects. Burat
and Kinna fall into the only 5% of Isiolo County that is
classified as semi-arid (the remainder is arid or very
arid), with median annual rainfall ranging from 400 to
600 mm (Mati et al. 2005). At the time of data
collection (2014–2015) most farmers had no official
title to their land, although the process of land titling
was beginning in Burat towards the end of 2015.
Further, it is important to note that neither community
has taken part in any major agroforestry projects, and
that agroforestry adoption has instead happened
without any influence of an official project or inter-
vention. Instead, agroforestry adoption often took
place through interethnic exchanges, including busi-
ness and social interactions, between Meru farmers
and the other, predominately traditionally pastoralist,
ethnic groups.
Burat is located outside of Isiolo Town, and is
ethnically diverse, including Turkana, Meru, Somali,
Borana, and Samburu ethnic groups. Agriculture
began in Burat during the colonial period on small-
scale farms run by British government officials,
however agriculture began in earnest 40 years ago
when Meru from neighboring areas moved onto the
land (personal communication). Presently, irrigation
in Burat is through a system of pipes and generators
from the Isiolo and Aye Nakore rivers. Some of this
infrastructure is privately owned, and some was
constructed by aid organizations. Tree planting began
in Burat in the early 1970s, but agroforestry wasn’t
seriously adopted until the early 1980s (per sonal
communication).
Kinna is a 2 hour drive from Isiolo Town, and
60 km from Garbatulla town. Kinna is dominated by
the Borana ethnic group, with some Meru present.
According to Kinna elders, the Kinna irrigation
scheme (a system of canals fed by one spring and
two small rivers) was dug by the Kenyan National
Government in 1969 and land was allocated on a first
come basis (personal communication). Adopting
agriculture was a strategy for livestock poor Borana
in the decade after independence, when many live-
stock were lost from drought, disease, and negative
government policies (Otuoma et al. 2009).
Drought and flood are two climate change-impacts
that can and do occur in Isiolo County. It is important
to talk about the exposure of these communities to
droughts and flood as exposure is a key component of
vulnerability. According to Funk et al. (2010), since
the 1970s the long rains have declined by more than
100 mm and there has been a warming of more than
1 °C. Water scarcity and recurrent drought are major
constraints to agricultural developm ent in Isiolo
County (Mati et al. 2005) and this is reflected in
previous research in Isiolo County. Quandt (2017),
found that household survey respondents reported
major drought events in 2014, 2011, 2009, and 1984,
and reported a major flood event during the 1997 El
Nin
˜
o. Also, Quandt et al. (2017) found that in Burat
and Kinna 51% of survey respondents reported that
drought was more frequent than 10 years ago, and the
timing of the rains was less predictable (88%). In a
study of 7 communities throughout Isiolo County,
survey respondents reported that drought seriously
impacts agriculture (39% of respondents) and live-
stock keeping (44%), while flo ods impact agriculture
(71%) and livestock keeping (17%) (Quandt and
Kimathi 2017). Agroforestry in Burat and Kinna is
largely dominated by fruit trees, and the major tree
species planted, in order, were papaya, mango, guava,
banana, and neem (Quandt et al. 2018).
Data collection
A total of 20 households, 7 in Kinna and 13 in Burat,
took part in a series of qualitative interviews. At each
household the aim was to interview both the male and
female head of household in order to capture the
experiences of both male and female smallholder
farmers with agroforestry as a tool for climate change
adaptation, which may be different as has been
previously documented (Quandt 2019). However, this
was sometimes not possible when a household only
had a single household head or when one of the
household heads spent significant time away from
home. Each household took part in three rounds of
interviews including an initial interview (Sept 2014),
an interview during the dry season (Oct 2014), and
during the rainy season (Dec 2014). There were a total
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Fig. 1 Study area map
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of 83 interviews conducted with individuals from
these 20 households. The number of respondents
varied for each round of interviews based on who was
home and available at the time. Households were
selected based on combined convenience and respon-
dent-driven sampling (Bernard 2011). All interviews
were conducted in Swahili by myself, of which I am
fluent. Further, all interviews were conducted in
private, with no other household members or neigh-
bors sitting in on the interviews. A local research
assistant helped to locate the households and to
understand some of the more context-specific answers
(places, people, events, etc.). All interviews were
voice reco rded and later transcribed verbatim in
Swahili. In order to maintain the anonymity and
confidentiality of the research participants, in the
results section individuals are identified by a letter (B
for Burat, K for Kinna), a randomly assigned number
given to each household, and a letter identifying their
gender (F for female, M for male).
The goal of the initial interview, which was semi-
structured, was to build trust between myself and the
research participants and understand the household
characteristics and livelihood activities. The dry and
rainy season interviews were in-depth, unstructur ed
interviews that focused on 6–8 topics of disc ussion.
The discussion during the dry season interview
focused on drough t, while the rainy season interview
focused on floods. The aim of all the interviews was to
understand the interviewees ‘lived experiences’ with
agroforestry during drought and flood events, and
there is evidence that 10–20 knowledgeable people are
enough to accomplish this goal (Bernard 2011).
Data analysis
Analysis of the transcribed interview text was com-
pleted with assistance from QSR Nvivo 10 software.
The three-step coding process was completed with the
text in Swahili to maintain the original themes. First,
all the interview transcriptions were thoroughly read
and quotes placed into different thematic codes.
Thematic coding used both a priori codes , themes
that I expected to emerge as a result of the research
topic and questions, and a posteriori codes, or themes
that emerged from the interviews that were not
foreseen (Cope 2005). Second, after the initial coding,
I read through all the quotes in each code and
reorganized where necessary to ensure that all quotes
were placed under the correct thematic code. Last ly, I
reread all the interviews to ensure that all interview
text that could be classified within a thematic code was
properly coded. This three step process helped to
ensure that the final thematic codes were as thorough
and accurate as possible.
Limitations of research methods
There are three major limitations of this study design.
First, the findings are based on the interviewees’
general experiences with agroforestry during drought
and flood events. I did not focus on any specific
drought or flood event, and while sometimes the
discussion ended up focusing on a particular event, the
study was meant to speak about drought and floods
more generally. Second, the data represent only a
snapshot of the research participants’ lives and
livelihoods. A longer, longitudinal study would per-
haps capture more nuance about how people are
adapting to droughts and floods. Lastly, because the
research included multiple interviews, a handful of
individuals who participated in one or more interviews
were dropped from the research study and their
responses are not presented here. The major reasons
for dropping these households/individuals were that
(1) the interv iewee themselves refused to be inter-
viewed during the second or third interviews, (2) the
truthfulness of their responses was questionable, and/
or (3) they relocated over the course of the study.
During the initial interview, 16 households in Burat
and 11 households in Kinna were selected. However, a
total of 13 households in Burat and 7 in Kinna
participated in all three rounds of interviews.
Results
The results below highlight the contributions of
agroforestry to reducing the vulnerability of intervie-
wees during flood and drought events by both reducing
their sensitivity to these events, while also increasing
their adaptive capacity. As drought is the prominent
natural hazard facing households in Burat and Kinna,
drought was much more commonly discussed by
interviewees than floods.
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Drought
Contributions of agroforestry trees to reducing
sensitivity and increasing adaptive capacity
to drought
Interviewees discussed a wide variety of benefits that
they receive from their agroforestry trees during
drought. In Fig. 2, these benefits have been organized
into the contributions of agroforestry that help reduce
an individual’s or household’s sensitivity to drought,
and those that increase their adapt ive capacity before
or during a drought. The sensitivity category is
dominated by the environm ental benefits of agro-
forestry trees, and many interviewees highlighted the
importance of shade during drought, both for people
and their farms. For example, in discussing trees on his
farm, a male farmer in Kinna (K10M) stated that,
Now during a bad drought I think that if a person
rests in the shade here or in another place it is
different. Like right now, for other people it is
hot, but for us resting here it is cool because of
the tree’s shade. So now, we do not feel the heat
very badly. If I go somewhere else to work, I will
come home and fall down right here under this
tree until my body cools down.
Two other commonly discussed environmental bene-
fits were preventing soil erosion and acting as a wind
breaker. During the dry season many places in the
study communities become dry, windy, and dusty, and
decreasing these impacts helps reduce sensitivity to
these impacts of drought. For example, a female
farmer in Burat (B11F) stated that her trees Prevent
soil erosion,’ and a male farmer in Burat (B12M)
discussed how In an area where someone has planted
trees like I have here, if the wind blows it will be
pushed up. And if you go to visit someone who has not
planted trees, you see that the wind comes directly at
you strongly.’
The contributions of agroforestry trees to increas-
ing an interviewee’s adaptive capacity to drought
included the provisioning of household necessities like
food, firewood, livestock fodder, and construction
materials. For example, a male farmer in Burat (B5M)
stated that These trees I planted because, like, this
fruit I knew that this fruit I would eat. Okay, these trees
are also lumber, I know that they would become
lumber, also I knew that they were good for cattle to
eat during drought.’ A female farmer in Burat (B4F)
emphasized the importance of fruit for improving her
household’s food security during drought when she
stated that The times when we do not have any food,
we can get it from these trees. This is a really big
benefit of these trees.’
Importantly, interviewees discussed the importance
of the financial benefits from selling tree products. For
example, a female farmer in Burat (B13F) stated that,
Fig. 2 Contributions of agroforestry trees to reducing sensitiv-
ity and increasing adaptive capacity to drought. The contribu-
tions are organized into benefits that reduce an interviewee’s
sensitivity to drought, and those that increase their adaptive
capacity. The benefits included here are all the different benefits
that were discussed during the qualitative interviews. All related
themes or codes have been included
123
Agroforest Syst
‘‘ I get my income from fruit. Like now, my husband
does not bring home much money, it is very little. Now
this, now our papaya if I sell some fruit on Saturday,
500 shillings, I take out 300 for food, and this 200 if it
is left I save it. It helps us to pay for nursery school fees
for this child, or if there are any needs for my older
daughter.’ Another female farmer in Burat (B16F)
echoed these sentiments and discussed that Like
these mangos, I sell them to people, and I can
sometimes make enough money for two weeks of food.
Here there is no drought like there is in other places,
they [trees] help me.’
Characteristics of drought-important trees
To better understand how agroforestry can be an
effective adaptation strategy to drought, interviewees
were also asked to discuss what specific characteristics
of trees are important for a tree to be beneficial to them
during drought (Table 1). By far the most com monly
discussed agroforestry characteristic was that some
trees can be drought resistant and use less water than
other crops. According to a male farmer in Burat
(B11M) for some agroforestry trees, their roots can
travel far and they can get water from far away. Their
roots dig down. It does not dry up quickly like some
other trees. Their roots go down very far to draw water
up from there.’ Another male farmer in Burat (B6M),
stated that even if there is wind or harsh sun and
drought, it [trees] thrives, it is able to thrive and it does
not die. It just has to smell water, a little bit, and it
thrives.’ Lastly, a male farmer in Burat (B5M)
discussed how his trees remain green throughout the
seasons and reported that During harsh sun, you can
see that they [trees] are still green. If it has matured, it
will be fine. Like these mangos, if they have matured
they will not dry up during the drought, they will
survive until the rains come again.’
The second most commonly discussed agroforestry
characteristic was that a tree is able to produce fruit
year round, including during the dry season and during
drought. A female farmer in Burat (B4F) emphasized
this benefit from her papaya trees when she stated that,
‘‘ during drought, during every season it produces
fruit. You will not go without. These other trees, like
mangos, they only produce fruit once a year. Now the
tree that helps us a lot every time of the year, be it
during the rainy season or the dry season, it is these
papayas.’ Farmers discussed that if they are able to
water their papaya trees, even minimally, they
continued to produce fruit. However, papaya was not
the only tree discussed, another farmer in Burat
(B16M) discussed planting pigeon peas because
‘‘ during drought is when they begin to produce peas.’
The three other important characteristics of
drought-important trees discussed were the ability to
plant crops near trees, fast production and growth, and
good production. As most of these farmers have small,
diversified farms, it is important that trees can grow
next to other crops without taking up too much space
or resources. A male farmer in Burat discussed how
under his trees even if I plant other things like
vegetables, it does not cost a lot of money because the
trees create a cool climate for the vegetables, they do
not suffer from the sun, and it also helps us to water the
vegetables less.’ Fast growth was also an important
characteristic as emphasized by a male farmer in
Kinna (K10M) who discussed how bananas, like if I
plant them today and then they grow for 9 months. If
9 months have passed, they begin to produce fruit.’
Table 1 Characteristics of drought-important agroforestry trees
Characteristics # of interviews # of quotes
Uses less water/drought-resistant 20 67
Provide fruit during dry times of the year 14 32
Able to plant near crops 4 8
Fast production and/or growth 3 4
Good production 1 1
Included are the number of interviews where each characteristic was mentioned by the interviewee as well as the total number of
interview quotes that included each characteristics
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Agroforest Syst
Flood
Contributions of agroforestry trees to reducing
sensitivity and increasing adaptive capacity to floods
Figure 3 highlights the different themes that were
discussed about how agroforestry trees can contribute
to decreasing an interviewee’s sensitivity to flood
events, as well as to increasing their adaptive capacity
both before and during a flood. Similar to agro-
forestry’s contribution to decreasing sensitivity to
drought, in regards to floods the major contributions
were environmental, including reducing water flow
and speed across the land and preventing soil erosion.
As discussed by a male farmer in Kinna (K10M),
now the areas where you have trees, the soil and
nutrients are not washed away. These trees they
hold the soil with their roots, and this litter and
compost all of it, it stays and builds up here, that
is an advantage and it helps me a lot. That is, the
soil is not washed away, and soil from other
farms is washed here and it stays, all the soil and
nutrients stay on my farm.
Farmers in Burat had similar experiences and one male
farmer (B13M) stated that If a flood happens, these
trees block the soil, their roots block the soil, they
prevent soil erosion.’
Further, agroforestry trees were able to build
adaptive capacity by providing household necessities
like fruit, food, construction materials, firewood,
traditional medicines, as well as contributing finan-
cially through the sales of tree products. One female
farmer in Burat (B15F) stated that her trees ‘help her
with money and with food.’ A male farmer echoed
these sentiments and stated it helps us with food.
Because we can sell tree products and buy other
food.’ A male farmer in Kinna (B5M) described how
‘‘ during floods my trees remain and I can eat the fruit,
even during a flood it flowers and we eat the fruit.’ As
many illnesses can increase during floods one male
farmer in Burat (B3M) discussed the medicinal uses of
trees when he said that yes it helps for medicine.
There is one type of tree that I have, I planted it over
there, it is called Muuvubau [Meru language for
‘medicine tree’]. It is very good for the body.’
Importantly, the use of trees for firewood was
commonly brought up. Firewood can be particularly
important during the rainy periods when firewood can
be difficult to obtain because walking any distance
through the mud is difficult and most available wood is
wet. A male farmer in Burat (B2M) discussed how,
‘‘ Even I can sell firewood for money. During times of
flood, indeed you can get a good price for your
firewood, the prices are high. This is because of the
shortage of rewood during these times.’ Another
male far mer in Burat (B16M) stated that even during
the rains many of the branches break, and these
branches we use to make charcoal or we use it for
firewood for cooking.’
Fig. 3 Contributions of agroforestry trees to reducing sensitiv-
ity and increasing adaptive capacity to floods. The contributions
are organized into benefits that reduce an interviewees’
sensitivity to floods, and those that increase their adaptive
capacity. The benefits included here are all the different benefits
that were discussed during the qualitative interviews. All related
themes or codes have been included
123
Agroforest Syst
Characteristics of flood-important trees
Table 2 includes the two characteristics of flood-
important trees that were discussed during the inter-
views. The most mentioned characteristic was flood-
resistant trees and/or that trees are not as easily
damaged as other crops during floods. A male farmer
in Kinna (K10M) stated that even if water sits here on
my farm, it [trees] will not be destroyed’, while a male
farmer in Burat (B13M) stated that it is not easy for
my trees to be affected. You know like mangos and
these avocados they are not affected because they are
tall.’
Other farmers discussed how many of their agro-
forestry trees are still able to produce fruit during
floods. For example, a female farmer in Burat (B4F)
said that during floods we are happy because the
trees will get a lot of water and they will grow a lot of
large fruits.’ A female farmer in Kinna (K8F)
discussed how even during flood events her papaya
trees grow fruit very quickly’, while a female farmer
in Burat (B4F) stated that papaya helps us a lot. Here
it helps us a lot because these other trees only provide
fruit once a year.’
Discussion
Drawing from empirical, qualitative research, this
paper highlights (1) the contributions of agroforestry
trees to reducing sensitivity and increasing adaptive
capacity to drought and flood events, as well as (2) the
key characteristics of drought-important and flood-
important agroforestry trees. In both drought and flood
events agroforestry had an important role to play in
reducing sensitivity, largely through improving envi-
ronmental conditions, and increasing adaptive capac-
ity by providing tree products and financial benefits.
Interestingly, the same benefits of agroforestry trees
(shade/cover, firewood, fruit, microclimate regulation,
soil erosion prevention) were commonly discussed by
interview participants for both drought and flood
events. Further, the critical aspects of both drought-
important and flood-important agroforestry trees were
that they were resilient to the impacts of these events.
However, there were a handful of benefits that were
drought-specific (windbreaker, livestock fodder) and
flood-specific (reducing speed of water flow).
The qualitative results found in Isiolo County,
Kenya are complementary to the current narrative of
the positive contributions of agroforestry to climate
change adaptation as well as the quantitative studies in
various geographic regions. For example, in Nepal,
Paudel et al. (2019) reported that 32% of survey
respondent’s ranked agroforestry as very important
during a drought and 51% ranked it as somewhat
important. Also, they found the major benefits of
agroforestry during a drought were fodder, firewood,
and fruit, while 80% of survey respondents reported
financial benefits (Paudel et al. 2019). These benefits
of agroforestry during drought were also highlighted
by the interviewee s in Isiolo County, Kenya, however
in Isiolo timber for construction materials was also
mentioned frequently. In Cameroon, Awazi et al.
(2019) and Nyong et al. (2019 ) found that 28% of
farmers were adopting agroforestry to build their
resilience to climate change because of the benefits of
food, fuelwood, building materials, and eros ion con-
trol. In Lower Nyando, Kenya, De Giusti et al. (2019)
emphasized the importance of financial benefits and
how agroforestry trees were viewed as ‘money in the
bank.’
In relation to the environmental benefits of agro-
forestry decreasing sensitivity to climate change
impacts, Tran and Brown (2019) found that in
Vietnam, smallholder farmers also reported that the
ecosystem services provided by agroforestry trees
helped them adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Table 2 Characteristics of flood-important agroforestry trees
Characteristics # of interviews # of quotes
Not easily damaged/flood-resistant 9 21
Fast or continuous production 5 5
Included are the number of interviews where each characteristic was mentioned by the interviewee as well as the total number of
interview quotes that included each characteristics
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Additionally, Gomes et al. (2020) reported that coffee
agroforestry with 50% shade cover can create suit-
able microclimates in order to maintain current areas
of coffee production despite projections in climate
changes. This supports the findings of this study as
shade was mentioned frequently both for creating
suitable climates for growing crops, as well as cool
places for people to relax. Importantly, there is a lack
of social science research about how agroforestry trees
can reduce smallholder sensitivity to floods and
droughts, and instead most relevant work comes from
the natural sciences and agronomy (for example, Lal
et al. 1991; Lin 2010; Gomes et al. 2020). Thus, this
study provides novel and important insights using
qualitative social science methods.
In addition to increasing our understanding of the
‘lived’ experience of smallholder farme rs in Kenya
with utilizi ng agroforestry trees during drought and
flood events, this study also highlights the usef ulness
of drawing from the vulnerability framework as an
organizational tool for understanding specifically how
agroforestry can contribute to climate change adapta-
tion efforts by organizing the benefits of agroforestry
into the categories of sensitivity and adaptive capacity.
For example, interviewees clearly discussed how the
environmental benefits of agroforestry have decreased
their sensitivity to both droughts and floods by
providing shade and preventing soil erosion. Also,
research participants discussed in depth how agro-
forestry has helped them to better cope with and adjust
to thes e natural hazards by providing household
necessities and financial capital in times of need.
These benefits of agroforestry clearly fit into the
conceptualizations of sensitivity (Adger 2006; Smit
and Wandal 2006) and adaptiv e capacity (Smit and
Wandal 2006; Adger 2006; IPCC 2014) as compo-
nents of vulnerability. Thus, utilizing vulnerability as
an organization framework could be used to better
understand the contributions of agroforestry to vul-
nerability and adaptation in other geographic contexts,
and also in research exploring other potential adapta-
tion strategies and livelihood activities.
Policy implications
Understanding what types of adaptation strategies and
livelihood activities are effective for helping small-
holder farmers better cope and prepare for drought and
flood events is critically important to climate change
adaptation projects and policies, and this study
highlights how qualitative research can contribute to
this goal. Agriculture is often considered the liveli-
hood strategy most vulnerable to climate change, and
thus better understanding how to adapt agriculture to
the impacts of climate change is critica l for both the
livelihoods of smallholder farmers and global food
security efforts. Thus, the findings presented here may
provide some guidance for future policies aimed to
improve climate change adaptation efforts, as well as
provide an approach to assess different agricultural
adaptation strategies and livelihood activities drawing
from the concepts of vulnerability and adaptation. For
example, certain agroforestry trees can reduce vulner-
ability to climate change impacts by increasing
adaptive capacity and reducing sensitivity. Therefore,
the practical and policy implications of this study may
be broad and far-reaching in terms of promoting
agroforestry as an effective climate change adaptation
strategy that reduces smallholder farmer vulnerability.
However, it is important that any agroforestry policies
or projects take into account the local environmental,
social, and economic contexts when promoting certain
agroforestry practices and/or tree species for climate
change adaptation.
Conclusions
Agroforestry is praised as a sustainable livelihood that
can assist smallholder farmers adapt to climate change
and climate variabilit y in Africa. This qualitative
study has highlighted the specific contributions of
agroforestry to climate change adaptation on small-
holder farms in Isiolo County, Kenya, with a focus on
floods and droughts. Drawing from the concepts of
vulnerability and adaptation, agroforestry can con-
tribute to both reducing an individual’s sensitivity to
natural hazards, while also increasing their adaptive
capacity. During drought agroforestry trees were
reported to reduce sensitivity by providi ng shade for
people and crops, serving as a windbreaker, attracting
the rain, preventing soil erosion, and providing
compost/fertilizer; as well as increasing adaptive
capacity by providing fruit and food, firewood,
construction mater ials, livestock fodder, beautification
of the farm/home plots, and money from the sales of
tree products. Characteristics of drought-important
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