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.

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

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

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

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

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

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-

(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

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

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,

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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)

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

eat during drought.’’ A female farmer in Burat (B4F)

emphasized the importance of fruit for improving her

example, a female farmer in Burat (B13F) stated that,

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

‘‘ I get my income from fruit. Like now, my husband

daughter.’’ Another female farmer in Burat (B16F)

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

drought, it [trees] thrives, it is able to thrive and it does

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

‘‘ during drought, during every season it produces

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

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 less.’’ Fast growth was also an important

characteristic as emphasized by a male farmer in

Kinna (K10M) who discussed how ‘‘bananas, like if I

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

Farmers in Burat had similar experiences and one male

farmer (B13M) stated that ‘‘If a flood happens, these

prevent soil erosion.’’

Further, agroforestry trees were able to build

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