Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative
Climate Change Adaptation Practices for
Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security
in Chikhwawa District,
Southern Malawi
African Technology Policy Studies Network

RESEARCH PAPER | No. 14
Tennyson Magombo
George Kanthiti
Grace Phiri
Mutisungirire Kachulu
Hilda Kabuli

Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate
Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder
Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa
District, Southern Malawi

Tennyson Magombo
University of Malawi
Arise and Shine International
Lilongwe, Malawi

Grace Phiri
Ministry of Agriculture and Food
Security,
Lilongwe, Malawi

George Kanthiti
Ministry of Industry and Trade
Lilongwe, Malawi

Mutisungirire Kachulu
United Nations Development
Program (UNDP)
Lilongwe, Malawi

Hilda Kabuli
Chitedze Agricultural Research Station
Lilongwe, Malawi

The African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) is a multidisciplinary network of researchers, private sector actors andpolicy makers promoting the generation, dissemination, use andmastery of science, technology and innovation (ST&I) for African
development, environmental sustainability and global inclusion.
ATPS intends to achieve its mandate through research, capacity
building and training, science communication/dissemination andsensitization, participatory multi-stakeholder dialogue,knowledge brokerage, and policy advocacy.
Published by the African Technology Policy Studies Network
P O Box 10081, 00100 GPO Nairobi Kenya
2011

Published by the African Technology Policy Studies Network

ISBN: 978-9966-030-19-1

Table of Contents
Acknowledgement

4

Abstract

5

1.

Introduction

7

2.

Review of Indigenous & Innovative10

Climate Change Adaptation Practices
in Chikhwawa District
3.

Conceptual Framework & Theoretical Review

12

4.

Data

17

5.

Discussion of Results

20

6.

Conclusions & Policy Implication

27

References

29

Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi | 3

Acknowledgement
This paper was produced as part of the implementation of the African Technology
Policy Studies Network (ATPS) Phase VI Strategic Plan, 2008 – 2012 funded by
ATPS Donors including the Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken (DGIS) the
Netherlands, Rockefeller Foundation, amongst others. The authors hereby thankthe ATPS for the financial and technical support during the implementation of the
program. The Authors specially thank the ATPS Climate Sense Program Director,
Dr. Kevin Urama (ATPS); and the Program Coordinators including Prof. Francis
Mutua (ATPS Kenya); Dr. George Owusu Essegbey (ATPS Ghana), Prof. Eric
Eboh (ATPS Nigeria), Dr. Nicholas Ozor (ATPS), and Ms. Wairimu Mwangi (ATPS)
for their technical support during the research process.
The authors are also very grateful to Mr Emmanuel Mponda, and Mr Peter Zimba
of Evangelical Lutheran Development Services (ELDS) for their technical andlogistical support towards the study. The authors cannot keep quite without being
grateful to Chawanangwa Munthali, Babettie Juwayeyi, Veronica Kuwela,
Thokozire Mvula (all BSc graduates from Bunda college of Agriculture of the
University of Malawi), who assisted the research team in collecting good quality
data from farm families. The list is too long of individuals and organisations thatwere key in providing necessary information for the study; authors are saying
thank you to you all for your cooperation and support.
Finally, authors extends their sincere gratitude to farm families in Chikhwawa who
cooperated with enumerators and provided the demanded data that would takea long way in informing decision making processes for total transformation ofpeople's livelihoods in Chikhwawa district and beyond.

4 | Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi

Abstract
Prolonged dry spells or droughts and floods as a result of climate change are aserious problem for smallholder farmers in Malawi, because agriculture is theirmain livelihood strategy. Food shortages and low income levels due to climatechange impacts mean inability of farmers to actively participate in the day to day
economic activities. Low income levels can also be translated into lack of accessto basic needs of life that are purchased with money. Farmers that have mainly
been affected with this problem are those that have land allocations in the ShireRiver Valley in Chikhwawa and Nsanje Districts. Understanding of the indigenous
and innovative climate change adaptation strategies would assist smallholder
farmers and policy makers, civil society organisations and the private sector todesign programs that can assist farmers to build resilience against climatechange impacts for their sustainable livelihoods. This paper therefore assessed
the incidence of indigenous, innovative climate change adaptation strategies forsmallholder farmers' livelihood security in Chikhwawa district. Factors that affectadoption of such strategies were also analyzed and discussed.
The study revealed that Crop diversification, eating a wild tuber plant called nyika(Nymphaea petersiana), applying organic manure to agriculture fields, mixed
crop and livestock farming; small scale irrigation are the main indigenous climatechange adaptation strategies being adopted by households in the study area.
The study also shows that household size, landholding size, total annual
household income level, access to inputs and output markets, months
household had no maize or sorghum as a proxy to food insecurity level, andaccess to agricultural extension services are the major factors or household
characteristics that significantly affect adoption of indigenous climate change
adaptation strategies in the study area. It was so clear from the analysis thataccess to agricultural extension services strongly and significantly affects theprobability of households adopting most of the identified climate change
adaptation strategies.
In terms of policy implications, the identified indigenous climate change
adaptation strategies should be promoted by the farming communities,
responsible government departments, the donor community, civil society

Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi | 5

organisations as well as the private sector if farm families in the study area andother areas in Malawi are to build resilience against climate change impacts andhave sustainable livelihoods. The government of Malawi through Ministry ofAgriculture and Food security should also improve on the agricultural extension
services delivery system and develop messages that aim at promoting adoptionof climate change adaptation strategies being identified.
Key words: Climate change, indigenous and innovative adaptation strategies,
livelihood security

6 | Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi

1. Introduction
Climate change and variability (CC&V) is increasingly emerging as one of themost serious global problems affecting many sectors of economic growth in theworld. Such sectors widely affected by the impacts of climate-related hazards
and calamities include; Agriculture, Water, Fisheries, Forestry and other LandUse, Wildlife, Energy, Industrial Processes and Product Use, Waste
Management, Human Health, and the sustainable livelihoods of both rural andurban communities (Lema M.A and Majule A.E., 2009 and Bie et.al., 2008).
Climate change and variability is considered as one of the most serious threats tosustainable development with adverse impacts on food security, economic
activities and physical infrastructure (Lema M.A and Majule A.E., 2009 and IPCC,
2007). The impacts are so rampant in Africa, which is considered to be one of themost vulnerable regions to climate change in the world.
Africa is subject to widespread poverty, recurrent droughts, and inequitable land
distribution and over dependence on rain-fed agriculture (Lema M.A and Majule
A.E., 2009 ). As such, the majority of farming households in Africa have struggled
to sustain their livelihoods and this has been as a result of numerous social,economical and environmental degradation problems which have been
exacerbated by adverse impacts of climate change and climate variability.
Climate change and variability has created uncertainties in temperature patterns,
intensities of received ultraviolet radiation, and rainfall and wind patterns. As aresult, rural people in countries like Malawi whose main economic activity isagriculture are faced with so many challenges in decision making with respect totheir agricultural activities (Bie et.al, 2008).
Over the last few decades, Malawi has experienced extreme weather events,
Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi | 7

ranging from droughts (1991/92) to floods (1996/97) and flush floods (2000/01).
During the 1996/97 crop season, when there were floods in the southern region,some parts of the northern region along the Karonga Lakeshore plain
experienced drought conditions. These extreme weather events clearly showthat there are large temporal and spatial variations in the occurrence of climaterelated disasters and calamities. In the affected areas, these events have had
irreversible and damaging effects on crop and livestock production, especiallythe droughts that occurred during the 1978/79, 1981/82, 1991/92 and 1993/94
crop growing seasons.
Prolonged dry spells or droughts and floods are a serious problem forsmallholder farmers in Malawi, because agriculture is their main livelihood
strategy. Food shortages and low income levels mean inability of farmers toactively participate in the day to day economic activities. Low income levels canalso be translated into lack of access to basic needs of life that require to bepurchased with money. Farmers that have mainly been affected with this problem
are those that have land allocations in the Shire River Valley in Chikhwawa andNsanje Districts.
In order to solve this problem the Government of Malawi in collaboration withother development partners, has tried to assist farmers in the valley and eventhose in the highlands by sensitizing them on the impacts of climate change andby engaging farmers in the decision making process to come up with appropriate
solutions that could reduce the negative impacts of climate change. Most of the
proposed solutions or strategies have been assisting farmers to cope up with theeffects of climate change impacts and not necessarily to adapt to the impacts
themselves. However, some communities have been using their indigenous
knowledge or technologies to adapt to climate change impacts even thoughthese technologies have not been documented so that they can be reinforced
and scaled up to other communities. Thus, some research and development
partners are still asking a lot of questions around climate change adaptation
practices. Such questions include the following: 1. what are the effective
indigenous, emerging and innovative technologies for climate change
adaptation? 2. What are the individual and institutional behaviors towards climatechange adaptation measures? 3. What are the factors that affect adoption ofvarious adaptation strategies? 4. What are the capacity building needs of the
farming communities that can assist to adapt to climate change? Understanding
8 | Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi

of the links among incidence of climate change, indigenous, emerging andinnovative adaptation technologies and livelihood security in Malawi is very key ifthese questions are to be answered.
This paper analyses the different identified indigenous, innovative climatechange adaptation strategies for smallholder farmers' livelihood security in
Chikhwawa district. Factors that affect adoption of such strategies are also
analyzed and discussed. The paper also discusses the policy interventions that
can assist farmers to build resilience against climate change impacts for theirsustainable livelihoods.

Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi | 9

2. Review of Indigenous &Innovative Climate Change
Adaptation Practices in
Chikhwawa District
Lema M.A and Majule A.E., 2009 reported that Climate change is a global
phenomenon while adaptation is largely site-specific. This implies that climatechange adaptation strategies require site specific knowledge. According to
IPCC, (2007) a clear understanding of what is happening at a community level isof paramount importance in order to significantly impact on farmers who are bylarge the most climate-vulnerable group.
Apparently, indigenous, innovative climate change adaptation practices bysmallholder farmers in Chikhwawa district were not found in the literature. Thisimplies that climate change adaptation practices in Chikhwawa were not being
documented. However, studies in various countries shows how farmers adapt tovarious impacts of climate change and variability. For example, in Cameroon,
Molua (2008) observed that Cameroon's agricultural sector depend largely on the
return of good rains and timely availability of adequate inputs such that years ofimproved rainfall were associated with improved agricultural output and viceversa. However, farmers in Cameroon are not passively submitting to climate
variation. It was revealed that farmer's main strategy for reducing climate risks
was to diversify production and livelihood systems. In addition, other farmers
acquire more livestock to cushion income, while others engage in various nonfarm activities. Overall, Molua (2008) concluded that with semi-extensive farming
systems being sensitive to small changes in climate, agricultural-dependent
10 | Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi

countries like Cameroon are more likely to be vulnerable to these changes. Now
the major question is: what are the effective indigenous and emerging
technologies and innovations for climate change adaptation in Chikwawa Districtin Southern Malawi?

Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi | 11

3. Conceptual Framework& Theoretical Review
Consider a farmer or a decision maker who has been affected by climate change
and is able to compare two climate change adaptation alternatives aand bin the
choice set C using a preference indifference operator³. Assume that this farmer isrational and would like to maximize utility. Given a set of different climate change
adaptation measures, this farmer would opt for an alternative that would
maximize his or her utility.
If a ³ b, the decision maker either prefers a to b or is indifferent. The preferenceindifference operator is supposed to have the following properties:
1.

Reflexivity: a ³ a , " a Î C .

2.

Transitivity: a ³ b and b ³ c Þ a ³ c , " a, b, c Î C.

3.

Comparability: a ³ b or b ³ a , "a , b,Î C.

Because the choice set C is finite the existence of an adaptation alternative which
is preferred to a farmer is guaranteed, that is$a* s.t a* ³ a , " aÎ C .

(1)

12 | Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi

More interestingly, and because of the three properties listed above, it can beshown that the existence of a function

U : C ® Â : a;U (a)Such thata ³ b Û U (a) ³ U (b ) , " a, b,Î C.
is guaranteed. Therefore, the alternative a* defined in (1) may be identified as

a* = arg maxaÎC U aUsing the preference-indifference operator ³ to make a choice is equivalent to*assigning a value, called utility, to each alternative, and selecting the alternative aassociated with the highest utility.
The concept of utility associated with the alternatives plays an important role inthe context of discrete choice models. However, the assumptions of neoclassicaleconomic theory present strong limitations for practical applications. Indeed, thecomplexity of human behavior suggests that a choice model should explicitly
capture some level of uncertainty.
The exact source of uncertainty is an open question. Some models assume thatthe decision rules are intrinsically stochastic, and even a complete knowledge ofthe problem would not overcome the uncertainty. Others consider that thedecision rules are deterministic, and motivate the uncertainty from theimpossibility of the analyst to observe and capture all dimensions of the problem,
due to its high complexity. Simon P. et al. (1992) compare this debate with the one
between Einstein and Bohr, about the uncertainty principle in theoretical physics.
Bohr argued for the intrinsic stochasticity of nature and Einstein claimed that
“Nature does not play dice”.

Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi | 13

The Luce Model
An important characteristic of models dealing with uncertainty is that, instead ofidentifying one alternative as the chosen option, they assign to each alternative aprobability to be chosen.
Luce (1959) proposed the choice axiom to characterize a choice probability law.
The choice axiom can be stated as follow.
Denoting Pc(a) the probability of choosing a in the choice set C, and Pc(s)theprobability of choosing one element of the subset S within C, the two following
properties hold for any choice set U, C and S, such that S Í C Í U.
1. If an alternative aÎC is dominated, that is if there exists bÎC such that b isalways preferred to a or, equivalently, P{ab}(a) = 0, then removing a from c does
not modify the probability of any other alternative to be chosen, that is

P c S = Pc \ a S \ a
2. If no alternative is dominated, that is if 0pP{ab}(a)p1a for all a,bÎC then the
choice probability is independent from the sequence of decisions, that is

Pc(a ) = Pc( S ) Ps(a )Random Utility Models
Random utility models assume, as neoclassical economic theory, that thedecision-maker has a perfect discrimination capability. In this context, however,
the analyst is supposed to have incomplete information and, therefore,
uncertainty must be taken into account. Manski (1997) identifies four different
sources of uncertainty: unobserved alternative attributes, unobserved individual
attributes (called “unobserved taste variations” by Manski, 1997), measurement
errors and proxy, or instrumental, variables.
The utility is modeled as a random variable in order to reflect this uncertainty.
More specifically, the utility that individual i is associating with alternative a isgiven by

Uai = Vai + e ai
14 | Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi

iiwhere Va is the deterministic part of the utility, and ea is the stochastic part,
capturing the uncertainty. Similarly to the neoclassical economic theory, thealternative with the highest utility is supposed to be chosen. Therefore, theprobability that alternative a is chosen by decision-maker i within choice set C iséù
P ic (a )= P êU ai = maxUbi úëbÎCûThe Logit Model
The logit model is derived from the assumption that the error terms of the utility
functions are independent and identically Gumbel distributed. These models
were first introduced in the context of binary choice models, where the logistic
distribution is used to derive the probability. Their generalization to more than twoalternatives is referred to as multinomial logit models.
3.1 Determining factors affecting adoption of various
adaptation strategies smallholder farmers in the study area
Consider a farm family which is affected by climate change and has a set ofdifferent adaptation measures. We assume that each farmer faces a set of
discrete, mutually exclusive choices of adaptation measures amidst risks anduncertainties. These measures are assumed to be dependent on a number ofclimate attributes, socioeconomic characteristics and other factors X. Let Ai be arandom variable representing the adaptation measure chosen by any farm family.
According to Greene, (2003) the MNL model for adaptation choice specifies therelationship between the probability of choosing option and the set of explanatory
variables X as follows:b' xProb ( Ai = j ) =

e ji

å

j

b 'x

, j = 0,1,2.... j

e ji
k=0

where bj is a vector of coefficients on each of the independent variables X.
Equation (1) can be normalized to remove indeterminacy in the model byassuming that b0 = 0 and the probabilities can be estimated as:b'x

Prob ( Ai = j ) =

e ji
j

b'x

1 + åk =0 e j i, j = 0,2.... j , b 0 =0

Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi | 15

Estimating equation (2) yields the J log-odds ratiosæP öln çç ij ÷÷ = xi' (b j - b k )= xi' b k , if k = 0
è Pik øThe dependent variable is therefore the log of one alternative relative to the basealternative.
According to Greene (2003), the MNL coefficients are difficult to interpret, andassociating the with b j the jth outcome is tempting and misleading. To interpretthe effects of explanatory variables on the probabilities, marginal effects areusually derived as follows:

dj =

j
¶Pj
é
ù
= Pj ê b j - å Pk b k ú = Pj æç b j - b ö÷
¶x i
è
ø
k =0
ë
û

The marginal effects measure the expected change in probability of a particular
choice being made with respect to a unit change in an explanatory variable(Long, 1997; Greene, 2000). The signs of the marginal effects and respective
coefficients may be different, as the former depend on the sign and magnitude of
all other coefficients.

16 | Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi

4. Data
The data used for analysis in this study were based on a farm household survey
administered to a sample of 300 farm families. These farm families were randomly
drawn from smallholder farmers that live in five Traditional Authorities and aretargeted by Evangelical Lutheran Development Services (ELDS) in Chikhwawa
District. From these farmers, information on household characteristics,
experience and knowledge of climate change impacts in the area, indigenous
and innovative climate change adaptation practices, farming practices thatexacerbate climate change impacts etc were collected and used in the analysis.
Some of the explanatory variables that were considered in the analysis of thefactors that affect the probability of households to adapt to climate change
impacts by adopting different indigenous and innovative climate change
adaptation strategies were as outlined in table 1.0 below. The descriptive
statistics of the variables were computed using STATA 10 statistical package.
Identified indigenous and innovative climate change adaptation practices werealso summarized using STATA 10.0 statistical package and have been outlined intable 2.0 below. The different adaptation strategies combinations or options bysmallholder farmers were computed using Excel computer package and also
summarized using STATA 10.0 statistical package. The summarized adaptation
practices options are as outlined in table 3.0 below. Results of the multinomial
logit model analysis, where factors affecting the probability of households toadapt to climate change impacts by adopting different adaptation options ascompared to households that did not adapt are outlined in table 4.

Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi | 17

Table 1: Descriptive Statistics of household characteristics
VariableAge of hh head
Education of hh head

1

Household Size
Farming experience of hh head

3
4
5

Std. Dev.

Min

Max

300

41.96667

15.01901

18

86

300

5.473333

3.944764

0

16

300

6

3

1

15

300

18.37 333

14.37996

1

68

Value of hh assets

300

75,301.11

237,020.2

03,141,200

3300

3.66382.260337015.5Months hh had no maize in 2009300

1.706667

2.5903012Months hh had no sorghum in 2009

300

2.91

2.813352

0

12

4

300

3.809667

2.774431

013

Total annual income

300

5,204.65

90,392.73

01,000,000

Distance to market

2

Mean

2

Land Holding size

1

Obs

Number of Years spent in school.
Value of household assets and total annual income is in Malawi Kwacha and the exchange rate is US$1:Mk152
Land holding size is in acres, 1 acre=0.4hectare
Distance is measured in KilometresThis wild tuber plant is scientifically known as Nymphea petersiana

Table 2: Identified Indigenous climate change Adaptation
Strategies by percentage of households practicing
I.D

Adaptation strategy

Percentage of households practicing

1

Crop diversification

84.00

2

Eating Nyika( a wild tuber plant)5

56.67

3

Apply organic manure to fields

53.00

4

Mixed crop and L/stock farming

43.33

5

Small scale irrigation

42.33

6

Nonfarm income generating activities

27.67

Sample size

300

Note: “Practice all” means a household practices all the five identified strategies as
indicated in Table 2. This excludes non farm income generating activities being practiced bya small percentage of households.
18 | Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi

Table 3: Different combinations of indigenous climate change
adaptation strategies by percentage of households practicing
I.D

Adaptation strategy option or combination

Percentage

Cumulative

0

None

6.00

6.00

1

Small Scale irrigation

0.67

6.67

2

Crop diversification

8.00

14.67

3

Mixed Crop and L/stockfarming

1.00

15.67

4

Apply Organic Manure

1.33

17.00

5

Eat nyika

1.67

18.67

6

8.67

27.33

8.00

35.33

8

Practice all except Small scale irrigation
Practice all except Small scale irrigation and mixed
crop& L/stock farming
practice all except mixed crop&L/stock farming andeating nyika

5.33

40.67

9

Practice all except aeting nyika

3.33

44.00

10

crop diversification and eating nyika

4.00

48.00

11

Practice all except applying organic manure

5.67

53.67

12

7.67

61.33

2.33

63.67

1.00

64.67

0.33

65.00

16

Practice all five identified strategies
Practice all except applying organic manure and eating
nyika
Practice all except crop diversification and mixed
crop&L/stock farming
Practice all except crop diversification and applying
organic manure
Practice all except small scale irrigation and Crop
diversification

0.33

65.33

17

Small Scale irrigation and applying organic manure

0.33

65.67

18

mixed Crop and L/stock farming and eating nyika

1.00

66.67

19

Crop diversification and mixed crop& L/stock farming

2.00

68.67

20

Practice all except small scale irrigation and eating
nyika

5.33

74.00

21

Crop diversification and applying organic manure

5.00

79.00

22

Small Scale irrigation and crop diversification
Practice all except small scale irrigation and applying
organic manure
Small scale irrigation and mixed crop & L/stock
farming

2.33

81.33

5.00

86.33

0.33

86.67

1.33

88.00

26

Small scale irrigation and eating nyika
Practice all except mixed crop&L/stock farming andapplying organic manure

6.00

94.00

27

Practice all except mixed crop&L/stock farming

5.33

99.33

28

Apply Organic Manure and eating nyika

0.33

99.67

29

Practice all except crop diversification

0.33

100.00Total

100.00

7

13
14
15

23
24
25

Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi | 19

5. Discussion of Results
5.1 Identified indigenous and innovative climate change
adaptation strategies
Households practicing one or more of the five major identified climate change
adaptation strategies were believed to be generally adapting to climate change
impacts for their livelihood security. In order to identify the factors affecting
adoption of different sets of adaptation strategies by a household, a multinomial
logit model was run by using all the 29 different combinations of adaptation
strategies against the different household characteristics. Table 4 outlines the
combinations of adaptation strategies which proved to be significantly affectedby one or more household characteristics. Only household characteristics thatwere significant at 99%, 95% and 90% confidence intervals were recorded.
The multinomial logit model results above illustrate the indigenous and innovative
climate change adaptation strategies adopted by households in the study area. It
is so clear from the analysis results that choice of different combinations ofpractices as compared to not to choose any adaptation strategy by a household
was significantly affected by different household characteristics recorded in thetable above. Figure 1.0 below illustrates identified indigenous and innovative
adaptation practices against percentage of households that practice either one
or combination of two or more.

20 | Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi

Table 4: Multinomial Logit Model Results
Adapt

Coefficient

Std error

z-statistic

p-value

Total annual income**-0.0000197

0.00000837

-2.35

0.019

Months without maize***

0.3560102

0.1927071

1.85

0.065

Household size**

0.5190821

0.2639669

1.97

0.049

Acces s to Agri.Ext. Services*

20.92597

2.586447

8.09

0.000

Distance to the market***-0.7034511

0.4261017

-1.65

0.099

Access to Agri.Ext. Services*

20.20517

2.220309

9.1

0.000

Age of household head**

0.0567859

0.0279975

2.03

0.043

Household size**

0.3104329

0.1549108

2

0.045

Total annual income*-0.0000284

0.00000836

-3.4

0.001

Months without sorghum***

0.2531914

0.1468817

1.72

0.085

Age of household head***0.0450584

0.0272918

1.65

0.099

Total annual income**-0.0000274

0.00000944

-2.9

0.004

-0.0000204

0.00000804

-2.54

0.011

0.408793

0.155529

2.63

0.009

0.3418234

0.2013342

1.7

0.09

0.3811462

0.1939771

1.96

0.049

19.71 1

1.74751

11.28

0.000

0.3683448

0.1944356

1.89

0.058

Practice Crop diversification

Use Organic Manure

Eat Nyika (a wild tuber plant)

All minus small scale Irrigation

All minus SSI and Mixed crop & L/stock

All minus mixed crop&L/stock and nyika
Total annual income**
Months without sorghum**

Months without maize***
All minus eating nyika
Land holding size**
Crop diversification& Eating Nyika
Access to Agri. Ext Services*
All

minus

organic manure application

Months without maize***

Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi | 21

AdaptCoefficient

Std error

z-statistic p-value

Total annual income**-0.000012

0.00000473

-2.53

0.011

Months without sorghum **0.2830155

0.1440 495

1.96

0.049

Access to Agri. Ext Services*

19.85107

1.640641

12.1

0.000

19.14529

2.243486

8.53

0.000

19.10234

1.701527

11.23

0.000

Age of household head***0.0536928

0.0300059

1.79

0.074

Total annual income***-0.0000108

0.00000649

-1.66

0.097

Month s without sorghum ***0.3053045

0.17948

1.7

0.089

Months without maize***0.4013618

0.2095466

1.92

0.055

Access to Agri. Ext. services*

19.45085

2.476866

7.85

0.000

Months without sorghum***

0.25645 16

0.1537832

1.67

0.095

Months without maize***0.3296346

0.1967897

1.68

0.094

0.4734196

0.2307704

2.05

0.04

Total annual income**-0.0000249

0.0000104

-2.4

0.016

Months without maize**

0.4208783

0.1919804

2.19

0.028

All practices

Crop diversification and Mixed crop&L/stock
Access to agri. Ext. services*
All minus SSI& eating nyika
Access to agri.ext. servi

ces*

Crop diversification & organic manure application

SSI and crop diversification

All minus SSI & organic manure application

Small scale Irrigation & Eating nyika
Months without maize**All minus mixed crop& L/stock farming

All minus mixed crop &L/stock and Organic manure
application
Landholding size***

0.3669732

0.1893859

1.94

0.053

Months with maize***

0.357373

0.194466

1.84

0. 066

Distance to market***0.2534015

0.1525592

1.66

0.097

Access to Agri. Ext. Services*

19.3434345

1.663863

11.63

0.000

* 99% confidence interval**95% confidence interval,*** 90% confidence interval
Note: The base outcome that was used was that the household did not adapt to climate change as being reflected in ahousehold not practicing any adaptation strategy (none = 0).
22 | Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi

90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Crop
diversification

Eating Nyika(a wild tuber
plant)[1]

Apply organic
manure to fields

Mixed crop &L/stock farming

Small scale
irrigtaion

Non-farm income
generating
activities

Percentage of househols practicing

Figure 1: Percentage of households practising indeginous
climate change adaptation strategies
Nonfarm income generating activities as a practice was not included in theanalysis because a very small percentage (27.67%) of households indicated tohave been using the strategy. This implies that agriculture is the main livelihood
security strategy in the study area and any agriculture related adaptation practice
is of paramount importance and needs to be promoted if farm families are to build
resilience against climate change impacts for their sustainable livelihoods. Crop
diversification proves to be a major climate change adaptation strategy since
about 84% of households indicated to have been practicing it. Another major
strategy following crop diversification was eating nyika (a wild tuber plant)scientifically known as Nymphaea petersiana. About 56.67% of households
indicated to have been eating nyika when they run short of maize, sorghum andother food crops. Households fetch nyika from Shire River, but those households
that stay far away from the Shire river buy nyika from the local market near to theircommunities. Nyika is a wild plant and it is not yet recognized as a domestic crop
but yet it is the plant that has proved to be used as food crop by most households
in Chikhwawa in hard times when they have run short of staple food crops.
Domesticating nyika and recognizing it as one of the food crops in Chikhwawa
Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi | 23

and the Shire valley at large can help in building farmers resilience against
climate change impacts. About 53%, 43.33% and 42.33% of households
indicated to have been applying organic manure to their gardens, practice mixed
crop and livestock farming, and small scale irrigation respectively as climatechange adaptation strategies.
5.2 Factors that affect adoption of indigenous climate change
adaptation strategies
The household characteristics that proved to be significantly be affecting
households to adapt to climate change impacts in the study area being reflected
in a household practicing one or more adaptation strategies are:- household size,
landholding size, total annual household income level, access to inputs andoutput market, months household had no maize or sorghum, and access toagricultural extension services. It is very clear from table 4 above that as total
annual income of the household increases the odds ratio that the household
would adopt crop diversification decreases (or moves from 1 towards 0.)(p=0.019). This generally implies that the higher the household income level the
lower the probability that the household would adopt crop diversification as aclimate change adaptation strategy. Number of months without maize which wasused as a proxy for household food insecurity level proved to have a positiveeffect on the odds ratio that a household would adopt crop diversification as aclimate change adaptation strategy (p=0.065).
Household size proved to have a positive effect on the odd ratio that a household
would adopt use of organic manure as a climate change adaptation strategy(p=0.049). This implies that the higher the household size the higher the higher
the probability that a household would adopt application of organic manure to
agricultural field. Access to agricultural extension services also proved to have apositive effect on the odds ratio that a household would adopt application oforganic manure to agricultural fields (P=0.000). It is so evident that access toagricultural information on use of organic manure strongly influences
households to adopt the practice.
Market access by a household (where distance to the market was used as aproxy) proved to have a positive effect on the odds ratio that a household eat
nyika during hard times when a household had run short of staple and other foodcrops(p=0.099). The shorter the distance to the market the more easier a
24 | Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawihousehold have access to the market and the higher the probability that ahousehold would buy nyika from the market and eat where there is no maize,sorghum and other food crops. This also implies that most households get nyika
from the market and very few perhaps fetch it from the shire river. It is very possiblethat very few fetches nyika from the river on their own because it is very risky since
there are a lot of crocodiles in the Shire river. However, only courageous few
fetches nyika and sell it to majority of risk averse households and those who stay
far away from the Shire river.
Access to agricultural extension services proved to have a positive effect on theodds ratio that a household adopt a combination of crop diversification andmixed crop and livestock farming as climate change adaptation
strategies(p=0.000)
Number of months without sorghum used as a proxy of food insecurity levelproved to have a positive effect on the odds ratio that a household would adopt topracticing a combination of small scale irrigation and crop diversification(p=0.089), so it was with number of months without maize (p=0.055). Access toagricultural extension services also strongly proved to have a positive effect on
the odds ratio that a household would adopt a combination of small scale
irrigation and crop diversification(p=0.000) as climate change adaptation
strategy. Age of household head proved to have a positive effect on the odds ratiothat a household would adopt a combination of crop diversification and use oforganic manure (p=0.074). Total annual household income proved to have anegative effect on the odds ratio that a household adopt a combination of crop
diversification and use of organic manure (p=0.097). This implies that the older
the household head the less the amount of annual income the household acquire
and the higher the probability that the household would adopt a combination ofcrop diversification and use of organic manure as climate change adaptation
strategies.
5.3 Farming practices that exacerbate the impacts of climatechange.
It is so clear in Figure 2 that unnecessary cutting down of trees, cultivating along
the river banks and continuous cropping are some of the farming practices thatexacerbate the impacts of climate change in the study area.

Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi | 25

90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Monocropping

Continuous
cropping

Cultivating
along theriver banks

Carelesscutting
down oftrees

Overgrazing

Burning crop
residues

Do notpractice
soil & water
conservation

Percentage of househols practicing

Figure 2: Farming practices that exacerbate the impacts ofclimate change
Majority of households (47.67%) indicated that unnecessary cutting down oftrees is one of the practice in the area that exacerbate climate change impacts.
About 20.33% and 15.33% of households indicated that cultivating along riverbanks and continuous cropping are some of the farming practices in the area thatexacerbate climate change impacts.
Continuous cropping degrades the soil structure and fertility. Cultivating along
the river banks results in soil erosion and river siltation. Careless cutting down oftrees results in increased amounts of carbon dioxide emitted in the atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide is one of the green house gases that is considered to be one ofthe drivers of climate change. Careless cutting down of trees results in increased
rain fall water runoff which causes soil erosion. Measures that can be put in placein order to reverse or reduce these malpractices would significantly contribute toclimate change impacts mitigation and adaptation in the study area.

26 | Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi

6. Conclusions & Policy
Implications
The study vindicated that Crop diversification, eating a wild tuber plant callednyika (Nymphea petersiana), applying organic manure to agriculture fields,
mixed crop and livestock farming; small scale irrigation and nonfarm income
generating activities are the indigenous climate change adaptation strategies
being adopted by households in the study area. It was observed, however, that asmall percentage of households, practices nonfarm income generating activities.
This implies that agriculture, is the main livelihood security strategy in the study
area. The five agricultural related adaptation strategies were therefore prioritized
to be effective indigenous climate change adaptation strategies in the study area.
These results are likely to be more meaningful among smallholder farmers in
Chikhwawa who largely depend on agriculture as their main livelihood security
strategy. In terms of policy implications, the identified indigenous climate change
adaptation strategies should be promoted by the government, the donor
community as well as by the civil society organisations if farm families in the study
area and other areas in Malawi are to build resilience against climate change
impacts.
The study revealed that household size, landholding size, total annual householdincome level, access to inputs and output market, months household had nomaize or sorghum as a proxy to food insecurity level, and access to agriculturalextension services are the major factors or household characteristics thatsignificantly affect adoption of indigenous climate change adaptation strategies
in the study area. It was so clear from the analysis that access to agriculturalextension services strongly and significantly affects the probability of households
Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi | 27

adopting most of the identified climate change adaptation strategies. In terms ofpolicy implications the government of Malawi through Ministry of Agriculture andFood security should improve on the agricultural extension services delivery
system and develop messages that aim at promoting adoption of climate change
adaptation strategies being identified.
Since it was observed and it has empirically been proven that majority ofhouseholds in Chikhwawa eat a wild tuber plant called nyika (Nymphaea
petersiana) as a food insecurity coping mechanism, it is recommended that thereis need to conduct an action research on domestication of nyika and find ways on
how to improve its productivity at the farm level. A study on assessing or
understanding the nutrition content and different utilization options of nyika canalso be conducted. In terms of policy of implications, domestication of nyika
would result in conservation of the indigenous plant genetic resource which is
being used as a food crop without any mechanism to replace or conserve it.
Nyika can be considered as one of the underutilized food crops which need to bepromoted and its genetic resource conserved.
The study also revealed that majority of households (47.67%) indicated that
unnecessary cutting down of trees is one of the practice in the study area thatexacerbate climate change impacts and about 20.33% and 15.33% ofhouseholds indicated that cultivating along river banks and continuous cropping
are some of the farming practices in the area that exacerbate climate change
impacts. In terms of policy implications there is need to intensively promoteafforestation programs in Chikhwawa and Malawi at large and conduct intensive
civic education programs aimed at sensitizing communities on the danger of
unnecessary cutting down of trees, cultivating along river banks and continuous
cropping. Innovative collective action institutional set ups can be explored so thatthey assist in reinforcing adopting of good farming practices and influencecommunal and household's behavioral change in favor of climate change
impacts mitigation and adaptation.

28 | Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi

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Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation Practices for Smallholder Farmers' Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi | 29

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