title: Understanding resilience to climate variability and change in common bean smallholder farming in Malawi: a gender-based perspective
Creators: name: Dambuleni, Kelvin Rex
Publisher: name: University of Reading
Year: 2022

description: Smallholder farmers dominate Sub-Saharan African (SSA) agriculture which serves as a 
mainstay to their respective countries’ economies. Of the smallholder farmers in the SSA, 
females constitute a larger proportion in provision of labour force in smallholder farming 
system. Hence, gender issues at every stage of production activities are crucial. Smallholder 
farmers’ agricultural production in Sub-Saharan Africa is largely characterised by subsistence 
farming and production under unfavourable conditions, such as low and erratic rainfall and 
poor soils that exacerbate non-climate stressors. As a result of unfavourable conditions, yields 
of key crops and livestock health are reduced, directly or indirectly affecting the livelihoods of 
smallholder farmers. It is widely conceded that farmers’ perceptions of the changing climate 
influence the way they take action to counteract risks and/or exploit the opportunities induced 
by the changing climate. In smallholder farming, climate change actions include decisions on 
the use of adaptation strategies, and changes in production activities. Considering that the 
barriers to adaptation to climate change are prevalent across multiple actors, including 
individuals, groups and institutions, there are variations on who makes decisions on coping and 
adaptation strategies in smallholder farming. Such actions help build the resilience of farmers 
to the impacts of the changing climate. However, in Malawi, where smallholder farmers are 
heavily affected by the impacts of climate variability and change, quantitative evidence of the 
relationship between perception, decision making and direct involvement in bean production 
activities, and farmers’ resilience to the changing climate in smallholder farming, is scant. The 
main objective of this study was to understand farmers’ resilience to the changing climate based 
on their perceptions, decision-making and involvement in bean production activities, including 
gender and the extent to which this relationship contributes to food self-sufficiency, security 
and income in smallholder farming in Malawi.
The research was conducted in four districts: Dedza in the central region, and Chikwawa, 
Nsanje and Zomba in the southern region of Malawi. The study employed a multi-stage 
sampling technique to select Extension Planning Areas (EPAs), sections, villages and 
households where cross-sectional data was collected from 356 farm households. In addition, a 
purposive sampling procedure was used to select study subjects for focus group discussions 
(FGDs), trend analysis, and pair-wise ranking. Econometric analysis suggests that farmers’ 
experience in bean farming, group membership, literacy levels, gender, and land holding size 
are among the factors influencing farmers’ perceptions of the changing climate. Similarly, age of household head, and large acreage reduces the level of effects of droughts or dry spells, and 
severity of pests and diseases respectively on bean production in smallholder farming. These 
results suggest that older farmers, who are more experienced, have learnt how to respond to 
climatic shocks, and that smallholder farmers are at higher risk of biotic stresses, i.e., pest and 
diseases. 
The study also examined decision-making and direct involvement in bean production activities 
in smallholder farming in the face of climate variability and change. Empirical results suggest 
that there is an overlap in some of the factors that influence decision-making and direct 
involvement in bean production activities. Decision-making on bean farming activities that 
attract more physical effort are normally made by household heads in both male and female-headed households. However, males dominate the participation in decision-making on bean 
farming activities than females. Furthermore, decisions on critical bean farming activities are 
made by household heads with dominance by males. By contrast, direct involvement in 
performing bean farming activities is not significant for many activities, however, females 
dominate some bean activities and are significant. This suggests dominance in provision of 
labour force by females, and lack of participation in decision making in bean farming.
Other findings are that age has a negative relationship with (access to basic services) ABS and
stability (S), and a positive relationship with adaptive capacity (AC). Further, group 
membership has a negative influence on ABS and IFA, and a positive relationship with AC 
and S. Literacy influences ABS, AC, and S positively, and income and food access (IFA)
negatively. This result implies that age, group membership, and literacy are crucial factors 
influencing resilience in smallholder farming. The results also revealed differing resilience 
across the study districts of Dedza, Chikwawa, Nsanje, and Zomba. These results suggest that 
policy interventions aimed at addressing vulnerabilities as they emerge in particular 
geographical locations need to be supported.