The goal of this study is to support poverty reduction through assessing farm level efficiency in a changing climate and the impact of climatic factors and climate change adaptation strategies on farm productive efficiency in different parts of Kenya. The study will also propose probable policy recommendations to improve productive efficiency and climate change adaptation strategies.
Climate change and climate variability is affecting weather patterns and seasonal shifts with serious repercussions on households and communities in Kenya. Most of the households depend on agriculture as key source of livelihood, and potential adverse impacts of climate change which include declined productive efficiency which could lead to food insecurity.To mitigate the negative impacts of climate change, farmers have taken up different adaptation strategies such as adoption of new crop varieties, crop and livestock diversification, water harvesting technologies among others. However, the overall agricultural household productive efficiency and the influence of the different climatic factors and adaptation strategies on farm productive efficiency is not fully understood.
There have been several studies which have analysed efficiency of farm production in Kenya, but most of them have targeted single crops or farming activities. These have used either stochastic frontiers or activity analysis models such as DEA. Using a two stage semi-parametric model this study will assess the overall farm efficiency, and the impact of climatic factors and climate change adaptation strategies on farm efficiency. In the first stage, we propose to use a multi-output multi-input activity analysis model to capture the overall farm efficiency for farmers in different parts of the country. In the second stage, the estimates from stage 1 will be regressed against climatic factors and climate change adaptation strategies, to determine thier influence of farm productive efficiency.
The study will contribute to the already existing literature on efficiency and also the limited literature on the impact of climate change on farm efficiency and productivity. These outcomes are important and can be used to inform the government on different policy decision, such as where to emphasize when planning on climate change adaptation strategies to be promoted across the country.
