Climate-Related Adaptation Capabilities of Scientific and Local Climate Information Communication Farmers in Dano and Ouahigouya, Burkina Faso.

Abstract

The research is carried out in two different climate zones of Burkina Faso, the sahelian climatic zone in the North, in the province of Yatenga and the Sudanian climatic zone in South West, in the province of Ioba. In each province, two villages were selected under the administrative authority of a commune and a province. The villages were selected according to their size (bigger and small) and their membership to an ongoing WASCAL/APTE21 climate information dissemination project. The big size villages were without the project intervention whereas the project intervenes in the small size villages. Bissigaye and Bembela were used in the Commune of Ouahigouya under the Province du Yatenga. Tambiri and Bolembar were selected in the Commune of Dano under the Province du Ioba. The research aimed to determine whether the respective local farmers and scientists’ climate information are related, integrated or not. It seeks to understand the climate related adaptation capabilities enhanced by climate information communication and propose suggestions for an effective climate information communication strategy. Both quantitative and qualitative method was used and the comparative approach led the results discussion in this work. A total of four Workshops, respectively one in each village using a guide of focus group discussion were organized and took into account 87 participants. Purposive sampling methods led to having 240 survey questionnaires which were administered accordingly to the above the criteria of selection of the villages with 2/3 of the partial sample allocated to the big size villages and 1/3 to the small size villages. 38 key informant interviews were also administered with farmers, extensions service workers, media and communication, and NGOs professionals. The results show the possible but weak relation between the Mann-Kendall trend analysis of meteorological data on rain and temperature of the past 30 years and farmers perceptions of climate evolution over the past 30 years observed data on rain and temperature from their responses in the survey questionnaires. Scientific climate information was found communicated mainly to farmers via radio, and extension actors with fewer feedbacks form farmers. The climate available information on print media is less accessible especially to women with an illiteracy rate of 95, 2 % in rural areas. No direct interaction was found between scientific weather information sources and farmers. However, farmers need to understand the probabilistic nature of scientific weather forecasts and level of accuracy. For climate information to be effectively communicated to farmers, the information itself need to be accurately generated and more accessible in term of simplification and contextualization of its concepts and contents. iv The research suggests that agro meteorological and climate adaptation measures should be associated with communicating climate information to farmers. The climate information communications network of actors needs to be enough engaged and interactive. The study proposes to mainstream farmers’ local climate information and knowledge in a strategy of an efficient and effective climate information communication. The study recommends the elaboration of a comprehensive corpus of climate information communication translated into major spoken languages of Burkina Faso as an appropriate tool to put Scientists and Farmers in harmony and at the same pace of understanding. Further studies are suggested on climate early warning, mainstreaming of local climate information and knowledge in climate information policies and strategies. The essence of these suggested areas of study is to show and advice more on farmers climate-related adaptation strategies enhanced by effective climate information communication.