Impact of Floods on the Livelihoods of Farmers in the Context of Forest Degradation and Climate change: Case Study of Benin Republic

Abstract

Climate Change is likely to affect temporal and spatial patterns of moisture delivery and the physical form and quantity of moisture delivered over a given period of time. These changing patterns will probably lead to more frequent (and possibly more extreme) droughts and floods (IPCC, 2014). The main objective is to assess, at the household level, the effect of the 2012 flooding on the livelihoods of farmers. The study was conducted in this semiarid zone, within the Benin’s part of Niger hydrologic basin. Two communes were chosen: Malanville and Karimama. With 19 targeted villages, the sampling rate is 14.67% and the sample size is 228 households. The econometric framework adopted is the Rubin Causal Model with Generalized Propensity Score method (GPS). The simple linear regression: Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and three poverty indexes are also used. Results show that the rice yield is a decreasing function of the percentage of rice land flooded. The average impact of 10% of rice farm flooded is a loss of 1.19 tons/ha. Further, taking into account all crops, a farmer who lost 10% of his farmland may lose 16420 FCFA/ha ($33). The happiness is also negatively affected by the intensity of flooding. Among the mitigation measures, a few farmers use the dykes. The early harvest of the production is perceived as the most adaptation measures used by the farmers. It is urgent that local authorities put appropriate preventive measures, like dykes building, in place in order to protect the communities against this disaster risk. The introduction of water resistant species should be prioritized to withstand the effects of flooding in the area. For future research, the estimation of flood insurance premiums and the design/implementation of flood insurance will be the focus.