Month: May 2022

The approach provides more details about the processes that cause the various distribution changes which may either increase or decrease the Ginico efficient . The percentile shares approach is more useful incases where time series data is used but it also compliments the analysis of income in equality using cross-sectional data. As mentioned earlier, the Gini index is a widely used and favoured measure of income inequality over other alternatives because this index can be applied to both time series and cross-sectional data simultaneously . The value of the Gini Index ranges from 0 to 1. With the value 1, the Gini coefficient represents perfect unequal distribution of income, while with the value 0, it represents perfect equality of income . Links with the Lorenz curve make the Gini coefficient an attractive statistic for the decomposition by income components, as the Lorenz curve graphically represents the Gini coefficient. The concentration coefficient of each income component with respect to total income is obtained from a concentration curve .

However, it should be noted here that, ebb and flow tray the Gini coefficient cannot be used to rank distributions if the Lorenz curves intersect. According to Litchfield , there are alternative ways to decompose the Gini, however the component terms of total inequality are not always intuitively or mathematically appealing. Notwithstanding this concern the Gini coefficient still remains a popular inequality measure of total inequality and as a decomposable measure.Using the CV approach, we decomposed the total household incomes into three major categories of income namely; income from crops, income from timber products , and income from off-farm activities . This is useful because conventionally, most studies have often attempted to evaluate the distributional impact of certain types of income by merely comparing the size of distribution of that particular income with that of the total rural income as a whole. Because it neglects the twin issues of income weights and covariance between income sources, any approach, which solely compares the size distribution of one particular income with that of total income, is likely to arrive at erroneous conclusions regarding the distributional impact of that particular income .

Corresponding to the CV, we applied the decomposition formula presented in Equation . 90% of the households had incomes of less than TZS 3,342,022 and only 10% had income higher than this. These results suggest existence of income inequality in the study area. At the 50 percentile, the mean incomes for disaggregated analysis were the highest for farmers with farmland located far from homestead , followed by those of farmers who accessed extension services during the past two years  and farmers who were members of community-based financial institutions . The mean incomes were the lowest for female-headed households , ebb and flow trays followed by farmers who did not access extension services , and farmers with farmland located close to homestead .Farmlands located far from homestead were mostly found along the footsteps of the mountains or lowland areas where landholdings were relatively larger allowing for more intensification and crop revenues than the farmlands located in the upper gradients. This relationship is common in mountain areas.

Mountain areas are considered as less favoured due to difficulties caused by short growing seasons, steep slopes at lower altitudes, or by a combination of the two . Land holdings in high altitudes of mountain areas are limiting the scale of economic activities performed by farmers to increase farm income. Doucha et al. , for example showed that, farmers in in Czech less favoured areas could rarely grow permanent pasture along with extensive cattle breeding or undertake any additional non-agricultural activities on farm . In fact, Kata  confirmed decreasing value of income from operational farm activity toward higher altitude. In this circumstance, farm incomes may remain insufficient for smallholder farmers to undertake a profitable agricultural production. The influence of altitudinal variation on crop production and animal husbandry is also reported by Zhang etal. who investigated the response of altitudinal vegetation belts of the Tianshan Mountains of north-western China.

They expressed the meaning that spatial heterogeneity of agricultural productivity was predominantly controlled by the topographic conditions at a decadal scale. At the same time it also confirms the fact that karst ecosystems have low biological productivity. That means for producing the same quality and quantity of agricultural products farmers in the karst region have to pay more both in terms of labour and time. The extremely fragile karst ecosystem is damaged by this in appropriate land use and the result is serious soil erosion on the sloping fields, water pollution in groundwater and down stream,and finally, irreversible ecological degradation. Therefore, could we say that the karst mountain regions are not a place to provide food for people? In fact we know that karst mountain regions are not grain-producing areas in China, stackable planter but the Chinese people traditionally want to grow their own crop and rarely consider any other trade, thus they become farmers also in less suitable areas.

Therefore we need to find another way to make sustainable development for both nature and society in the karst region. This means that the alternatives to the present land-use must be attractive to the farmers, not least in terms of money. We believe our EC model fulfil that requirement.According to our study, if all sloping land is changed to forest, the economic value of the ecosystem services would increase 2.57 times. These ecosystem services would not only benefit the local people but also those living downstream along the Pearl and Yangtze rivers. The services of ecological systems and the natural capital stocks that produce them are critical to the functioning of the earth’s life support system .Costanza et al. also stressed that it is not particularly meaningful to ask how large the total value of the natural capital is to human welfare. The question is instead how changes in the quantity or quality of various types of natural capital and ecosystem services may impact human welfare.

The Chinese Central Government has been trying to compensate the loss of income to farmers for conservation of the environment through the implementation of projects such as NFPP and SLCP . According to SLCP’s compensation standard, if one farmer gives up all his fields  then he would get 189 yuan∙a−1. At the same time there are some local government’s grants for them. Everyone in the karst mountain regions of Guizhou would get1000 yuan∙a−1 for developing planting or breeding from 2014 to 2016. And at the end of 2016, 6 million of the poorest people in Guizhou will each get the compensation of 1000 yuan from the local government. Nevertheless,vertical grow rack it is difficult for them to get enough food and clothing. Obviously farmers need additional compensation to escape poverty, and only then could they gain the possibility to achieve sustainable development. In fact some countries have been focusing on ecological compensation as a method to solve the environmental problem or to preserve the ecosystems that provide the services .Zheng and Kou  stressed that EC in River Basin is one of the important means to settle water resource conflicts between upstream and downstream villages, and they established an EC mode scheme in the Beijing water source areas.

Li and Sun  put forward that EC has an important function in coordinating trans-regional resources and reallocating benefits. We believe that EC in the karst region could also achieve this function.That means EC not only provides money for improving the present living standard, but also a changed lifestyle and a build-up of sustainable industries, so we build a EC mechanism for 20 years to achieve sustainable development during which the proportion of EC will change . During these 20 years we assume that the new industry will have developed. Thus, after20 years the villagers will no longer be dependent on EC.During the 20 years, funding of EC would come from financial institutions at all levels of government, downstream enterprises of Pearl River, and eco-tax . However, all the funding should be collected by the government and supervised by the third part. The main obligations of the third part are to monitor the changes of environment, economy and society, track the process of the EC program, evaluate the execution of the contract between part A and part B  and to provide suggestions at any time.

Community-based, low-tech coral aquaculture approaches used in this study proved to be successful, reliable and highly cost-effective tools to conserve and restore threatened Staghorn coral populations with minimum intervention and maintenance, and generated multiple management-oriented lessons learned. The Community-Based Coral Aquaculture and Reef Rehabilitation Program has continued to be a successful model to empower wider Caribbean community stakeholders to implement basic coral reef conservation and coral transplanting methods. This could have major implications in helping base communities engage into conservation-oriented coral reef management activities, and to help communities adapt and manage climate change impacts on their “backyard” coral reef ecosystems. Hands-on, behavior-modifying, transformative education continued to be a crucial product of community integration and active participation, improving local stewardship, and fostering their successful integration into planning, decision-making processes, and in the implementation of local-based coral reef and fisheries conservation-oriented and restoration-oriented management. However,hydroponic dutch buckets rapid adaptive responses in low-tech coral farming and reef rehabilitation will become critical to keep up with climate change impacts in the near future.

Community-based efforts will continue to be fundamental to successfully foster there habilitation of reef ecosystem’s resilience, biodiversity, ecological functions, and its socio-economic,ecological and environmental benefits and services. Further, the integration of the academia, NGOs, fisher communities, base communities, private stakeholders and government institutions has become a successful collaborative model that can be applied through the wider Caribbean Region and will be important in a time of economic constraints across developing island nations.Nonetheless, there is a particular concern with the still prevailing lack of adaptation capacity of multiple coastal base communities to climate change impacts, including sea level rise and loss of coral reefs, across many small island nations through the wider Caribbean, which could affect the sustainability of coastal community livelihoods . Further, weak governance and lack of political will to enforce existing regulations can be a major deter rant of community compliance and a roadblock to project success. This points out at the importance of coral reef rehabilitation to foster increased coral reef ecosystem resilience, bato buckets functions, and services, further improving the adaptability of coastal communities and coral reef ecosystems to climate change.

A concerning call for precaution is also brought up by documented coral skeletal extension rates in this study, as well as in some recent studies of A. cervicornis farming , as it could be the result of successful methodologies being used, but may also imply significant combined impacts from increased LBSP and climate change which may significantly compromise coral colonies ability to withstand disturbance and may explain significant recurrent mortality episodes from multiple disturbance events.It is not clear whether we can foster acclimatization responses in coral reefs to futures characterized by recurrent ecological surprises, non-linear change and unexpected long-term consequences of climate change and ocean acidification. The speed at which climate change is impacting reef ecosystems leaves little opportunity for evolutionary processes to come to the aid of corals and other reef inhabitants, thus survival will be highly dependent upon any natural resistance already existing in the gene pools today . It will also rely upon successful governance, management of reef resources and land use patterns, and upon consistent enforcement of existing environmental regulations. Therefore, the identification of high-temperature resistant genetic clones has become a critical tool for successful coral propagation and reef restoration . On that line, we were successfully able to identify, propagate and restock local depleted populations using six different shallow-water genetic clones of A. cervicornis highly resistant to existing warm surface water conditions. But efforts should also be implemented to propagate deep water genetic clones across deep water habitats to improve ecological scales of connectivity across multiple spatial scales.

This effort has resulted in the successful implementation since 2003 of the Community-Based Coral Aquaculture and Reef Rehabilitation Program led by Sociedad Ambiente Marino  and the Coral Reef Research Group of the University of Puerto Rico’s Center for Applied Tropical Ecology and Conservation ,with the direct collaboration of NGO Coralations and the Culebra Island Fishers Association. The program has successfully propagated and reintroduced over 15,000 A. cervicornis colonies around Culebra since 2003. The general goals of the program include the aim to restore A. cervicornis depleted populations and to rehabilitate coral reef ecosystem functions by fostering increased fish and coral recruitment, and increased herb ivory levels.These processes are critical for the sustainability of coral reef ecosystem functions and resilience under forecasted climate change scenarios . Forecasted trends of change based on climate modeling suggest major threats due to increasing SST and increased risk of massive coral bleaching events . These could have potentially devastating consequences for selected reef-building species   and for marine ecosystems.

Global-scale climate change impacts may also threaten the success of coral aquaculture and coral reef rehabilitation activities due to extreme weather events leaving base-communities nearly defenseless against factors such as declining reef accretion in face of increasing sea level rise , ocean acidification, grow table net loss of ecosystem resilience and productivity, and declining socioeconomic value, services and benefits . Such impacts can be more critical for small island-nations with limited geographic, socio-economic, and human resources,particularly under non-sustainable economic models . Nonetheless, studies addressing the impacts of climate-related factors such as increasing SST, increased tropical storm or hurricane frequency, or extreme rainfall events are missing. We postulate that a chronic increase in SST may increase the frequency and/or severity of extreme rainfall events and hurricanes. In turn, this should result in an increased frequency and/or severity of impacts from sediment-laden runoff pulses and LBSP to coral reefs and to community-based coral farming efforts. This suggests the need to test low-tech adaptive strategies to minimize such impacts and maximize coral growth and survival. Further, the role of no-take marine protected areas  as potential buffers of multiple anthropogenic disturbance impacts to coral reefs, including climate change, still remains controversial  .We suggest that even a no-take MPA designation is not enough to ameliorate impacts from climate change and extreme weather events.

Their potential benefit could be further diminished by LBSP. There are still no published accounts comparing outputs of coral farming within and outside no-take MPAs.This study was aimed at addressing the impacts of high SST, hurricanes, and extreme rainfall events on community-based low-tech A. cervicornis farming in Culebra Island, Puerto Rico. We tested two different methods to propagate corals as an adaptive strategy to mitigate impacts by hurricanes, extreme rainfall and sediment-laden runoff pulses . Finally, results were compared between coral farming sites located within a notake MPA and control sites outside open to fishing. For our purpose, ebb flow table extreme rainfall was defined as heavy rainfall in a short period of time . There were six events recorded in a local rain gauge during May 2011 , five during June ,four during July , and two during August  associated to tropical storm Emily and Hurricane Irene . These also produced 2 m, and 4 – 5 m swells, respectively.Based on rain gauge data, summer extreme events in 2011 represented rainfall anomalies of 127%, 140%, and 152% in relation to mean monthly values in May, June, and August, respectively . However, Doppler data suggested extreme rainfall events that resulted in rainfall records 319% above mean May value, 521% in June, 246% in July, 168% in August, and 165% in September. All of these events resulted in coral mortality episode sin both wild and cultured A. cervicornis populations as a result of rapid shut-down reaction  and tissue loss following heavy rainfall and sediment-laden run off.The northeastern Caribbean Region was also impacted during 2012 and 2013 by several significant rainfall events, as well as by recurrent long-period bottom swells.

GAP and GHP are the better tools for competing to the international market and for fulfilling the production standard’s requirement .Rwanda Government has identified Tourism Sector as a priority sector to facilitate the achievement of the country’s development goals. Rwanda’s current Sustainable Tourism Master Plan recommends the formation of business linkages across the supply chains, especially for agricultural produce and handicrafts from the rural sector, in order to spread the benefits of tourism more widely. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy particularly in the rural areas where incomes and employment are mainly dependent on the sector . The aim of this study was to assess the potential contribution of the Coffee Based Tourism on the Rwandan coffee sector. The second part shat the possible contribution of coffee based tourism on the coffee sector,the last section discusses different factors that may affect the success of this new tourism product. Coffee plays a major role in the Rwandan economy. It contributes significantly to foreign exchange earnings and to the monetization of the rural economy.However, mobile vertical rack the Rwandan coffee is less than 1% of the world market and it has no influence on futures prices.

Rwanda coffee price is depending on New York coffee market, and the increase or decrease of the New York coffee market directly affect to the Rwanda coffee price . Taking only into account quality and volume, Rwanda has little competitive advantage compared to the other specialty coffee producing countries in East Arica, where its competitive advantage is very much related to its “storytelling” capacity, its pricing, its Coffee Washing Station infrastructure, and the ease of traveling and doing business.Many researchers have demonstrated how the Rwandan tourism products should be diversified  and recommended that coffee should be regarded as tourism product add-on. However,only one research on coffee based tourism was conducted by Anbalagan & Lovelock.This study identified the possible contribution of coffee based tourism to the Rwanda Development. The study was published in 2014, eight years ago, yet the recommended coffee based tourism is not yet developed and marketed along other new tourism products the Rwandan government is selling. The aim of this study is to extend the study of Anbalagan & Lovelock  by analyzing the potential contributions of coffee based tourism to the coffee sector in Rwanda,focusing on Nyamasheke district. This district is number one in producing more coffee in Rwanda according to .

This study was guided by the following objectives; to assess the potential contribution of Coffee based tourism to the coffee sector in Nyamasheke district; and to identify factors that may promote or hinder the coffee based tourism development in the case studied. According to the last coffee census of 2015, in Rwanda there are 355,771 coffee growers, with 89,726,809 of total coffee trees vertical grow rack that covered the area of 35,891 ha.In Rwanda also, there are 245 coffee washing station with the processing capacity of 104,600 tons of coffee cherries per season . The National Strategic for Transformation  has shown that the percentage of fully washed coffee is targeted at 80% of total production by 2024, while the productivity per tree should by that time have increased to 4 kg .Coffee production in Rwanda was introduced in 1904 by German missionaries.

Since the early 1950s, it has gradually undergone substantial development resulting from proper farm management. Owing to Rwandan soil characteristics,which are suitable for coffee production, coffee plantations are found in all four provinces of the country. Arabica coffee occupies approximately 95% of the country’s total coffee plantations and is mostly planted at higher altitudes in the Southern,Northern, and Western Provinces of Rwanda. Robusta coffee comprises the remaining 5% and is planted at lower altitudes below 1400 m in the Eastern Province. Despite its significant contribution in the Rwandan economy, the coffee production sector is facing a number of challenges, mainly low productivity. Coffee yields in most of the East African counties lag behind Latin-America and Asia.In Rwanda, the average annual coffee yields varied between 1.5 and 2 tons per ha from 2012 to 2016. In contrast, in the same period, the average annual coffee yields were around 8 tons per ha in Colombia, Venezuela, and Indonesia.

Knowledge of reasons for keeping animals is a prerequisite for deriving operational breeding goals. Table 4 summarizes reasons of keeping goats and the ranking of these purposes by owners. The most frequently reported reason for keeping goat was cash income generation followed by milk and meat production for home use. This implies that sale of goats to generate cash constitute the primary purpose among the other benefits of keeping goats in the area. This was also observed in similar studies, who reported that cash income as the most important reason in goat farming. However, the purpose of keeping goats in rural areas of South Africa is mainly for traditional purposes and meat consumption .Huge ruminant animals such as goats are kept and a vast area of land is cultivated. Overall cropland holding of small-scale and large-scale farmers was observed to be 4.10 and 86.90 hectares, respectively. This indicates that there is huge crop residue production in the area, a considerable source of goat feed. Normally, crop residues are grazed or stockpiled for animal feeding.In some cases,bato buckets the stored residues are sold during the critical period of feed scarcity.

Sorghum crop residues are by far the most abundant feed resource in the area. The different feed resources reported in the area were natural pasture, browse species, crop residue and crop aftermath. Private grazing land was not common in the area. It was reported that communal grazing was the most abundant feed source for goat in the area though grazing drastically reduces in the dry season.Indigenous browse species are available feed resources for goats mainly in the dry season and the drought periods . Crop residue and crop aftermath grazing were the other vital feed resources of goat during crop harvesting and after harvesting has occurred. Animals feed on the residue in two ways. The harvested crop residue is stacked near to homestead and fed to selected group of animals in the dry season. Otherwise, standing residue is left for grazing. However, the expansion of cropland, increase in livestock population and area enclosure are negatively affecting feed resource in the area. Water resource is pertinent and vital for the subsistent life of livestock and livestock owners. In the study area, river, pond and borehole form the major source of water for domestic use and livestock watering. Indeed, water points are limited and large number of animals watered at the same water points leading to high chances of spreading diseases and land degradation.

There were only two government constructed water points. Besides, private water points were very few.Distance to water points varied with season and was invariably longer during the dry season. This posed challenges to breeders and sometimes limited access to water. A large proportion of the respondents travel 6 – 10 km to water their animals in the dry season. While in the wet season 67.33% of the total respondents watered their animals at a distance of less than 1 km. Shorter watering frequencies were used to water animals in the area. The proportions of the respondents that watered their goats once a day and twice in a day were 82% and18%,dutch bucket hydroponic respectively. Watering with more than a day frequency is not reported. Based on personal observations and interviewed households’ information, goats were housed with sheep in nights. None of the respondents had provision for accommodating different age groups. Only sick ones and newly born kids/lambs were retained alone in sheds. Sheds were constructed of locally available materials.Sheds were not permanent as animals migrate from place to place in search of feed and water. However, farmers in urban areas used permanent houses separated from or attached to their homesteads. Diseases are a major constraint to the improvement of livestock industry in the tropics as they decrease production and increase the morbidity and mortality. The most commonly prevailing diseases which hamper goat production in the study area are presented in Table 5. Respondents indicated that diseases affect all age groups of goats and mortalities from disease are high. More than half of the sampled respondents were able to separate between the different diseases.

Farmers can also walk in the farm areas while tracking the farmland with Global Positioning System  device to capture the total area .In 2005, the World Economic Forum announced 500 million peripheral devices are linked to the Internet, 8 billion are connected presently, and it is predicted to be 1 trillion in 2030 . These technological devices have facilitated agriculture and the art of agriculture with a prediction of yield, enabling farmers to take appropriate storage measures . Furthermore, agriculture technology is on its way to revolutionize  the farming industry, and farmers must prepare themselves to embrace the new future .According to Verspagen , technology is of no use to agriculture economic development if it is unknown to the people.Channels such as the extension officers , Community farm associations,Farmer-to-Farmer interactions , agriculture institutions in the country, etc.,must be operational in the dissemination of technical information.Conley et al.  stated new users might also learn the technological features from others while other factors such as education, ebb and flow tray farm size, etc. also play an essential role in technology enactment .

Also, the outline of agricultural policies and provisions made for a particular technology defines its acceptance .Moreover, many perceive technology usage as a decree to their freedom,while others refrain from it due to cultural or religious beliefs. Yet, the millennial farmers feel easy in this virtual agricultural environment , while long-standing farmers can accept technological innovations if productivity increases whereas labor reduce .Technology inclusion in the agriculture industry is a milestone in affirming food security, . In the research conducted by Kansanga et al.  on “Traditional agriculture in transition: examining the impacts of agricultural modernization on smallholder farming in Ghana under the new Green Revolution,” the study confirmed the significance of using technology to enhance modern-day agriculture productivities. The pre-data-preparation showed that the participants in this study were youth between age 17 and 35 years and are fairly educated, of which males are the majority.The adequacy of each variable to be included was assessed for its appropriateness in factor analysis using the Keiser-Meyer-Olkin test . The observed value was 0.768, statistically significant, ebb and flow trays considering a threshold of 0.60stated by . To successfully classify the variables into five constructs, the researchers used Cattel’s scree plot and the percentage of variation criterion described by . Figure 1 below shows the scree plot having eigenvalues on the vertical  and the number of constructs extracted on the horizontal .The number of components with eigenvalues greater than 1 is selected .

The 5 constructs extracted can explain 66.88% of the variance.The measure internal consistency of the items was assessed Cronbach’s alpha,CR, and AVE and the outcome displayed in Table 1 above. All values reported are above the threshold, which established that the content validity and reliability of the items are satisfactory.The factor loadings for the constructs give a statistically significant percentage of variation explained and describe that technology implementation has the greatest of variance explained, 18.37%, followed by the economic development with 16.85%; participants motivation accounted for 12.69% and government policy  having 10.56. Except for H2 and H3, all other hypotheses were significant at a 95% confidence level, as shown in Table 4. The inferential relationship between technology implementation and youth farming was positive, meaning that the ease of applying technology in agriculture tends to boost the youth to go into farming. Again, the positive relationships indicate that if appropriate governmental policies with incentives are laid down for farmers,young educated people will move into agricultural farming. Also, the negative the moderating effect of knowledge on technology implementation in farming implies that when the youth have enough knowledge on the application and performance of the technology in farming, their attitude of risk perception on farming decreases.In Figure 2, the latent variables are marked with oval shapes, whereas the rectangles are the measurement items, and the circles labeled e1 to e23 are the unobserved variations in the model.

This was a higher score than that of sensitivity but lower than that of adaptive capacity. This can be associated with results of the contributing sub-components of adaptive capacity status used to compute index of this component.Most of the households in the study area did not have access to relief food. Sources of income for most of the households were agricultural related activities which are affected by rainfall variability contributing to their low income.Although majority of the households accessed seasonal climate information prior planting seasons, this did not contributed significantly to adaptation to rainfall variability due to their low income which may have hindered acquisition of the required farming inputs. Majority (97.4%) of the households lied in the level of “vulnerable”. There were no households in the two categories of “not vulnerable” and “extremely vulnerable”. Lack of extremely vulnerable households to rainfall variability maybe due to the fact that all households reported to have been having some adaptive capacity despite the high rate of exposure. However,vertical grow table households found even in the same agro-ecological zone can have different vulnerability levels largely due to variations in socio-economic characteristics such as gender and income levels .

A cross-tabulation between categorized levels of vulnerability and major socio-economic characteristics of households was done (Table 5). Despite most of the households being in vulnerability category (Table 4), this varied among various contributing factors to LVI. Female headed households had higher percentage (98.15%) of households in vulnerability than the male headed households (97.04%). No female headed household was less vulnerable as it was with male headed households. This shows that female headed households are generally more vulnerable compared to their male counterpart. This may be attributed to factors such as low size of cultivated land, low access to three meals in a day, shortages of seed for planting and lack of stock of crop to last households up to the next harvest.All household headed by people with primary and secondary level of education were found to be vulnerable with those with primary level taking lead. Surprisingly,despite vulnerability generally reducing with education level of the household head, 1.49% of those with non-formal education were less vulnerable and 29.41% of those with tertiary education being highly vulnerable. The occurrence of less vulnerable households among household heads with non-formal education may be due to the fact that this is the category which was leading in having stock of planting seeds and stock of food to last up to the next harvest.A comparison of vulnerability levels among different age groups revealed that 96.06% of households headed by people aged between 36 and 50 years were vulnerable.

Although this formed the majority of households,mobile vertical grow tables this result can be attributed to fewer years of experience in farming under variable rainfall conditions.Households headed by the aged (over 65 years) spread across the three levels of vulnerability. In this category, households who were less vulnerable could be attributed to many years of experience while those who were highly vulnerable may be due the fact majority lacked stock of crop to last them up to the next harvesting season and therefore majority lacking three meals in a day for most part the year.The level of vulnerability increased with number of members in households.For instance all households with members exceeding 15 were found to be vulnerable to rainfall variability. This may be associated with difficulties that such households have in getting sufficient provision for these large household members.However, less vulnerable households were found among those with between 11 and 15 members. This could be associated with adequate labour provided by such members in farmland and income from off-farm sources.Vulnerability generally decreased with increase in level of income of the households as the highly vulnerable were those whose income level was below 50,000 Kenya shillings. This may be attributed to availability of income sufficient to cushion such households against effects of rainfall variability. Surprisingly some households (2.97%) with high farming experience (over 20 years) were highly vulnerable.

These methods are sustainable cropping technologies while weeding, crop replanting and suckling removal, manual irrigation system and replanting are not sustainable cropping technologies because they are adversely affecting the farmers due to higher labor cost demand.Farmers can evade the disastrous effect of climate change when they are aware of the impacts of extreme weather conditions. Farmers should have wide understanding of the nature of every climate variability particularly its impact, its nature and frequency of occurrence and how farmers should learn how to deal with them. Farmer’s education and training on climate change can be of great help to farmers vulnerable to all kinds of extreme weather. Many of the farmers’ adaptation strategies are technologically advanced but some are still traditional.Traditional methods may not be favorable among farmers but the lack of technological knowledge and financial support makes them vulnerable to climate variability. The need to train farmers to a more advanced farming technology is relevant to help farmers cope with the adverse effect of extreme weather conditions. The adaptation strategies of farmers during extreme heat to income includetaking loans and credits to compradors or the middle men who buy and sell agricultural products.

Usually, farmers go to comprador for credits in exchange for the crops they harvest. The crops that farmers grow served as the collateral of the loans they availed from the comprador . This practice is disadvantageous on the part of the farmers because during the harvest time, grow lights the farmer would bring their products to the comprador, keep value of cost of the product and deduct from the cost the amount of the loans accorded to them with interest and at lower cost. Farmers are not protected in this case and they are helpless when they are affected by the extreme weather conditions. Abaca farmers wait for the replaced crops to grow and the waiting would last for 6months to one year depending on the crops grown. During the waiting time,farmers engage in buy and sell and others migrate to other places in search for alternative jobs. Some farmers would send their children in the cities to work as household helpers and the salary is the one that sustains their daily needs.Schooling children are made to quit affecting the children’s education.The experience of farmers during extreme rainfall is far better than during extreme heat because the presence of more rain in the field means good or better growth for all kinds of crops. Thus, the production of their crops is better and their income is better. Although, in some cases, some farmers still experience losses but they manage to engage in buy and sell as alternative source of income.The income of coconut farmers are not much affected by the extreme rainfall because these crops can grow robustly.

During typhoon, farmers can still find some ways to recover their income by converting damaged crops to cash such as the fallen coconuts into copra and the fallen abaca to fibers. The root crops are not affected so the root crop farmers can still find a steady income after the typhoon but the rice and vegetables when totally damaged by the typhoon means a total loss of income and need for new capital or investments. Farmers in this case go again to compradors, led grow lights loan sharks or lease up their property.The early onset of the rainfall is promising to the income of farmers. According to the farmers, the harvest of all crops in this climatic condition is good and this means a good income to all farmers. Farmers do take the opportunity of farming early as soon as the rain started pouring so they can harvest early and the return of the investment is also earlier. But what they plant are alternative or seasonal crops that are resilient to this kind of weather. It means that the farmers were not affected by the delay onset of rainfall particularly the root crops, abaca, and the coconut farmers. Vegetable farmers resort to finding other means of livelihood while they waited for the advent of the rain. LaNina also have no significant impact on the income of the farmers in all sectors so they have no adaptation strategies During la Nina, crops grow favorably and has also no adaptation strategy. Likewise, El Nino does not affect the income of farmers so they also have no adaptation strategy to augment their income.

Recently, the fallow periods have been decreasing,which indicates higher pressure on the soil as long as no fertilizers are applied to compensate for the loss of soil fertility in this region. This has generated two serious problems. First it is reduced the quality and quantity of crop output. Second it is produced fragmented and poor soil as a result of the misuse of land. Moreover,the soil in western Sudan had deteriorated and lost most of its potential with almost no recovery .The reduction in food and cash crop productivity has perceptibly emerged from a general comparison of the average weighted yields for the major field crops over five ten-years periods as shown in Table 1. It appears from the table that the yield of sorghum was higher in compared to the yield of millet from period (1970/71-1979/80) to (2010/11-2012/13). Additionally, the yield of groundnut was higher from period (1970/71-1979/80)up to (2010/11-2012/13) in compared to the yield of sesame. The table shows the higher fluctuation of all crops productivity over the five ten year’s periods. Therefore, moving from high yield to low yield would reflect the low crop production in the traditional farming of western Sudan as a consequence of poor farm management and inappropriate policy strategies.

The low productivity of crops is caused by a number of factors, among them low soil fertility, low and erratic rainfall, eruption of pests and diseases, and poor adoption of improved seed varieties.Millet and sorghum (as subsistence food crops) are produced extensively by the farm households in the study area to cover their food subsistence needs. On the other hand, groundnut crop is grown in the western part of North Kordofan State, while sesame crop is cultivated in the Northern part. However,hydroponic gutter both crops are cultivated to provide cash income in order to satisfy other food and basic needs for the farmers. The analysis of the cultivated areas and production of both food and cash crops was revealed the vital role for these crops in food security.The time series data exposed the current trends of the average cultivated area by sorghum and millet crops in North Kordofan State from period 1970/71 to 2012/13 as illustrated in Figure 3.The fluctuation in the cultivated area of sorghum and millet crops is explained by inadequate management of field crop practices and lack of technology adoption. The serious impact of environmental conditions such as desertification and drought contribute negatively to the cultivated area. In view of the fact that millet is a stable food for consumption, its production is characterized by large cultivated areas during the last 43 years relative to sorghum crops. Nevertheless, an analysis of the cultivated area would not reveal the complete picture on the performance of crops unless the production of these crops can be analyzed.

The analysis of production for both food crops (sorghum and millet) in North Kordofan State from season1970/71 to 2012/13 as shown in Figure 4. The production of millet and sorghum crops recorded continuous declining and fluctuating during the period 1970/71-2012/13. Despite of an increase in the cultivated area of millet crops its production exhibited an acute decline. Millet is very sensitive to the instability of rainfall and drought.Thus, the fluctuation in the total production of both millet and sorghum often result in food insecurity, hydroponic nft channel most of the time manifested in the form of localized or pockets of food in security.An analysis of the cultivated areas by groundnut and sesame crops is exposed in Figure 5. This outcome coincides with the objectives of the government policies that seek to expand the cultivated area under cash crop production for the purpose of market orientation and export. Thus, the trends of the cultivated area by cash crops increased from 1970/71 to2012/13. This is described by upward trends in the cultivated areas for both groundnut and sesame. Furthermore, the time series data for analyzing the output of cash crops during the period 1970/71-2012/13 is clearly demonstrated in Figure 6. The figure shows the forward trend of groundnut production in compared to sesame production. Consequently, the output trends for both food and cash crops reflect the inadequate situation of food security in North Kordofan State, since cash crops are the most important farm income sources.