Perceptions, Impacts of Climate Change and Adaptation Practices Among Four Socio-professional Groups in Western Burkina Faso

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to identify the perceptions, impacts and practices of four socio professional groups at the western part of Burkina Faso. Specifically, it aims to list the key events of the last thirty years ; to characterize the perceptions of producers ; to identify the main adaptation practices. For this purpose, interviews were conducted in ten villages.  The interview investigation focused on the objectives of the study.  The interviews involved 180 producers, including 82 farmers, 37 livestock breeders, 31 market gardeners, 30 agricultural therapists and 64 sellers of agroforestry products. The data collected on significant events were processed with ArcGIS 10.3. The statistical processing of the data was done with R software version 4.1.3 (2022-03-10) ; perceptions were subjected to the Chi-square test of homogeneity to assess the variations in of responses using the chisq test function. The severity indices of Smith et al. (2001) were calculated for each shock perceived by the producers. The results indicate five main events : the disruption of precipitation over 36.7% of the study period ; temperature (23.33%) ; biodiversity decline (20%) ; upsurges of violent winds (16.67%) and parasitic invasions (13.33%).

For the perceptions, seven main ones were identified, the most severe characterized by low severity indices are rainfall disturbances (1.00) ; Seasonal disturbances (1.23) ; Parasitic attacks (1.47). A inventory of 31 adaptation practices corresponding to 35 impacts in the five socio-professional groups was established.  These endogenous and modern practices require technical support for producers.