Peasant perception and adaptation to climate change in the sudano-sahelien zone of Cameroon

Marcel Nkoma, Ministère de l'Economie, de la Planification et de l'Aménagement du Territoire (MINEPAT)

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the strategies of population responses in the field of agriculture and livestock to climate change in the Sudano-Sahelian region of Cameroon. To limit the damage caused by weather, people adopt different attitudes in their agricultural behavior and manage somehow to keep going from one season to another. In this study, we selected seven major response strategies: (i) the predisposition to suffer losses (ii) the constitution of security stocks, (iii) cropping practices, (iv) changing cropping patterns, (v) the use of new plots, (vi) the change of date for some transactions and (vii) culturing after a proper season, lowland and irrigated crops. Unable to gather accurate statistical data for the study, we have resorted at times to extrapolation techniques. After an analysis of various response strategies by people linked to climate change, we respond to certain constraints on the responsiveness of these populations