Factors affecting the adoption of climate risks adaptation strategies within maize farming systems in Malawi: Do farmers risk attitude matter?

This study examined the risk attitude of farmers on climatic change and how this influences the choice of climate variability adaptation strategies to mitigate the effects of climatic risks. Using 2012 and 2015 household panel data of 346 households from six districts of Malawi, the pooled multinomial logit model was used to identify the factors that influence the choice of climate variability adaptation strategies by smallholder farmers in Malawi. We aimed to identify the factors that influence the choice of climate variability adaptation strategies from a pool of factors that were tested such as reduced food consumption, selling of labour, savings and use of technologies by smallholder farmers. The results show that the choices of adaptation strategies to climatic shocks are similar across the study regions. However, significant factors influencing the responses are not the same. Despite the differences in the choice of adaptation strategies between floods and droughts victims, the results pointed out the importance of frequency and duration of shocks, agro-ecological zone, and risk attitude of the household decision maker. The paper argues that risk attitude along with some socio-economic characteristics of smallholder farmers influence the choice of climate variability adaptation strategies under climate risk. The study recommends the incorporation of risk attitude variable when evaluating farmer’s decision making amidst climate change. Key words: Climate risks, decision making, Malawi, pooled Multinomial logit, risk attitude, smallholder farmers