Retracing Economic Impact of Climate Change Disasters in Africa: Case Study of Drought Episodes and Adaptation in Kenya

Valuation studies have shown that drought occurrences have more severe economic impact compared to other natural disasters such as floods. In Kenya, drought has presented complex negative effects on farming communities. The main objective of this chapter is to analyze the economic impacts of drought and identify appropriate climate change adaptation measures in Kenya. To achieve this objective, an empirical approach, combined with secondary data mined from World Bank Climate Knowledge Portal and FAOSTAT databases, has been used in three main steps. First, historical links between population size and land degradation, temperature and rainfall changes with drought events were established. Second, economic impacts of drought on selected economic indicators such as quantities of staple food crop, average food value production, number of undernourished people, gross domestic product, agriculture value added growth, and renewable water resources per annum in Kenya were evaluated. Third, different climate change adaptation measures among farmers in Makueni county were identified using focused group discussions and in-depth interviews, for which the use of bottom-up approach was used to elicit responses. Findings from the binary logistic regression model show a statistical relationship between drought events and a selected set of economic indicators. More specifically, drought events have led to increased use of pesticides, reduced access to credit for agriculture and the annual growth of gross domestic product. One of the main recommendations of this chapter is to involve farmers in designing and implementing community-based climate change adaptation measures, with support from other relevant stakeholders