Unravelling strategic choices towards droughts and floods' adaptation in Southern Malawi

This paper examined factors that influence households' choice over climatic change (droughts and floods) adaptation strategies. The paper employs a multivariate probit analysis on 500 household survey data from low and highland of southern Malawi. Data reveals that households have adopted strategies such as irrigation farming, crop diversification, shifting planting dates, growing of improved varieties and income generating activities. Empirically, it is depicted that household characteristics such as education, land, income, labour and gender have significant influence on households' choice over droughts and floods related adaptation. Furthermore, climatic variables such as temperature and rainfall significantly affect households' choices over various adaptation strategies. The study advocates that climatic and weather related projects should mainstream factors that influence farmers' behaviours for successful adaptation. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.