Determinants of livestock farmers’ perception of future droughts and adoption of mitigating plans

Purpose–The purpose of this paper was to determine if there is an association between farmers’ socio-economic profile and their perception of climate change and related events (drought). Understanding of farmers’ perceptions of drought and climate change may assist in informing policy decisions and development of appropriate intervention strategies. Design/methodology/approach–Discriminant analysis was used to assess the relative importance of the discriminating characteristics (socio-economic characteristics) through the utilization of the weights of the discriminant function. Findings–Age, education, literacy level, farm type, location and gender were important predictors of how farmers perceive climate change and drought phenomena. Originality/value–Most of the studies carried out in the study area were largely descriptive and did not find the association between farmer socio-economic profiles and how they perceive climate change and drought events. This paper also uses discriminant analysis which has been rarely used in this type of study.