Climate Variability And Its Effects On Small-Scale Tea Production In Kisii County, Kenya

Abstract

Climate variability has affected the economies and agricultural sectors of the world in the 21st century negatively. This is because crop growth, development and subsequent yields depend on climatic conditions such as seasonal temperature, rainfall amounts, distribution and reliability. Currently, climate variation and change have become a global challenge and have no spatial boundary. These have had profound negative effects on the economies of the world and in particular tea production. Severe weather such as torrential rains, dry spells and hailstones have become frequent and these have affected tea production. Kisii County’s tea farming largely depend on rain-fed conditions which are affected by the weather instabilities that cause climate variability, leading to fluctuations of diverse crop production and particularly tea yields. This study examined the effects of climate variability on small-scale tea production in Kisii County. The objectives of the study were: to examine the trends of temperature, precipitation and tea yields from 1995 to 2019 in Kisii County; to evaluate the effects of rainfall and temperature variations on tea yields in Kisii County; to assess the perception of tea farmers on the effect of temperature and rainfall variations on tea production and; to evaluate mitigative measures put in place by tea farmers to curb the effects of climate variability in Kisii County. The study adopted a correlational research design to examine the relationship between rainfall and temperature variations and tea yields. The study targeted 120,000 small-scale tea farmers, Kisii Meteorological Department and six Kenya Tea Development Agency factories in Kisii County. The sample size was 400 small scale tea farmers and three KTDA factories. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were used to choose three factories, while random sampling was used to select 400 small scale tea farmers. The study used questionnaires to collect primary data from small-scale tea farmers and document analysis was used to collect secondary data. Interview schedules were used to collect data from the field service coordinators. Data collected from questionnaires was analyzed using measures of central tendency and presented in line and bar graphs, tables and pie charts. Mann-Kendall (MK) test and Sen’s slope was used to detect trends of meteorological variables while Karl Pearson Coefficient of Correlation was used to analyze the effect of rainfall and temperature variation on tea production. The results indicated that there was a significant negative rainfall trend for January where rainfall had been decreasing at an average of 3.415 mm during the study period. Temperatures also depicted a positive trend though only trends for January and July were statistically significant (p<0.05). Concerning tea yields, there were negative significant trends in February, March, June, July and December. The study will be significant to tea farmers and will contribute to existing literature. The study recommends that farmers should keep records of monthly tea production, harvest water during the rainy season, and use protective clothing, cloves, overalls and caps to keep warm during the cold season and conserve soil moisture through mulching. The study suggests that a comparative study be done in other counties in Kenya