ICTs and diffusion of water constraints’ adaptation strategies towards sorghum farmers in the context of Climate Change (Far-north Cameroon) Salé ABOU, Researcher/Lecturer, IRAD/CRRAD Maroua (Cameroon) 12/12/20141

PLAN I. INTRODUCTION II. METHODOLOGY III. RESULTS IV. CONCLUSIONS 12/12/20142

I. INTRODUCTION  Sorghum, basic food of the population (Minader 2012);  Climate change, water constraints, accentuating inadequacy population/production;  Adaptation stratégies do exist but lack of adoption ( GIEC 2007; ECOWAS 2008) ;  Information access lackings due to many factors among which the diverse limitations of interpersonnal cc ( Kaboré 2011) ;  Contribution of ICTs to the diffusion of water constraints’ adaptation strategies. 12/12/20143

II. METHODOLOGY  Sites’ choice: Diamaré Division (fig.1), 20 villages (10 Dry season sorghum, 10 rainy season sorghum);  Sampling: randomly 30 sorghum producers per village (600 farmers);  Data collection: focus-groups, questionnaire;  Data analysis: Descriptive stat. (Frequencies and Kendall test of agreement, Crosstabs);  ICTs of interest: radio, telephone and agricultural newspapers 12/12/20144

Figure1 Research area and sites 12/12/20145

III. RESULTS III.1.Main water constraints and adaptation strategies Water constraints Perception rateAdaptation strategiesAdoption rate Delayed rains80.50 % Crops’ diversification % Rainfall water amount reduction80 % Diversification of economic activities % Frequent and longer dry spells62 % Diversification of crops’ varieties % Crops’ drying up % Sowing/planting of drought resistant crops varieties % Early rainwater cut off61.33 % Sowing/planting of early matured varieties % Bad water spatial distribution58.33 %Basins’ building % 12/12/20146

III. RESULTS III.2. Use of communication channels Communication channelsAccess’ rate Interpersonnal communication channels (formal and informal) 100 % Radio87.50 % Telephone71.33 % Newspapers33.17 % 12/12/20147

III.RESULTS III.3. Communication channels’ contribution to improvement of farmers’ agricultural knowledge Communication channelsMean RankOrder Kendall test of agreement Interpersonnal communication channels1.381 N 600 Kendall W Probability Radio1.992 Newspapers4.023 Telephone /12/20148

III.RESULTS III.4. Adaptation strategies’ diffusion through ICTs ICTS Adaptation strategies RadioTelephoneNewspapers Sowing/Planting of early matured varieties %29.67 %03 % Basins’ building %14.67 %17 % Fertilizer/Organic manure use 64 % % Early planting/sowing %64.83 %0 12/12/20149

IV.CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS In order to enhance innovations’ diffusion by ICTs, we suggest that governments :  Invest more in research so as to produce more and new innovations for farmers;  Create conditions that favor farmers’ acces to ICTs (roads, electricity, socioeconomic conditions);  Create more rural radios and support diffusion of innovations through its channel;  Identification of innovations to be diffused as well as the diffusion process should be participative (facilitate farmers access and adoption). 12/12/201410

12/12/ THANK YOU