Climate change and severe weather events such as temperature shocks and declining rainfall
often strongly impede sustainable farming development, especially where agriculture is rain fed
and when other external shocks such as poverty, poor access to inputs and credit are common.
This is the context in which small scale farmers carry out their farming and other livelihoods
activities. This study compares small scale farmers' perception of temperature and rainfall with the
result of 30 years (1980-2009) meteorological records of temperature and rainfall, examines the
farmers adaptation practices in response to climate change and the constraints to their adaptation.
The study found an increasing trend in minimum and maximum temperature and a decline in rainfall
trend. This validates the farmers' perception of temperature and rainfall. Tree cutting (50.7%) and
sin (45.7%) are the perceived leading causes of climate change. Farmers mostly engage in change
in planting date (97.8%), tree planting (77.5%) and crop diversification (70.3) in response to climate
change. Inadequate money (70.3%) is the leading constraint to adaptation. There is need for
extension services and the mass media to create awareness on the causes of climate change.
Efforts that address poverty and provide access to agricultural support services like farm inputs and
weather forecasting service will help enhance farmers' adaptive capacity to climate change.