The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine agricultural livelihood
vulnerability to climate change in Bluefields, Westmoreland, Jamaica based on the
Livelihoods Vulnerability Index (LVI). Additionally, this study sought to examine
relationships between selected characteristics of adopter innovativeness and farmer
vulnerability level. Random sampling was used to select participants (N=52). Personal
interviews were conducted with farmers using an instrument consisting of LVI
components representing livelihood strategies, natural and physical assets, sociodemographic
profile, social networks, water issues, food issues, and natural disasters and
climate variability. The instrument also contained questions related to selected
characteristics of adopter innovativeness: years of farming experience, relative income,
farm size, access to credit, contact with extension services, distance to market, and head
of household age. LVI data were aggregated using an indexing approach to create scores
for comparison across vulnerability components.
The study showed farmers in Bluefields have the greatest amount of vulnerability
in the area of social networks and water issues. Low numbers of farmers owned their
land, had contact with extension services, or used irrigation. Most farmers reported
having problems with access to seeds and planting material, depended on their farms for
food, and experienced frequent crop failure. Only one adopter innovativeness
characteristic was significantly correlated to farmer vulnerability scores